Childhood Hunger

Latest News on June 2009

June 30 Hunger Does Not Take a Summer Break

Subsidized Lunch Program for Children Expands to Meet Growing Demand

By Nelson Hernandez
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 30, 2009

If Montgomery County weren’t handing out free lunches this summer, Ariana Rodriguez might have gone hungry yesterday. But the bright-eyed 8-year-old walked through the Rolling Terrace Elementary School cafeteria clenching an apple in her teeth before she sat down to a meal.

Ariana was one of 13 students at the Takoma Park school to literally taste the fruits of the county’s expanding summer lunch program. Like others across the country, the Montgomery school system is attempting to ensure that children from low-income homes receive nutritious food over the summer. Ariana’s mother, Maria Rodriguez, said the difficult economic situation leaves parents with dire choices. Even if they feed their children, they can’t always afford nutritious food.

“We feel bad because sometimes we have to stop buying their food, what they need, because we have to pay the rent,” Rodriguez said, as her son, too, was tucking into a chicken sandwich, chips and orange juice. “It’s really hard. Sometimes you feel guilty.”

Montgomery officials gathered at Rolling Terrace Elementary yesterday to announce that children will be able to walk into seven schools this summer to receive a free lunch. Last year, just one campus was open for walk-ins. Students in summer programs at more than 120 other locations are also eligible to receive subsidized lunches.

“Hunger doesn’t take a summer break,” said County Council member Valerie Ervin (D-Silver Spring), chairman of the council’s Education Committee, who spearheaded efforts to expand the program.

Although children from low-income homes are entitled to federally subsidized meals year-round, the free or reduced-price meals reach fewer than 20 percent of eligible children nationwide during the summer break. Millions of children pass July and August malnourished and idle, conditions that promote obesity and contribute to the well-documented learning gap between haves and have-nots.

Children in the District and its suburbs eat better than most. Last summer, more than 1.5 million free meals were served to 30,000 children at 404 sites across the region in a rapidly expanding program that reaches almost as many children as are served during the academic year.

A 2007 report by the Food Research and Action Center ranked the District ahead of all the states for the percentage of eligible students reached by summer nutrition programs, based on 2006 data. According to the report, D.C. programs reached 86 percent of those served during the school year. In Maryland, ranked 12th, the programs reached 24 percent, and in Virginia, ranked 16th, 20 percent. Nationally, the figure was 18 percent.

The guidelines for eligibility for free and reduced-price meals are drawn up by the federal government and approved by states. Under Maryland’s rules, a child from a family of four qualifies for free meals if the household income is less than $28,665. If the income is less than $40,793, the child is eligible for reduced-price meals.

In Montgomery, one of the wealthiest counties in the nation, demand for meals is increasing faster than ever, School Superintendent Jerry D. Weast said yesterday. He said that about 40,000 of the county’s 139,000 students qualify for free and reduced-price meals and that the number is growing. Since January, more than 1,000 students have been added to the meal-subsidy rolls, and over the past year, the number has grown by about 2,400, he said.

“It’s trouble in paradise,” Weast said. “Food prices have gone out of sight this year. Unemployment has gone from 3 to 5 to 6 percent.”

At Rolling Terrace Elementary, children are fed from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on summer weekdays. A few more than 20 students a day have come to the cafeteria since the walk-in program started serving students June 17. School officials said they expect the number of walk-ins to rise when summer school gets underway, as siblings tag along with the more than 300 students who are enrolled. ad_icon

It often seemed the youngsters cared less about the meal than the opportunity to see classmates, although some of the younger students ate with such relish that food decorated their faces.

Jeisson Zacarias, 9, an aspiring reporter, thought the meal passed muster.

“You just ask the lunch person to give you food,” he said. “It’s all delicious.”

June 29 Senator pushing to expand free school lunch program

Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown is proposing legislation that would ease access to free and reduced school meal programs across Ohio and the country, an effort to fight the growing epidemic of child hunger.

By Jim Sullivan | The Ironton Tribune
Published Saturday, June 27, 2009

More than 700,000 low-income school children in Ohio currently participate in free and reduced meal programs with nearly 737,000 free and reduced lunches served in Lawrence County alone between July 2007 and June 2008.

In addition, Brown also highlighted the more than 1,000 sites in Ohio that provide food to children during summer months under the Summer Food Service Program.

The program was established to provide school-aged children breakfast, lunch or a snack during the summer months at locations like schools, summer camps, churches and recreation centers.

Lawrence County has only two facilities in the entire county that offer a Summer Food Service Program and Brown’s announcement was welcome news to one of those.

Jamie Shields, principal at Chesapeake Elementary School, said her summer food program offers lunch in the month of June to around 100 students daily.

Shields added that during the school year, more than 1,400 students take part in the district’s free breakfast program but students must apply and qualify for the free or discounted lunch program.

“All we really want to do is get the kids what they need,” Shields said while confirming the possible stereotype backlash some students could be feeling in knowing they qualify but don’t sign up.

Asked if the prospects of Brown’s legislation would help the district’s program, Shields did not hesitate.

“We would be thrilled to no end.”

Besides Chesapeake Unions Schools, the only other Summer Food Service Program in Lawrence County is in the Dawson-Bryant School District. Green Local Schools in Franklin Furnace is also part of the program.

Despite the impressive local and statewide statistics, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that 14 percent of eligible students are not enrolled in reduced school meal programs.

Most students or their parents that do not register cite reasons from the complicated application process to the “social stigma” some students feel comes with being enrolled in the low-income lunch program.

Brown’s proposed $2 billion legislation is geared to reduce paperwork and administration costs by having school districts use data from Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program to directly enroll students in the meal programs.

By using state data and not having to rely on individual enrollments, Brown estimates an additional 150,000 children in Ohio could benefit from the program. The first-term senator announced his proposal during a conference call with reporters Wednesday.

Ohio ranks 15th worst in the nation with a food insecurity rate of 12.2 percent. Food insecurity measures the percentage of individuals who are experiencing difficulties in providing food on a regular basis for their family.

“A hungry child cannot learn and grow,” Brown said. “During these challenging economic times, more families are struggling to put food on the table. We have an obligation to connect children with nutrition programs and to ensure they don’t go hungry during the school-year or the summer months.”

Brown’s legislation would also improve state performance in enrolling eligible children in a school lunch program by setting a performance standard and providing incentives to high performance schools.

The Ohio Democrat would like to see 95 percent of students required to be directly certified for school lunch programs part of the program.

He also would like the program to achieve universal access for high poverty schools by allowing schools or districts serving a high proportion of low-income children to offer free lunches to all students.

Brown said that he hopes to pass the bill in the fall when Congress renews the 2004 Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act. That piece of legislation encompasses the national school lunch program and the summer food service program among others.

June 26 A new yardstick needed for poverty

We need to update the way we measure poverty. We’re still using a yardstick from the 1960s. The current measure doesn’t account for housing, child care or health care costs. It also fails to factor in an individual’s geographic location; the standard is the same all over the country.

