Stories from the National Hunger Hotline: Supporting Our Communities
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The National Hunger Hotline (NHH), a service of WhyHunger's National Hunger Clearinghouse, provides real-time referrals for people in need across the U.S. to emergency food and assistance programs. Receiving an average of 700 calls per month, the NHH is a portal to information, assistance, and resources, ultimately empowering families and individuals to meet their vital needs including fresh, healthy food. In Stories from the Hotline, we share some of the experiences of callers and our efforts to support them.
Ms. Anna (not her real name), a middle-aged women living in eastern Tennessee, enjoys volunteering in her local community. Recently, she heard about the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), through her sister-in-law, who helped organize activities and secure an SFSP sponsor site last summer. After hearing about the program and the benefits it offers to children and their families, Ms. Anna decided to call the National Hunger Hotline to learn how she could help establish an SFSP sponsor site for her local community. She stressed that it was important to have programs like this one to keep children in the neighborhood out of trouble. Ms. Anna is planning to host an enrichment program component at the site as well. She went on to share that she was hopeful that the sponsoring site would carry forward the program in the coming years.
In addition to providing information about SFSP,an NHH advocate shared a few other programs that Ms. Anna could propose for her community, including the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), which provides afterschool meals for children, and the BackPack program, which provides food to kids for the weekend. Ms. Anna took down all of the contact information along with website addresses for WhyHunger and the USDA.
The National Hunger Hotline 1-866-3 HUNGRY and 1-877-8 HAMBRE (1-866-348-6479 and 1-877-842-6273) refers people in need of emergency food assistance to food pantries, government programs, and model grassroots organizations that work to improve access to healthy, nutritious food, and build self-reliance. Help is available on Monday through Friday from 9am-6pm EST. Hablamos espaņol. The Hotline is funded in part by the USDA Food and Nutrition Service. |
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Contradictions in the Anti-Hunger Movement
| by Andy Fisher
The National Anti-Hunger Policy Conference in Washington, DC last week brought to light some of the fundamental internal contradictions of the anti-hunger movement. Specifically, the movement's financial reliance on corporations with poverty-causing labor practices, as well as their reluctance to advocate on the politically-charged root causes of hunger. Hosted by Feeding America and the Food Research Action Center, with funding from Walmart, Bank of America and the AARP Foundation, this year's event featured, for the second year in a row, a prominent representative from Walmart as a plenary speaker. Tres Bailey, Walmart's Senior Manager of Agriculture and Food, listed off the accomplishments the company has made in its first year of its $2 billion commitment to supporting anti-hunger efforts: 250 million pounds of food donated to food banks; $67 million in grants made; with another $13 million of nutrition education grants in the works. This sounds impressive until one considers what Mr. Bailey did not mention: the fact that the average Walmart worker, of which there are 1.4 million in the US, earns $8.81 per hour. At this pay rate, a single parent with one child working full time would qualify for food stamps. The public is subsidizing Walmart billions of dollars annually to keep its employees productive, healthy and free of hunger through government food and healthcare programs, yet the company crows about the millions of dollars it distributes to anti-hunger causes. Upon closer examination, what appeared to be an impressive display of philanthropy is little more than Arkansas chutzpah. At a subsequent workshop during the conference, Lisa Hamler Fugitt, the Executive Director of the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Food Banks (OASHFB), drove home the point that "hunger is directly related to poverty, and to end hunger requires policies that increase employment and wages and modest increases in federal nutrition programs." Yet, OASHFB is one of the few food banks-or state food bank associations-that advocate on policies to reduce poverty, increase the minimum wage, or create jobs. Of the roughly 200 food banks in the Feeding America network, more than half don't advocate at all, not even to support the renewal of the SNAP (food stamp) program. Less than one in ten food banks report working on anti-poverty, health or community food security related advocacy. In fact, there are more food banks with a Walmart employee on their Board of Directors (27) than there are food banks conducting anti-poverty advocacy (19). Nor is Walmart an anomaly on food bank boards. One in two food bank board members work for a corporation, and one in six are employed at the 500 largest companies nationally or globally (Fortune 500 or Global 500). The event's keynote speaker, David Shipler , author of The Working Poor, communicated essentially the same message as Ms. Hamler-Fugitt. He noted that housing subsidies are a key strategy to reducing hunger, as low-income families often spend 50 percent to 75 