Latest News on April 2008

April 23 NPR on food prices, food banks and food stamps

NPR reports on the perpetual rise in food costs that is forcing more people to rely on food banks and to apply for food stamps.

The following story (5 minutes) ran this morning on NPR. It’s a good synopsis of the struggle many Americans face with the rising cost of food and the safety net many of these people are turning to. For example, did you know that because of the rising cost of food, many food banks and food pantries face shortages of food? As a response, some families are diluting the baby food they receive because they are receiving fewer bottles of baby food than they received in the past. This is just one story that’s relayed on this news piece. Read more »

April 18 Price disparity in groceries

It’s not cheap being poor. Low-income communities can pay more for groceries.

By David Migoya
The Denver Post

It’s not cheap being poor.

Few places reflect that reality more than the aisles of a grocery store, where prices seemingly increase daily as the economy teeters toward recession.

“It’s not very easy to make do right now,” said Kathryn White, a 58-year-old disabled nurse who relies on a small food-stamp stipend to offset high grocery costs.

“I just can’t look to buy something that costs $2,” she said. “I have my limits.”

Those limits are stretched even more when food-stamp recipients like White find higher prices at their local supermarket for the same items that are less expensive within the same chain, but in a more-affluent neighborhood across town.

Read the full article

April 16 States push to get food to needy

As the economy sputters, states take extraordinary measures to help people keep food on the table… Read more.

By Christine Vestal
Stateline.org

As the economy sputters, states are taking extraordinary measures to help people keep food on the table, and the federal Food Stamps program is their primary tool. Read the full article »

April 15 Hunger Pains

As Economy Slows, Charities Face Tall Order to Feed Needy

By Kirstin Downey Washington Post
April 8, 2008

The economic downturn and rising prices are forcing many families to turn to charities for groceries, putting additional pressure on food banks that were already struggling to keep their shelves stocked.

Even the nation’s most affluent areas, including those in the economically resilient Washington area, have been affected.

The Arlington Food Assistance Center served 710 families last year. This year, the agency has helped a record 868 families.

Manna Foods Center in Montgomery County served 1,600 families last year. This year, it has provided food assistance to 2,100 families who are being squeezed by high prices for housing, electricity, gasoline and food.

“We are seeing numbers we have never seen” in the organization’s 25-year history, said Amy Gabala, Manna’s executive director.

Nationwide, requests for food assistance in the past year are up 30 percent, said Maura Daly, a lobbyist for America’s Second Harvest in Chicago, the nation’s leading hunger-relief charity. The group provides food to nearly 200 food banks, including sites in all 50 states, the District and Puerto Rico.

“Food banks are living on the edge of catastrophe,” she said.

Across the country, directors of food banks say their problems are multiplying because of increased need for food assistance and the increasing cost to provide it.

Officials at the Capital Area Food Bank, which helps supply more than 700 member agencies in the Washington region, have seen the group’s annual electricity costs rise 35 percent, to $135,000 from $100,000, in five years. The Arlington center’s budget for eggs has more than doubled in two years because eggs, which cost 95 cents a dozen two years ago, now cost $1.73.

Adding pressure to the Washington area’s charitable giving was the recent theft of nearly 1,000 pounds of canned goods from Alexandrians Involved Ecumenically, a food bank known as ALIVE. The Alexandria group, which delivers food to about 12,000 people a year, discovered the theft last week at one of its three warehouses.

Fuel costs have increased, too. The Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida operates eight trucks that pick up and deliver food across the state, from Daytona Beach to the eastern suburbs of Tampa. At $4 a gallon for diesel fuel, it costs $680 to fill up the tank of one tractor-trailer.

“If that truck doesn’t roll, the food doesn’t go,” said Dave Krepcho, executive director of Second Harvest. “I’ve been in food banking for 16 years, and outside of disaster relief assistance, I’ve never seen anything like what’s going on. It’s the cost of gas, the cost of food, and there’s no such thing as affordable housing anymore.”

At the Arlington Food Assistance Center one recent morning, every seat in the waiting room was occupied. Disabled people and senior citizens on fixed incomes joined a rising number of unemployed immigrant workers who have lost construction or housecleaning jobs. “There is no work, like there was before,” said Juana Perez, 34, who lost her house-cleaning job.

Recipients start lining up at the warehouse at 7:30 a.m., many arriving by bus or on foot, although the center does not open until 10 a.m.

“More and more people are reaching out to us because they need us,” said Christine Lucas, the Arlington food bank’s executive director.