C. NICOLE MASON
First published in print: Friday, June 26, 2009
Timesunion.com

We need to update the way we measure poverty. We’re still using a yardstick from the 1960s.

Currently, the poverty level for a family of four is $21,200. There are about 37 million people and 7.7 million families living in poverty in the United States, according to this ancient tool.

But there could be more, or there could be fewer. We don’t know because the current poverty measure fails to take into account the social and economic realities Americans now face.

The measure was based on food costs at a time when food accounted for one-third of family expenses. But now food accounts for about one-seventh of family expenses, according to the National Center for Children in Poverty.

The current measure doesn’t account for housing, child care or health care costs. It also fails to factor in an individual’s geographic location; the standard is the same all over the country.

Recently, Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and Rep. James McDermott, D-Wash., introduced the Measuring American Poverty Act. It would require a poverty gauge that would take into consideration medical and work expenses, the current cost of food, clothing, shelter, other basic necessities, and income from public assistance programs in deciding who is poor in America.

Critics of the bill worry that it would do more harm than good. They argue that there is a danger that the new measure would strip benefits away from needy families and individuals. Possible, but not likely. The new measure would not replace the current poverty measure; it would be used as a supplemental administrative tool by federal and state legislators until all the kinks have been worked out.

The bill should also include an impact assessment study to determine how the new measure would affect benefits received by individuals and families, and include true costs of living expenses adjusted for geographic location.

We’ve heard some promising talk about cutting poverty in half over the next 10 years. But we can’t do that until we have an accurate measure of how many poor people there are in our cities and communities.

Without such a measure, we have no way of knowing how deep the problem is or if that goal is even realistic, especially for the most vulnerable segments of our society. These include single women heads of households, who make up 4 million of those living below the poverty line.

The bill is a step in the right direction in terms of increasing our understanding of persistent poverty and inequality.

Like all good things that have outlived their usefulness, the current poverty measure needs to be updated to reflect today’s economic reality. America deserves better.

C. Nicole Mason is executive director of the Women of Color Policy Network at New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. She wrote this for Progressive Media Project.

June 25 Virtues of Child Hunger

Keith Olbermann Slams Missouri State Rep. Davis for Touting the Virtues of Child Hunger.

In her June newsletter to constituents, Missouri State Representative Cynthia Davis extolled the virtues of childhood hunger. Davis said, “Hunger can be a positive motivator.” MSNBC’s Countdown host Keith Olbermann hammered Davis’ lack of compassion. Check out the video.

Read the full blog post on Politicususa.com.

June 25 Oblivious to children's hunger

Missouri State Representative Cynthia Davis’s comments extolling the virtues of childhood hunger demonstrate a disappointing lack of awareness of the issue. 12.4 million children in America—that’s one in six—are at risk of hunger, and that number is rising.

Share Our Strength has invested over $1M to fight childhood hunger in Missouri, which is one of the top ten states for food insecurity, with one in five children under 18 at risk of hunger.

In addition, summer food programs like the one that Representative Davis was criticizing, are actually an example of government at its best. In the 41 years since the USDA Summer Food Service Program has been around, it has helped fill the hunger gap for millions of children in need across the US who rely on the school cafeteria for free or reduced-price meals during the regular school year and who would otherwise not have access to nutritious food during the summer.

We urge Representative Davis to educate herself about the issue, and to join us in the fight against childhood hunger.

STLToday.com

In her June newsletter to constituents, Missouri State Representative Cynthia Davis extolled the virtues of childhood hunger. Davis said, “Hunger can be a positive motivator.”Tonight on MSNBC’s Countdown host Keith Olbermann hammered Davis’ lack of compassion. Check out the video.

Davis argued that hungry kids should get a job, “Anyone under 18 can be eligible? Can’t they get a job during the summer by the time they are 16? Hunger can be a positive motivator. What is wrong with the idea of getting a job so you can get better meals? Tip: If you work for McDonald’s, they will feed you for free during your break.”

State Rep. Cynthia Davis, R-O’Fallon, is staking out a strong position on child hunger: She’s for it.

“Hunger can be a positive motivator,” she notes in the latest edition of her newsletter.

More precisely, Ms. Davis is against summer feeding programs for poor kids. They are an excuse “to create an expansion of a government program,” she says.

Ms. Davis chairs the House Special Standing Committee on Children and Families. In that position, she might be expected to have insight into child hunger in our state.

She might know, for instance, that about one in five Missouri children lives with hunger. That ties us with Louisiana for the nation’s seventh-highest rate, according to a report released last month by the hunger-relief charity Feeding America.

Or that the recession has pushed the number of poor Missouri kids who qualify for free or reduced-price school lunches by 8.3 percent this year, well above the national average.

Apparently not.

“While I have not seen this as a problem in my district, it is entirely possible that the (summer feeding) program is designed to address problems that exist in other parts of Missouri,” Ms. Davis says in her newsletter.

“The right way to solve this is with more education. If parents … don’t know how to serve nutritious meals, let’s help them learn to do that.”

In that spirit, she offers some helpful hints:

“Families may economize by choosing not to waste hard earned dollars on potato chips, ice cream or Twinkies.”
“Laid-off parents could adapt by preparing more home cooked meals rather than going out to eat.”
“Tip: If you work for McDonald’s, they will feed you for free during your break.”

About 100,000 more people are unemployed in Missouri today than were jobless in 2007. Food pantries across the state are struggling to meet increased demand. The United Way of St. Louis and more than 100 area companies are participating in a food drive this week.

And the plain, tragic fact is some children have parents who aren’t particularly interested in caring for them. Ward Cleaver and Cliff Huxtable are off the television airways.

But Ms. Davis is skeptical about the need to feed poor children during the summer when schools are closed.

If * if * there really is one, she says, “churches and non-profits can do this at no cost to the taxpayer.”

Or maybe not.

“Most of our 18 (summer feeding program) sites are churches,” explains Rosemary Terranova, who oversees the program for St. Louis County.

“We’re trying to support churches that want to offer some kind of summer recreation program for kids,” she says. “They supply the staff, we supply the food.”

The program “has been a real blessing to us,” says Caroline Crenshaw of Bethesda Temple in Normandy, where 40 children attended day care last week while their parents worked.

The summer feeding program’s cost is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which pays about $1.81 for each breakfast served and $3.18 for each lunch.

Last year, 3.7 million meals were served by the summer feeding program at a total cost of less than $9.5 million. That’s a pretty good use of federal money.

In the same generous spirit as Ms. Davis, we’d like to offer a suggestion.

Tip: When you chair a state special committee on children and families, you probably ought to learn something about the needs of children and families.

June 25 Numbers On Welfare See Sharp Increase

Welfare rolls, which were slow to rise and actually fell in many states early in the recession, now are climbing across the country for the first time since President Bill Clinton signed legislation pledging “to end welfare as we know it” more than a decade ago.

By Sara Murray
Wall Street Journal

Twenty-three of the 30 largest states, which account for more than 88% of the nation’s total population, see welfare caseloads above year-ago levels, according to a survey conducted by The Wall Street Journal and the National Conference of State Legislatures. As more people run out of unemployment compensation, many are turning to welfare as a stopgap.