percent of their income on rent. They typically cut back on the food budget to ensure that they can cover fixed costs such as heat, electricity, and transportation. As a result, Mr. Shipler noted that studies have found a correlation between the lack of housing subsidies and the incidence of underweight children. Therefore, affordable housing puts more money in the pockets of families to purchase food. Yet, a close look at Feeding America's advocacy record shows that they have refrained from weighing in on anti-poverty policy, such as housing subsidies, affordable health care, or minimum wage increases. Unlike other national anti-hunger organizations, Feeding America has failed to join the Save 4 All Campaign, a progressive platform which supports increasing the tax burden on the wealthy and corporations and proposes cuts to defense spending. The national Feeding America's Board of Directors has, as might be expected, an even higher degree of corporate penetration, with 11 of 19 members working for Fortune 500 companies (two of whom are executives at Walmart). These statistics are interesting for what they show-the close ties between the corporate world and the charitable food sector-but also for what is not shown. The limited participation of food bank clients and non-profit activists on these Boards is an indicator of the minimal accountability that food banks have to the communities they serve. Corporate participation on food bank boards is a double-edged sword. It reinforces the respectability of food banks, while providing access to corporations' excess food and philanthropic largesse. These resources are essential to help food banks meet the increasing demand from those affected by the latest recession. The more mainstream a food bank becomes, the more it can raise to feed hungry people. On the other hand, the policy changes needed to reduce or eliminate hunger are anathema to the wealthy and the corporations on food bank boards. These changes might result in increased operational costs or federal taxes for businesses. Thus, the high degree of corporate participation on food banks' Boards serves as a prophylactic measure to these entities advocating for redistributive policies that go against the interests of the business sector, but provide a real solution for poverty reduction. These relationships as embodied at the recent anti-hunger policy conference raise some vital questions for the anti-hunger movement: Who are its partners? Who shares the stage with them? Those who pay its salaries with their philanthropic greenwashing? Or those who support its goals through their actions? It is going to take some real changes for the anti-hunger community to fully embrace the systemic analysis of ending hunger through addressing its root causes, articulated by Lisa Hamler-Fugitt and David Shipler among others. The movement's leadership needs to start with the following steps, as well as many others: - Increase the movement's accountability to the poor through encouraging clients to be on food bank boards, increasing attendance of the grassroots at state and national conferences, and creating a new membership-based national anti-hunger coalition.
- Refuse money from corporations unless there are strings attached. Feeding America and FRAC should lead an effort to insist that their affiliates and partners will only lend their legitimacy to potential corporate donors by accepting their money, if the company commits to paying their employees and contractors a living wage with full benefits and allowing them to unionize.
- Engage in a soul-searching conversation at all levels of the movement about organizations' and the movement's goals, strategies, partners, and identity.
Without a concerted effort to regain its social justice footing through these steps and others like them, the anti-hunger movement may find its moral compass off kilter due to the magnetic pull of the corporate treasure chest.
Andy Fisher has been at the forefront of the community food movement since its inception in the mid 1990s, as the co-founder and former executive director of the Community Food Security Coalition. He is currently working on a book about the anti-hunger field, and is also in the process of starting a new organization focused on food policy. He lives in Portland, OR. This article originally appeared on the Civil Eats blog on March 6, 2012. Reprinted with permission. Photo: Walmart via Shutterstock
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Pink Slime
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Stories have circulated the Internet since August about the use of "pink slime" in ground beef products. "Pink slime" is the nickname given for boneless lean beef trimmings or similar products that have passed through a centrifuge, squeezed through a tube the size of a pencil, and are then exposed to ammonia gas. It is then sold in the U.S. by a number of beef processing companies. This beef product is USDA-approved and is a component in the majority of ground beef patties sold in the United States, in which up to 25 percent of the additive beef is used in the final product. These ground-up tissues and scraps- formerly used for dog food- have been included in America's ground beef supply since the 1990's.
In January 2012, after mounting public pressure, McDonald's, Taco Bell, and Burger King announced that they would no longer use pink slime as filler in their ground beef. ABC News reported that 70 percent of supermarket ground beef contains the pink slime.