Some charities that have operated primarily as private, donation-funded nonprofit groups are turning to state and local governments for help. The Arlington food bank recently asked county officials for $45,000 to get through the year, and it wants its annual contribution from the county to more than double next year, to $250,000 from $120,000. Food banks in New York, Illinois and Louisiana have secured emergency funding from their state legislatures, Daly said. America’s Second Harvest is trying to pressure the federal government to increase funding for nutrition programs.

The nation’s food banks have been under stress for months. Food contributions by farmers have fallen because they are selling more products overseas, and grocery chains have cut back donations because they have tightened inventory controls. Many area food banks reported in late 2007 that warehouse supplies had fallen sharply as a result.

The economic slump started to hit full force last fall, area food bank officials said. People struggling to pay record utility bills or monthly mortgages turned to charities for food so they could keep up with other necessities. Many people who worked in the real estate and construction industries had lost their jobs or seen their incomes plummet. People first try to skimp on food, but eventually their larders are empty, they said. “We’re seeing a lot of working poor families,” Gabala said. “They’re working, but they don’t make enough to stretch to the end of the month.”

Jane Burr, chief of crisis assistance in Arlington, agreed with Gabala. Her department decides who is eligible for food aid at the Arlington center. To qualify, recipients must have an income of less than $3,226 a month for a family of four.

Food banks have become important because the federal food stamp program offers such skimpy benefits, she said. A person who gets $669 a month in Social Security qualifies for only $10 a month in food stamps.

At the Arlington food bank, those approved for assistance by Burr’s office are given a bag or box of food, which includes a portion of meat (usually hot dogs or chicken legs), a half-gallon of milk, a dozen eggs, canned goods, bread, baked goods and, when available, produce.

“If we have it, we also try to give a box of cereal, but you know how expensive that is,” Lucas said.

April 7 Babies' hunger reflects inflation

Poor nutrition rises with the cost of food. It impedes brain growth, especially in toddlers.

By Mariana Chilton & John Cook
Philadelphia Inquirer
April 1, 2008

As pediatric researchers, we don’t need the morning paper to tell us about rising food and fuel prices. We see the evidence every day on the bodies of babies in the emergency room at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children. Young children arrive anemic and underweight; some even require hospitalization to treat the health effects of inadequate nutrition.

Recent news coverage confirms what health professionals have been seeing all year: The current inflation in food and energy prices is taking a toll on America’s most vulnerable children. The Labor Department reports grocery prices up 5.1 percent over last year. The picture is worse for many staple items: Bread is up 12 percent, milk 17 percent, and eggs a staggering 25 percent since February 2007. With oil prices sitting steadily above $100 a barrel for the first time in our nation’s history, experts agree that food prices will continue to climb significantly in the coming year.

While an inadequate diet jeopardizes health and learning at any age, the implications are particularly grave for children under 3. Poor nutrition during what science has proved to be the critical period of brain growth has lifelong implications for children’s ability to learn. It compromises children’s school readiness, limits educational achievement and, in the long run, impairs their ability to participate in the workforce.

Before the current spike in food prices, in 2006, the government found that 12.6 million children in the United States were living in households lacking access to enough food for an active and healthy life. The government calls this “food insecurity.” Most of us would think of it as hunger. Research on more than 27,000 infants and toddlers by the Children’s Sentinel Nutrition Assessment Program (www.c-snap.org) finds that food insecurity has serious health consequences for babies and toddlers. It puts them at risk for poor health, increased hospitalizations, and developmental delays, which can jeopardize their mental and physical readiness for school.

The impacts of hunger on the health of poor children are seen every day in Philadelphia. About 15 percent of the families we interview are food insecure. This is significantly higher than the national rate of 11 percent. One child out of every three in our city arrives at kindergarten already behind in the skills they will need to learn to read. Many arrive hungry.

Research in four Philadelphia neighborhoods by the Real Cost of a Healthy Diet Project has shown that food stamps, which are intended to shield children from hunger, are inadequate to purchase a healthy diet. Even if low-income families receive the maximum food-stamp benefit, they cannot purchase the Thrifty Food Plan - or what the U.S. Department of Agriculture considers to be an adequate diet. The actual cost of the TFP is almost 35 percent higher than the maximum food-stamp benefit. In other words, if a family of four received the maximum food-stamp benefit and tried to follow the TFP, it would still be about $2,000 in debt at the end of the year.

Our children need Congress to pass a farm bill that includes food-stamp benefits that accurately reflect the cost of food in today’s markets.

It is not only up to parents, pediatric researchers, and scientists to ensure that the brains of babies and toddlers have the essential nutritional building blocks for school readiness. It is also up to our policymakers and political leaders. In the height of an election season, during an economic downturn where the pinch on the wallet is felt at the grocery store and in the bellies and brains of our children, policies that help low-income children succeed belong on the agendas of all of our candidates.