The biggest increases are in states with some of the worst jobless rates. Oregon’s count was up 27% in May from a year earlier; South Carolina’s climbed 23% and California’s 10% between March 2009 and March 2008. A few big states that had seen declining welfare caseloads just a few months ago now are seeing increases: New York is up 1.2%, Illinois 3% and Wisconsin 3.9%. Welfare rolls in a few big states, Michigan and New Jersey among them, still are declining.

The recent rise in welfare families across the country is a sign that the welfare system is expanding at a time of added need, assuaging fears of some critics of Mr. Clinton’s welfare overhaul who said the truly needy would be turned away.

“To me it’s good news,” says Ron Haskins of the Brookings Institution, who helped draft the 1996 welfare-overhaul law as a Republican congressional staff member. “This is exactly what should happen.”

Welfare cases peaked at above five million in 1995 and declined sharply after the 1996 law put time limits on benefits and emphasized moving recipients from welfare to work. The time limits vary by state, but the federally mandated maximum is five years with some exceptions; after that, benefits end.

The cash-assistance program, called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), was created by the 1996 law and replaced previous welfare and jobs-training programs. Funded partly by the federal government and partly by the states, it primarily assists women who have children and no job, or a very low-paying one. The number of families on welfare had been falling steadily and, nine months into the recession, stood at 1.6 million in September 2008, the most recent date for which national tallies are available. ‘First Real Test’

“This is the first real test,” said Liz Schott, a welfare analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal Washington think tank. “We always said, how is it going to perform? How is TANF going to perform in an economic downturn?”

One clue, she says, can be found in a different measure. Although the TANF program seems to be accommodating increased need, it is doing so at a slower rate than another government initiative: the food-stamp program. The number of food-stamp recipients has risen in every state and was 19% higher in March than a year ago, a much bigger increase than the number of welfare cases. [Welfare caseload]

Food-stamp eligibility is significantly easier than the criteria for receiving welfare, so food-stamp assistance tends to rise first. The food-stamp program covers a much larger pool of people who have trouble making ends meet but make more money than the allowable limits under TANF.

In general, a family of four must have a monthly income of less than $2,297 to qualify for food stamps. Welfare, on the other hand, is designed as a last resort.

The average monthly welfare benefit in 2006, which reflects the most current data collected by the government, was $372.

Antoinette Tatum has been receiving food stamps since September when she and her 4-year-old daughter moved to Kensington, Md. When her car transmission failed, Ms. Tatum couldn’t commute to her job in Baltimore, about 45 minutes away by car, so she quit. Unable to find a full-time job, Ms. Tatum did temporary work but found that the more she earned, the fewer government benefits she received; ultimately she couldn’t make ends meet.

“The government, they help the extremes. But people in between have the hardest time,” said Ms. Tatum, 28. “You don’t make enough money to get by but you make too much to get help.” She turned to welfare, and expects to begin getting checks at the end of this month. She is considering staying on welfare and going to college instead of seeking another low-wage job. The Nation’s Unemployed

View Interactive

See May unemployment rates, state-by-state

The recession is straining many state welfare programs. State budget woes often mean more cases without more employees. And the demand for cash assistance is squeezing funds for job-training programs targeted both at the unemployed with little work experience and unemployed professionals with extensive work experience.

In South Carolina, for example, the vast majority of welfare funding is being directed to the cash-assistance program, leaving little to actually help people find jobs and get off welfare. “When we really are talking about how to put people back to work or get them retrained, with the budget problems our state is having, I really worry,” says Sue Berkowitz, the director of the South Carolina Appleseed Legal Justice Center, which advocates for low-income people. Stimulus Grants

The federal government’s fiscal stimulus includes $5 billion for states where more families receive welfare or spending increases on employment subsidies or short-term emergency assistance. That provision sparked concerns from the Heritage Foundation and other conservative groups that President Barack Obama was undoing the provisions of the 1996 law intended to encourage states to get people off welfare and onto payrolls.

So far, only California and Ohio have received stimulus grants, but 38 other states and territories said they plan to apply, said Jeffrey Kelley, spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families.

The lag in the increase in welfare cases during the worst recession in a generation is curious to some some scholars. “In many respects, the mystery that had been operating until now had been how can there be such a rapid increase in unemployment and long-term unemployment and not show up in the welfare [system]?” says Mark H. Greenberg, director of Georgetown University’s Center on Poverty, Inequality and Public Policy.

The extension of unemployment benefits by Congress — for as long as 59 weeks in some states — may be one reason.

“To some extent unemployment [compensation] is doing what we hoped it would do, which is being the first safety net for unemployed workers,” says Don Winstead, the deputy secretary of Florida’s Department of Children and Families. Without those extensions, he added, the number of families on welfare in Florida would have risen even more than it has: up 14% in June versus a year ago.

Another cause of the delay may be that welfare is targeted at women and children, and this recession has been hardest on men. The lag in the increase in welfare cases may simply show that it took longer for the recession to hurt women than men, says Mr. Haskins of the Brookings Institution.

Despite the deep recession, a few big states still have declining welfare rolls.

In Michigan, for example, welfare caseloads were down 4.8% in April from a year ago even though the number of residents receiving food stamps was up 13% in March to more than 1.4 million people. Some advocacy groups for the poor complain that strict front-end requirements — which force welfare recipients to look for work in a state with a 14% unemployment rate before even meeting with a caseworker — deter many from seeking help.

A further explanation is that income limits for welfare eligibility are set so low, and haven’t been adjusted for so long, that having a low-wage part-time job can disqualify an applicant. In New Jersey, a family of three earning more than $636 a month is ineligible. “These are the people who really will fall through the cracks because they’re not eligible for any help,” says Donna Gapas, who oversees the welfare program in Hunterdon County, N.J.

—Kelly Evans contributed to this article.

June 24 Experts say food stamp use stimulates the economy

Some experts think the best way to stimulate the economy is through food assistance money, formerly called food stamps.

By Dee Henry
Media General News Service
Published: June 22, 2009

What is the answer for a struggling economy?

Some experts think the best way to stimulate the economy is through food assistance money, formerly called food stamps. A recent study by the N.C. Budget and Tax Center supports that theory, estimating the $1.6 billion in food assistance money distributed in North Carolina has resulted in $2.8 billion in economic activity.

“When a person spends food assistance money at a local grocery store, that is a sale the store may not have had otherwise,” said John Quinterno, research associate at the center. “Then, that money gets turned over several times, generating economic activity.”

Quinterno is describing what economists call the “ripple effect” - where money spent at the store helps to pay the store employees, the trucker who delivers food to the store and the farmer who grows the crops.

“Food stamps are an ideal economic stimulus tool because they are always spent locally and have a widespread ripple effect,” said Louisa Warren, policy advocate for the North Carolina Justice Center, which houses the Budget and Tax Center.

“Families use food stamps at local grocery stores, and that money is passed on to employees, who spend it in other stores, and suppliers, who use it to pay their workers,” she said.

While local dollar estimates may not match the center’s exactly, Jo Sloan, with the Catawba County Department of Social Services, said the same theory was used in a recent presentation to the Chamber of Commerce.

“Harvard economist Martin Feldstein, who heads the National Bureau of Economic Research, recently gave his thoughts on the best way to stimulate the national economy,” Sloan said. “In findings echoed by other economists and studies, he said the studies show the fastest way to infuse money into the economy is through expanding the ‘food-stamp’ program. That’s how we began the presentation.”

In an effort to increase economic demand and stimulate the economy, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will provide $4 billion nationally in added benefits over the next six months.

The Agriculture Department estimates every dollar in food stamps expands the economy by $1.84.

For the center’s study, Quinterno said they used a more conservative $1.73 for every dollar, with a result of $2.8 billion in economic activity since the beginning of the recession.

Sloan said since the downturn began in 2000, the food assistance program has seen a sharp increase.

“We have seen a 300 percent increase in food assistance requests since the recession began in fall of 2000,” she said.

A different face

In addition to that increase, the department has seen a change in the people who are requesting assistance.

“Initially, we primarily dealt with families who lived in a fragile economy,” Sloan said.

She defined that group as people who were dealing with a mark against them in a job search - a high school-level education, no transportation and no real job skills.

“Now what we’re seeing are people who were solid middle class or upper middle class who lost their savings, their 401K, and are desperately looking for a job.”

According to recent statistics released by the Western Piedmont Workforce Development Board through the Wester Piedmont Council of Governments, more than 27,000 people are looking for employment in the Hickory-Morganton-Lenoir area.

The Greater Hickory Cooperative Christian Ministry has seen the same change in clients. Executive Director Roger Baker says the ministry has served 10,000 people over the last year.

“And there are 300 homeless people in this area, so that tells you something,” Baker said.

More clients have homes, but they can’t afford things like utility payments, health care and food.

The ministry offers three types of food assistance. If someone comes in and is in need of something to eat right then, “pop tops,” or food ready to eat, is available.

If people qualify for food assistance through the county, they automatically qualify for the ministry’s emergency food program, where they can use the organization’s pantry, and TEFAP, a separate food program through Second Harvest of Metrolina.

Currently Baker said the ministry is seeing a leveling off in its food assistance program. However, he attributes that to people managing those “food dollars” well.

“People are asking for a little less than normal and I think they’re managing it better,” he said. “They’ve made lifestyle adjustments. It’s a product of the economy.”

More, please

With more people requesting and receiving assistance in general, and the amount of assistance per client increasing, the total amount of assistance money being distributed has increased almost threefold locally.

“Catawba County used to belong to a small group called the ‘$5 million club,’ which included the counties who distributed $5 million in benefits,” Sloan said. “Now we’re looking at distributing $26 million in benefits.”

According to the Budget and Tax Center, the enrollment in food assistance programs increased nationally by more than 4 million people, or about 15 percent, between December 2007 and December 2008. About nine in 10 households receiving these benefits have incomes below the poverty level.

More than 1 million North Carolinians received food assistance money as of December, a 16 percent increase since the year before.

Sloan said qualification for food assistance is determined by looking at a family’s basic living expenses and income.

According to the Budget and Tax Center, a household must have a monthly income at or below 130 percent of the poverty level to qualify. For example, a family of four, in 2008, would have to make approximately $2,445 each month to receive assistance.

Benefits are determined by a sliding scale and can only be used to purchase food items.

According to the center, half of all participating households nationwide have received less than $176 in recent months.

However, that relatively small amount of money has had big results, particularly in rural areas. In Catawba County, the $29 million in assistance dollars paid out since December 2007 has resulted in an estimated $50.8 million in economic impact.

June 24 Everyone is responsible for ending child hunger

The Summer Food Program is a vital resource. However, after the summer food program has served its last meal, children will again be going to bed hungry if we don’t act. The Commission on Children and Families is committed to addressing this issue head-on and needs your help.

By Sharri da Silva and Karen Hamilton
Appeared in print: Wednesday, Jun 24, 2009
Register Guard

Chances are you’re having breakfast and your morning coffee while you read this article. You may not know where you’re having lunch today, but it’s likely you’re certain you’re going to have it.

Now, imagine what it would be like if you couldn’t afford to feed yourself or your children for the rest of the day. Imagine worrying about where your next meal will come from. That’s the grim reality for well over half of the 63,000 Lane County residents who rely on food stamps each month. Lane County children are going to bed hungry.

A resource for healthy meals is available to all children. FOOD for Lane County runs a Summer Food Program at 58 sites throughout Lane County. This U.S. Department of Agriculture-funded program provides free meals to all children and youths aged 2 to 18 when school is out and free and reduced-price meals are not available.

There are no requirements to obtain these free lunches; all children who show up will be served. For more information and to find a free lunch food site near you, go to www.freelunchforallkids.org or call 343-2822.

Many Lane County residents have lost jobs or faced cutbacks this year, and it’s no surprise that household income is a major predictor of early childhood hunger. Often, the high costs of housing, medical care, transportation, child care and other necessities mean there is little money left for food.

Some parents face the difficult choice of either filling the car with gas so that they can get to work, or purchasing food for their family.

Other parents need to use their limited funds to ensure that their family does not become homeless, again often having to skip meals or serve less nutritious food to their children.

Last month, 63,900 county residents received food stamp benefits. That’s up 25 percent from 51,280 in May of last year.

Additionally, the National School Lunch Program is providing a record number of free or reduced-price meals. The Eugene School District saw the number of children who qualify for free or reduced price meals increase to a record 37.5 percent last month. In the Bethel School District, a record 54 percent of families qualified for this benefit in May.

To compound the problem, FOOD for Lane County (a local food resource for families) has the lowest food supply in over 16 years. In the past year, emergency food boxes have been given to more than 80,000 Lane County residents. With these critical resources tapped beyond their capacity, it becomes clear why putting food on the table is a challenge for families.

Hunger affects a child’s ability to thrive and puts children at greater risk for a range of physical, cognitive, psychological, social and emotional problems. Children who do not get enough to eat are at risk for lifelong health problems such as diabetes. Hunger affects developmental milestones starting in the womb and continuing throughout childhood. For infants and toddlers, hunger is associated with poor health and increased need for hospitalization. Among school-aged children, hunger can lead to behavioral problems, poor academic achievement, depression and frequent absences due to illness.

Every child deserves the chance at a healthy, safe and happy life and every opportunity to reach their full potential. That’s why the Lane County Commission on Children and Families and its Early Childhood Planning Team support FOOD for Lane County’s Summer Food Program.

Oregon’s soaring unemployment rates — the second highest in the nation — makes helping local families that are struggling to put food on the table more important than ever.

Please join the effort to address the growing issue of early childhood hunger, because a hungry child is everyone’s child.

For more information on the commission’s efforts, go to www.co.lane.or.us/CCF.

June 18 Number of food-stamp recipients sets record again

The number of people receiving food stamps continues to climb, hitting another record for May.