April 3 Join Forces

Marketing for a charitable cause can benefit your company, too

By Kim T. Gordon
USA News and World Report
March 4, 2008

Research shows that two-thirds of Americans consider companies’ business practices when deciding what to buy, so what are your actions telling prospective customers about you? In today’s cause-conscious era, nearly 90 percent of U.S. consumers say they would switch from one brand or vendor to another if the other were associated with a good cause, according to the “2007 Cone Cause Evolution Survey.”

The term “cause marketing” describes a partnership between a business and a charitable cause and the surrounding promotional marketing campaign. It’s a superior tool for conferring credibility on a company and can benefit growing businesses that want to earn respect and build name recognition and overall company awareness. Consumer loyalty increases when customers believe you stand for something worthwhile or that their purchases further a worthy cause. Cause marketing is a win-win, and entrepreneurs are using it to make a difference while building their businesses.

For true success, a quick-fix association with a cause or simple lip service won’t do the trick. You need an integrated campaign that incorporates an issue-related message. Follow these guidelines for a campaign that will serve your business and the community.

Identify potential causes. Your business has a culture and a mission all its own. So select a cause that matches your company’s values and allows you and your employees to share time, effort and support that comes from the heart. Your marketing campaign will be most effective if the cause you select relates to your company or its offerings. A clothing boutique, for example, could form an alliance with an organization that provides winter coats for children.

When Gold’s Gym International strategically partnered with the American Diabetes Association, it offered information and exercise programs for diabetes prevention and management and promoted the organization’s annual cycling fundraising event. Gold’s Gym not only raised more than $600,000 for the ADA, but also increased its own telephone inquiries, new-member visits and customer appreciation.

Define the partnership. It’s vital to select a nonprofit partner that provides mutual support. Choose an organization that’s capable of formalizing and carrying out an agreement that will achieve your goals for increased visibility and brand awareness. Define how the organization will use your company logo and name in its press releases, on its website and in other informational materials. Negotiate for opportunities to jointly promote to the organization’s constituency through its newsletters, e-mails and events. Also, agree on how your company will be permitted to use the chosen organization’s name and logo in your marketing campaign. Select an organization that you can team up with to create new, mutually beneficial marketing campaigns. Then plan for a long-term alliance you can build on year after year.
Create an integrated campaign. Cause marketing is all about motivating an audience to take action, usually to raise money or collect goods. That means you need an integrated campaign that educates the audience about the need for their support and how they can help. Make the campaign an integral part of your company’s overall marketing strategy and allocate advertising and promotional funds, plus time to run the PR component of your campaign. You can foster interaction between your company and its audience via your website, or you can create a unique site specifically for this purpose. Pantene, for example, created a campaign encouraging women to donate their hair to create free wigs for cancer patients and promoted it via a multifaceted PR effort, events, public service announcements and a campaign website. Once your campaign gathers momentum, you can share the positive results on your site and through the media.

What You Can Do

Share your strength and become a partner. For over 20 years, we have worked with some of the nation’s most well-known and beloved brands, including American Express, Food Network, Tyson Foods, Timberland and many others, in innovative ways to make sure no child in America grows up hungry. Learn how »

April 2 Land Of Plenty Can End Childhood Hunger

So much attention has been paid to childhood obesity that it’s easy to forget children at the other end of the spectrum - those who don’t get enough to eat.

The Tampa Tribune
March 29, 2008

Thankfully, a new effort is afoot to change that.

The Florida Partnership to End Childhood Hunger plans to make a difference by marshaling programs that help low-income families but often go unused.

The goals are to get more needy families filing for the Earned Income Tax Credit, ease the application process for food stamps and connect nearly 1 million eligible children to sites that serve meals.

Amazingly, about 310,000 low-income Florida families eligible for the tax credit never claim it, leaving behind $429 million in refunds. Getting these families to claim their refunds would give the state a major economic boost.

The initiative also hopes to connect the poor with more nutritious foods, perhaps by setting up more farmers markets in low-income neighborhoods.

April 1 From $70K to Food Bank, a Family’s Struggle

From $70K to Food Bank, a Family’s Struggle

By Thelma Gutierrez and Wayne Drash
March 27, 2008
CNN

When she was laid off in February, Patricia Guerrero, estranged from her husband and raising her two young children, was making $70,000 a year. Desperate to make ends meet, she went to a food bank for the first time ever. She applied for food stamps…and was turned down. Her story and description of her food bank experience here.

Childhood Hunger in America

Latest News on April 2008

What You Can Do