Tulsa World (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma)
Barbara Hoberock

The number of people receiving food stamps continues to climb, hitting another record for May.

The Commission for Human Services on Tuesday got an overview of the increase.

As of May, 474,971 people were receiving food stamps, also called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which is paid for with federal dollars.

“It is an all-time record,” DHS Director Howard Hendrick, told the commission.

That figure is 16.2 percent more than it was a year ago, he said.

In the last 60 days, about 30,000 food-stamp recipients have been added, which is a little more than 500 a day, Hendrick said.

Still, Oklahoma has not see the dramatic increases that other states have seen, DHS spokesman George Johnson said.

But the state is not insulated from the national recession, he said.

Unlike Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, which has a 60-month lifetime limit, food stamps have no time limit, Johnson said.

Officials are not able to project when the increase will plateau and begin to drop, nor is there an “average profile” of a person who receives food stamps, he said.

Eligibility for food stamps is based on income, the number of people in the family and other factors, Johnson said.

Delivered electronically, food stamps cover only edible food, and not other items such as alcohol, toilet paper or aluminum foil, he noted.

June 16 $25 check may cost you food stamps

When President Barack Obama increased unemployment benefits as part of his economic stimulus, he also made some Americans ineligible for hundreds of dollars a month in food stamps.

Associate Press

Under the economic recovery plan, laid-off workers have seen a $25 weekly bump in their unemployment checks as part of a broad expansion of benefits for the poor. But the law did not raise the income cap for food stamp eligibility, so the extra money has pushed some people over the limit.

Laid-off workers and state officials are only now realizing the quirk, a consequence of pushing a $787 billion, 400-page bill through Congress and into law in three weeks.

And for people hurt by the change, there’s no way around it.

“Everybody tells you, ‘Yeah, I can understand why you’re frustrated. It doesn’t sound right.’ But nobody knows where to go,” said Mark Milota, 47, of Marietta, Ga., who was laid off in November from his job at a medical billing company.

The Georgia Department of Human Resources explained in a letter to him last month that, because of the stimulus, he was ineligible for food stamps. He now makes $1,538 a month — $21 too much for a family of two to qualify.

“We have to pay him that $25 a week,” said Brenda Brown, assistant commissioner at the Georgia Department of Labor. “And he doesn’t have the option not to accept it.”

Milota said he was told that, without the stimulus money, he would have received about $300 a month in food stamps.

“I’m doing things I’ve never done before: I’m going to food pantries. I’ve gone to places for assistance on bills,” Milota said. “Some bills are just not being paid. I’m three months behind on my mortgage.”

Unemployment benefits vary by state and the income cap for food stamps also varies based on family size, so it’s impossible to say for certain how many people are hurt by the change. Government officials believe it is only a small fraction of the record 6.8 million people on unemployment. Many more people will benefit from a stimulus law that expanded unemployment and food stamp benefits.

“We’ve gotten some questions about this. Not tons and tons, but we have been getting questions about this,” said Jean Daniel, a spokeswoman for the Department of Agriculture, which overseas the food stamp program now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

When cases like Milota’s began popping up in Iowa recently, officials called Washington, asking what to do.

“We were told we were interpreting the food stamp regulations correctly,” said Roger Munns, spokesman for the Iowa Department of Human Services. “Once you’re over the income limit, regardless of the reason, you’re no longer eligible.”

Once handed out as paper vouchers, food stamps are now delivered to people near the poverty level through debit cards that they can use to buy food. A record 32.5 million people participate in the program. Once the government determines someone is eligible, officials use a formula to calculate the monthly benefit, which ranges from $16 to $588. The average is about $111.

Because those close to the income limit tend to get less money in food stamps, Munns said most people who are bumped out of the program by the extra $100 in unemployment benefits each month will break even or fare just slightly better. But the stimulus checks were intended to ease the effects of the recession, not simply cancel out another government assistance program.

Lawmakers crafting the stimulus knew this would become a problem, said Stacy Dean, director of food assistance policy at Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank. They could have headed it off by raising the income tax or declaring that the $25 stimulus checks would not affect food stamp eligibility. Both were expensive options that could have forced states to reprogram their computer systems.

But more importantly, hashing out those details would have taken time.

“People were aware of this but, as you recall, the stimulus was moving along and then it was passed in about a day,” Dean said. “There was not a lot of policy discussion on this.”

Milota said he had never been on food stamps before and resisted applying for months, believing he would find a job. But that has proved difficult. When he applied for a customer service job recently, he said the company told him there were 1,000 applicants.

The stimulus law was intended not just as a jolt to the economy but also to ease the burden on people in Milota’s situation. Besides unemployment benefits, the law also increased food stamp benefits — just not the income cap.

“I truly believe when it came out, they felt it was to help people, and they never wanted to hurt people,” said Milota, who says he leans Republican but voted for Obama.

Officials in Washington say they’re aware of stories like this. Changing things, however, requires changing the law. States could do this one by one, or Congress could do so.

“This is not something the president or this agency could do independently,” Daniel, the Agriculture Department spokeswoman, said.

June 12 School systems juggle cost of free lunches

Record enrollment in subsidized meal programs has school systems large and small stretching already paper-thin budgets to ensure that students are well-fed and ready to learn. No region seems immune.

By Elizabeth Weise and Peter Eisler
USA TODAY

School systems nationwide are trimming lunch menus, buying more food in bulk and delaying purchases of kitchen equipment to offset the costs of serving free or reduced-price lunches to millions of newly eligible students from cash-strapped families.

In New York City, which has the nation’s largest school system, 73% of students received free or discount lunches this year, up from 71% in 2007-2008. In Chicago, participation jumped to 84.3% from 82% in 2007-2008 and 75% the year before. Dade County, Fla., schools saw a 3.8% jump, to 66.7%.

Districts get a federal reimbursement for each lunch they serve, but that reimbursement typically comes up 15 to 50 cents short for every meal, depending on whether state and local governments kick in additional money, according to the School Nutrition Association, which represents school lunch officials. FIND MORE STORIES IN: New York

Covering the shortfall

Twenty-two states and some cities, such as Bridgeport, Conn., provide additional meal subsidies to schools, but most districts’ food departments have to cover the balance. Nationwide, that amounts to millions of dollars a day that schools pay from their own budgets to augment federal subsidies, the association says.

The Mesa, Ariz., school district, near Phoenix, doesn’t get any money from the state to help feed its kids, though 3,000 more students qualified for free and discounted meals this academic year. To pay for the increase, the district manages food “down to the last student,” says Loretta Zullo, director of food and nutrition. Instead of having all the food ready when lunch starts, elementary schools “cook while the kids are coming through the line, so you don’t end up with three pans of pizza or burritos left,” she says.

The 33-cent muffin on a fruit and yogurt breakfast plate was popular, “but we couldn’t afford it,” Zullo says, so it was dropped in favor of a whole-grain cracker that costs only 11 cents.

Indianapolis public schools cut expenses by purchasing supplies “by the truckload” and storing the food at a central facility that prepares meals for delivery to individual schools, says Velda Hamman, director of food services. Menu choices are limited to save money, even at the high schools, she adds. “We don’t do junk food.”

In Indianapolis, 83.6% of students qualified for free or reduced-price lunches this year, up slightly from previous years. At 51 of its 72 schools, all students eat for free because such a high percentage qualify on the basis of family income that the district waives the fee for everyone, as permitted by federal law.

In Jackson, Miss., the school system pays about 50 cents on top of the federal subsidy for each of the 25,500 lunches it serves daily, says food services director Mary Hill. “We have to be very creative to keep up,” she adds, noting that she has put off kitchen equipment purchases.

To qualify for a free school lunch, a family of four can have an income of no more than $27,560 per year under the 2008-2009 federal guidelines. For a reduced-price lunch, the limit is $39,220.

Poor economy spurs demand

School officials blame the economy for the rising need.

In Seattle, Tom Ogg, the assistant director of nutrition services, says, “There’s been a steadier stream of families applying this year than in years past” for free and subsidized meals.

Parents are supposed to pay 30 cents for a reduced-price breakfast and 40 cents for reduced-price lunch. But Washington state and the district cover the co-pay for all breakfasts and for lunches for the youngest kids, in kindergarten through third grade, to ensure they get two good meals a day.

Bad as things are, some districts expect the worst is yet to come.

The Los Angeles Unified School District, second-largest in the country, saw its free and reduced-price program expand by 8,800 students over the past school year, covering 78% of its student body. As many as 20,000 more are expected for next year, says Manish Singh of the food service department. That’s because families receiving food stamps or certain other types of government assistance have been made automatically eligible for subsidized lunches by the federal government.

Singh says officials hear about a lot of families in which one or both parents have lost jobs. “I’ve had a couple of families who were in the $110,000 to $120,000 bracket and dad lost his job and now they’re $30,000 and suddenly the parents are keen to qualify,” says Singh.

He says he saw one family in which the father had lost his job but the mom said, ” ‘My husband doesn’t want to apply for unemployment benefits — he wants to look for a job.’ ” The district worked out a deal where the father provided documentation showing he’d been laid off, so the children could get free lunches. “You have to handle it delicately,” Singh says. “The family’s already going through a tough time.”

Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor, expects the need will continue to grow. “We’re going to see more layoffs, more unemployment,” he says. “So you’re going to continue to see a significant number of people who will become eligible for the first time.”

June 12 Ethiopian scientist wins World Food Prize

Ethiopian scientist, Gebisa Ejita, only second African to win World Food Prize. He was named on Thursday as the winner of the 2009 World Food Prize in an event at the U.S. State Department. Ejeta, a faculty member at Purdue University in the Midwestern U.S. state of Indiana, was honored for his work on drought and weed-resistant varieties of sorghum.

David Gollust
State Department

Ejeta is only the second African to win the Food Prize since its creation in 1986 by Nobel Peace Laureate Norman Borlaug, the American agronomist credited with starting a so-called “Green Revolution” with high-yield wheat varieties.

The Ethiopian geneticist and seed-breeder, who joined the Purdue University faculty in 1984, is being honored for his work in developing strains of sorghum that are resistant to drought and the parasitic weed Striga, which has been a plague to farmers throughout sub-Saharan Africa.

Ejeta, who was not present at the State Department event, will receive the award on October 15 in a ceremony by the World Food Prize Foundation in Des Moines, Iowa.

The president of the foundation, former U.S. ambassador to Cambodia Kenneth Quinn, said Ejeta’s work with sorghum has benefited millions of people in Africa and beyond.

“He developed and introduced the first sorghum hybrid in Africa in the early 1980s, which was drought tolerant and produced significantly higher yields,” said Quinn. “In the 1990s, he conquered the greatest biological constraint to cereal production in Africa - the deadly weed Striga. Having discovered the bio-chemical basis of Striga’s parasitic relationship with sorghum, our laureate’s breeding program at Purdue produced many sorghum varieties resistant to drought and to Striga with yields 10 times greater than local varieties.”

The World Food Prize chief was joined on the podium by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who stressed the Obama administration’s commitment to attack world hunger, which affects an estimated one billion people.

She noted that in addition to developing new sorghum strains, Ejeta worked in India and Sudan on ways to get his improved seeds into the hands of farmers, underscoring the need for a comprehensive approach to repairing what Clinton called a broken global supply chain for food.

“The Obama administration is committed to providing leadership in developing a new global approach to hunger,” she said. “For too long, our primary response has been to send emergency aid when the crisis is at its worst. This saves lives, but doesn’t address hunger’s root causes. It is at best a short-term fix. So we will support the creation of effective, sustainable farming systems in regions around the world where current methods are not working.”

The World Food Prize, judged by a council of advisers that includes former U.S. Presidents Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush, carries a $250,000 award. The previous African winner was plant breeder Monty Jones of Sierra Leone who, with Chinese colleague Yuan Longping, was honored in 2004 for work on high-yielding rice varieties.

June 11 Benefit spending soars to new high

The recession is driving the safety net of government benefits to a historic high, as one of every six dollars of Americans’ income is now coming in the form of a federal or state check or voucher.

USA TODAY
Dennis Cauchon

Benefits, such as Social Security, food stamps, unemployment insurance and health care, accounted for 16.2% of personal income in the first quarter of 2009, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reports. That’s the highest percentage since the government began compiling records in 1929.

In all, government spending on benefits will top $2 trillion in 2009 — an average of $17,000 provided to each U.S. household, federal data show. Benefits rose at a 19% annual rate in the first quarter compared to the last three months of 2008.

The recession caused about half of the increase, according to the report. Unemployment insurance nearly tripled in the past year. The other half is the result of policies enacted during President George W. Bush’s first term.

Following the 2001 recession — when costs normally decline — social spending soared to pay for the Medicare drug benefit, expanded health care for children and greater use of food stamps.

The safety net is working, advocates say.

“We’re not seeing the hunger we saw in the 1930s because the food stamp program is doing what it’s supposed to do,” says Florida food stamp director Jennifer Lange.

What’s driving the $209 billion increase in benefit costs from a year ago:

Unemployment insurance. One-fourth of the extra spending covers jobless benefits, a program started in the Depression. The stimulus law, passed in February, increased benefits.
Social Security. The bad economy has prompted a 10%-15% jump in early retirements, the program’s actuary says. A 5.8% increase took effect January 1. Bottom line: $55 billion in new costs.
Food stamps. Enrollment hit a record 33.2 million people in March, up 5.2 million from last year. The stimulus law boosted the size of the benefit. Average March benefit: $114 per person.

“The increase in social spending is still relatively modest given the severity of the downturn,” says economist Dean Baker of the liberal Center for Economic and Policy Research. “We’re not France.”

Adam Lerrick, economist at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, says the benefits’ explosion will eventually lead to an economic crisis.

“We’ve seen this movie before in many countries. It always has the same ending,” he says.

June 9 Government, TV team up for garden planting

The U.S. Agriculture Department, the Food Network and others planted a garden at a Washington school to provide fresh, healthy food to children in need.

UPI
Published: June 3, 2009 at 2:24 PM

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Food Network personality Aida Mollenkamp worked with students from the SEED School in southeast Washington, planting rows of fruits and vegetables and learning how to care for the Good Food Garden patch, the Agriculture Department said Wednesday in a news release.

Good Food Gardens is a charitable program created by Food Network, Share Our Strength and Teich Garden Systems to provide educational, sustainable gardens to schools and community centers in need.

Vilsack said the Agriculture Department was committed to making healthy food accessible to poor children and improve the dietary habits of today’s youth.

“This garden stands as an example of what the USDA would like to see across the country,” Vilsack said. “We believe children in underserved communities deserve a hands-on experience growing delicious, fresh fruits and vegetables.”

Share Our Strength is the leading national organization working to ensure no child in America grows up hungry, the Agriculture Department said.

June 5 Hunger is increasing as food bank shelves empty

Congress must help avert a crisis at this bank.

William Kanteres
Concord Monitor

There is a dangerous run on my favorite bank. It is seeing more withdrawals than deposits daily, posing a dire threat to the community. Although this crisis has been well-documented and widely reported in the media, there is no public outcry from Congress for an immediate and massive bailout.

My local bank, the New Hampshire Food Bank, has been paying a much-needed dividend to the state through its 384 branch agencies for more than 25 years and is now faced with a major liquidity issue. If this bank’s vault is emptied, nearly 20,000 families will be forced to turn elsewhere for their only hope of an affordable, nutritious meal. The problem is, there is no elsewhere.

This is not a problem for one bank in one state. We are on the threshold of a systemic meltdown in the battle to end hunger throughout America. I fear that the crisis will hit critical mass as we go into the summer months when most school feeding programs shut down just as food and cash donations to local food banks go on vacation as well. Throw in a worsening global economy, rising local unemployment and a lack of congressional focus, and we are surely headed for a perfect storm that will be difficult for all of us to weather. Why don’t we declare a “systemic crisis” when every food bank in the country is struggling to restock its shelves everyday?

These bankers don’t get obscene bonuses, lavish offices or second homes on Nantucket. They don’t travel by private jet and are more apt to know what the local soup kitchen is serving than which restaurant has the best wine list in town.

My local bank struggles to pay the bills even in a good economy. The scary thing is, if this system fails, society will be forced to pay the price in the form of increased health care costs, increased cost of social services and an increase in crime.

Sadly, the heaviest cost will be borne by the children of the bank’s customers - local families who are down on their luck. These children will obviously suffer from emotional trauma and worsening physical health but they, and the nation as a whole, will also pay the long-term cost of the damage that hunger and malnourishment cause to their learning capabilities and the subsequent loss of educational opportunities.

We must all be a part of this bailout. There are many organizations and events working toward the cause of ending hunger. If you can donate time, food or money, please do. At the least, call your senator or congressman and let them know that you expect them to fully support the Obama administration’s commitment to ending childhood hunger by 2015. Putting our tax dollars to work in this bank rescue plan will make us all proud.

William Kanteres of Manchester serves on the board of directors of Share Our Strength, a national anti-hunger organization.

June 5 Jobless rate hits 9.4 percent in May; layoffs slow

The unemployment rate jumped to 9.4 percent in May, the highest in more than 25 years. But the pace of layoffs eased, with employers cutting 345,000 jobs, the fewest since September.

Jeannine Aversa
The Associated Press

The much smaller-than-expected reduction in payroll jobs, reported by the Labor Department on Friday, adds to evidence that the recession is loosening its hold on the country. It marked the fourth straight month that the pace of layoffs slowed.

“This tide is turning,” said Richard Yamarone, economist at Argus. “We expect this trend of slower job loss to continue throughout the year.”

Still, the increase in the nation’s unemployment rate from 8.9 percent in April underscores the difficulties that America’s 14.5 million unemployed are having in finding new jobs. Economists had expected the rate to hit 9.2 percent last month.

If laid-off workers who have given up looking for new jobs or have settled for part-time work are included, the unemployment rate would have been 16.4 percent in May, the highest on records dating to 1994.

Even with layoffs slowing, companies will be reluctant to hire until they feel certain that economic conditions are improving and that any recovery will last. ad_icon

Since the recession began in December 2007, the economy has lost a net total of 6 million jobs.

As the recession - which is now the longest since World War II - bites into sales and profits, companies have turned to layoffs and other cost-cutting measures to survive the fallout. Those include holding down workers’ hours and freezing or cutting pay.

The average work week in May fell to 33.1 hours, the lowest on records dating to 1964.

Job losses - while slower in May - were still widespread.

Construction companies cut 59,000 jobs, down from 108,000 in April. Factories cut 156,000, on top of 154,000 in the previous month. Retailers cut 17,500 positions, compared with 36,500 in April. Financial activities cut 30,000, down from 45,000 in April. Even the government reduced employment - by 7,000 - after bulking up by 92,000 in April as it added workers for the 2010 Census.

Education, health care, leisure and hospitality were among the industries adding jobs in May.

Still, in another encouraging note, job losses in both March and April were less than previously thought. Employers cut 652,000 positions in March, versus 699,000 previously reported. They eliminated 504,000 jobs in April, less than the 539,000 initially estimated.

The deepest job cuts of the recession came in January when 741,000 jobs disappeared, the most since 1949.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke repeated his prediction this week that the recession will end this year, but again warned that any recovery will be gradual.

Many economists believe the jobless rate will hit 10 percent by the end of this year. Some think it could rise as high as 10.7 percent by the second quarter of next year before it starts to make a slow descent. The post-World War II high was 10.8 percent at the end of 1982.

Friday’s report “supports the notion that the recession will end this year,” Yamarone said. But pain will linger and the jobless rate will move higher. He predicts it will peak at 10.2 percent early next year.

The Fed says unemployment will remain elevated into 2011 given the expectation of tepid recovery. Economists say the job market may not get back to normal - meaning a 5 percent unemployment rate - until 2013. Economic recoveries after financial crises tend to be slower, economists say.

Evidence has been mounting that the recession is letting up, with fresh signs emerging earlier this week.

The number of people continuing to draw unemployment benefits dipped for the first time in 20 weeks, and first-time claims also fell. Manufacturing’s slide is slowing. Builders are boosting spending on construction projects and a barometer of home sales firmed.

Although shoppers remain cautious according to sales results from major retailers, Bernanke and other economists are hopeful that consumers won’t return to the deep hibernation seen at the end of last year.

That’s when the recession hit with brutal force, causing the economy to contract at a 6.3 percent pace, the most in 25 years. Consumers cut their spending at the time by the most in nearly three decades. Economic activity shrank at a 5.7 percent pace in the first three months of this year, despite a rebound by consumers.

Many analysts believe the economy is shrinking at about a 2 percent pace in the current quarter, and that the economy could return to growth as soon as the third quarter. President Barack Obama’s stimulus package should help bolster the economy.

Ripple-effects from General Motors Corp.’s filing for bankruptcy protection - the fourth largest in U.S. history - could muddy the outlook, some analysts said. GM said earlier this week it will close nine factories and idle three others indefinitely as part of its restructuring. The closings, which will take place through the end of 2010, will cost up to 20,000 workers their jobs.

June 4 One in nine Americans on food stamps, USDA says

One in nine Americans are using federal food stamps to help buy groceries as the country’s deep recession forced another 591,000 people onto the federal anti-hunger program at latest count.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Enrollment jumped 2 percent to 33.2 million people in March, the fourth consecutive month that rolls hit a record, said the Agriculture Department. The average monthly benefit was $113.87 per person.

“It’s tough out there for struggling families and will be for many months to come,” Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center, said.

“It’s very likely that the numbers will continue to grow in the coming months as a turnaround in unemployment and wage declines typically lags behind the recovery of the broader economy,” he said.

In 20 states, as many as one in eight are on the food stamp program, according to the Food Research Center.

The U.S. economy has contracted sharply since last fall, with nearly 6 million jobs disappearing since the beginning of 2008. Further job losses are expected as the recession grinds on.

Congress allocated some $54 billion for food stamps this fiscal year, up sharply from $39 billion last year. In the new fiscal year beginning Oct 1, costs are estimated at $60 billion.

U.S. enrollment in recent months:

March - 33.157 million
February - 32.556 million
January - 32.205 million
December 2008 - 31.784 million
November 2008 - 31.097 million
October 2008 - 31.050 million
Sept 2008 - 31.587 million

(Reporting by Charles Abbott; Editing by Russell Blinch and David Gregorio)

June 3 O'Malley to Tout Anti-Hunger Plans at Dinner Tonight

Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley is scheduled to appear at a dinner in the District tonight with U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to talk about fighting childhood hunger.

John Wagner
WashingtonPost.com

O’Malley has embraced a goal in Maryland of the dinner’s sponsor, Share Our Strength, to end childhood hunger by 2015. O’Malley has made the goal one of 15 major goals that is being pursued by his new Governor’s Delivery Unit, which was featured in a Washington Post story.

Tonight’s dinner is being held at Charlie Palmer Steak. According to Share Our Strength, Palmer is “opening his kitchen to a select group of former White House chefs and some of Washington, D.C.’s finest executive chefs.”

Vilsack is expected to talk about the Obama administration’s plans for improving childhood nutrition. O’Malley has been asked to provide an update on his efforts in Maryland.

June 1 Record numbers of people apply for food stamps

Plant closings, mass layoffs and cut hours are causing millions of Americans to turn to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as food stamps, to feed their families.

The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio)
Shaheen Samavati

Tonia Burnett of Maple Heights often worked 60-hour weeks as a direct-care assistant to provide for herself and her three young children.

But since the economy has gone sour, Burnett, who makes $9 an hour, could no longer get overtime at the group home where she works. Over the past few months the 40-year-old single mom has turned to food stamps and other government benefits to get by.

Plant closings, mass layoffs and cut hours are causing millions of Americans like Burnett to turn to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as food stamps, to feed their families. As of February, 32.6 million people nationwide received the benefit, the highest number in the history of the program. It also was a 17 percent increase from the same month last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

In Cuyahoga County, more than 201,777 people — or one in seven —received food stamps in February, an 8 percent increase from February 2008. Across the state, 16 percent more people received food stamps, totaling 1.3 million people.

Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, executive director of the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks, said, “Participation has just skyrocketed.” She attributed the rise to the increased number of people being laid off or seeing their hours reduced at work.

Ellen Vollinger, legal director at the Food Research Action Center, an anti-hunger advocacy organization in Washington, D.C., said some of the uptick also could reflect states doing a better job of getting the word out to people about their eligibility.

She pointed to the Ohio Benefits Bank, a free, Web-based program that began in late 2007 to help people apply for an array of public benefits, including food stamps, home energy assistance, child-care subsidies and medical aid. Hamler-Fugitt’s organization, an association of 12 food banks across the state, helped implement the initiative.

It can be accessed at obb.- ohio.gov or through counselors at hundreds of social-service agency sites across Ohio.

“Outreach as a strategy is becoming much more common,” Vollinger said - although she added that it’s clear the increase in food stamp use reflects decreased income and, therefore, increased eligibility.

Joe Gauntner, director of Cuyahoga County Employment & Family Services, said that when unemployment rises, food stamp applications soon follow. Ohio’s unemployment rate hit 9.7 percent in March, up from 6.1 percent during the same month last year.

“A lot of our growth has been in our offices that serve suburban areas,” Gauntner said. “We’re seeing many families that have never come to us before.”

As more people apply for food stamps, there is also more now to apply for.

The federal economic stimulus package that passed in February increased maximum food stamp benefits by 13.6 percent in April. Of the $19.3 billion that was allotted to fund the increase through 2013, $756 million is going to people in Ohio.

“Many economists have said [increasing food stamp benefits] is one of the most effective means of stimulus because people on food stamps spend the money very quickly,” said Stacy Dean, director of food assistance policy at the Center for Budget Policy Priorities, a research organization in Washington, D.C., focused on budget policy and poverty issues.

USDA research has estimated that every $1 in food stamps disbursed generates $1.84 in economic activity.

Not only does increasing food stamp benefits pump money into grocery stores, food companies and farms, but it can also free up other money that families can then spend to pay their bills or buy other products, Dean said.

With the increase, for example, a family of four receiving the maximum benefit - meaning they have no net income - would get $668 a month in food. Before the increase, they would have received $588 worth.

Most families receive less than that. Burnett, for example, said her family receives $138 in food stamps per month.

Until recently, Burnett’s employer experienced a high turnover of workers, and she frequently could take over open shifts. But since jobs have become scarcer, “the positions don’t stay open long,” she said.

She spends most of her income on rent and utilities. So, when her food stamps are not enough, Burnett will go to the Bridge of Hope food pantry at City Church in Cleveland, where she also volunteers. There she can pick up canned goods and house supplies.

As the economy has worsened, food pantries across the state are seeing more traffic, Hamler-Fugitt said.

The number of people served at Ohio food pantries increased 29 percent in March compared with the same month last year, she said.

“Each week we get at least three or four new people who have lost their jobs,” said Billie Hill, who runs Bridge of Hope. It is one of many local agencies that receive food through Cleveland Foodbank.

Hamler-Fugitt said she uses news of the stimulus increase as a way to persuade more people to apply for food stamps. Some don’t want to go through the hassle of applying only to risk being shot down. Others think that if they go on food stamps, the money won’t be there for someone else.

But Hamler-Fugitt pointed out that the number of qualified people who can participate in the program is unlimited.

“For many families, it’s a very hard thing to come and ask for help,” said Cuyahoga County’s Gauntner. But one should think of it in the same terms as unemployment insurance, he said.

“If someone uses this for six months while they’re getting back to work, that’s great,” he said.

Hamler-Fugitt pointed out that the program is completely federally funded, meaning there’s no cost to the local or state government.

“It is critically important for people in communities that are struggling economically to help bring these dollars to their local communities,” she said.

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