The USDA plans to purchase and ship 7 million pounds of this product to schools across the nation. But is pink slime healthy? Beef Products Inc., which created the process, relayed through spokesman Rich Jochum: "It improves the nutritional profile; increases the safety of the products; and meets the budget parameters that allow the school lunch program to feed kids nationwide every day." However, many parents are not buying it and petitions are cropping up everywhere to stop the USDA from serving it. The Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010, requires that school cafeterias serve more whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, and items with less sodium. The USDA hopes to improve the health of the nearly 32 million kids who participate in school meal programs every school day. With laxer inspection, more fillers, and lower overall quality than fast food, don't kids deserve more from school lunch?To keep up with the latest developments in the controversy, see the Lunch Tray blog. |
Capacity Building Guides
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As a result of research and interviews with Emergency Food Providers across the country about unmet needs, the National Hunger Clearinghouse will release two capacity building guides in early spring (please note that publication has been delayed). The first is a guide to food sourcing, which inventories exciting projects and strategies in sourcing that connect food pantries with local farms and source higher quality animal protein. Emergency food programs are an important part of the food system and have the potential to help revitalize local and regional food economies while better serving their customers. The guide will include model program profiles, best practices, and additional resources.
The second is a guide to nutrition education, which introduces emergency food providers to current innovative programming that could be examples of inspiration and sources for collaboration to strengthen programming.
Both of these guides will be available to Clearinghouse Connection subscribers and by emailing NHC and will be used to promote further conversation among providers at conferences and webinars. Some of the most creative ideas are found in communities around the country and WhyHunger aims to connect new audiences to those ideas and initiatives so they can invigorate their own work.
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The Impact of WIC Food Package Changes on Access to Healthful Food in 2 Low-Income Urban Neighborhoods
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In 2009, the monthly food package received by Women, Infants and Children (WIC) participants was changed to include fruits and vegetables (fresh, canned or frozen), whole grains, and low-fat milk. Researchers used a modified Nutrition Environment Measure Survey for Stores (NEMS-S) to look at the availability of healthy foods in two Philadelphia neighborhoods before and after the changes.
Their key findings include:
- Improvements in the availability of 2% milk (50% versus 77%), whole grain bread (33% versus 52%), and brown rice (25% versus 55%).
- Vegetable varieties increased from an average per store of 7.8 to 9.7.
- Improvements were also seen in the pricing of healthful foods. However, one-quarter of fruits and vegetables for sale were of unacceptable quality.
The complete study, published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, is available for a fee here.
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Let's Move Faith and Communities
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The Let's Move Faith and Communities toolkit and fact sheet (in English and Spanish) are designed to help faith-based and neighborhood organizations engage their communities and promote healthy choices and access to nutritious food. Learn more about Let's Move! here.
 | | Michelle Obama- Let's Move Faith & Communities Video Challenge |
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Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP)
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New options in the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 mean that afterschool programs are now eligible to either add a meal to their afterschool program (in addition to a snack) or replace their snack with a meal. To learn more about how to implement a program, see these resources from Washington, DC and California public schools. For more information about CACFP, see Food Research Action Center.
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BackPack Buddies
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Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism recently hosted a webinar entitled Fighting Hunger One Backpack at a Time (under the Social Action tab), which focused on how local community-based organizations could participate in the fight against childhood hunger through the BackPack program. The BackPack Program has been providing weekend meals to children for over 15 years with more than a quarter of a million children fed. Though this program has proven successful, it still needs the support of local community-based organizations. Norman Hirsch from Savannah, Georgia is proving that with community support, you can make a huge impact. Norman has coordinated Backpack Buddies (an alternate name for the program when not run through Feeding America) in 27 of the 30 schools in just one county in Georgia. Norman, with the support of his local congregation and 24 other local community-based organizations, is making a difference in the lives of hundreds of kids and he wants to share his model with interested organizations.
If you or anyone you know is interested in starting a BackPack Program, please send an email to Norman Hirsch, Subject: BackPack Buddies, or call your local food bank.
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National Council on Aging
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The Center for Benefits Access, administered by the National Council on Aging, helps organizations enroll seniors and younger adults with disabilities with limited means into the benefits programs for which they are eligible so that they can remain healthy and improve the quality of their lives. The Center is funded through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Administration on Aging.
The Center accomplishes its mission by:
- Providing tools, resources and technology (such as the Benefits Check-Up) that help local, state, and regional organizations to find, counsel, and assist seniors and younger adults with disabilities to apply for and enroll in the benefits for which they may be eligible; and
- Generating and disseminating new knowledge about best practices and cost effective strategies for benefits outreach and enrollment.
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USDA Updates
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Register Your SFSP Site
Registering your Summer Food Service Program sites with WhyHunger's National Hunger Hotline (1-866-3-HUNGRY and 1-877-8-HAMBRE) ensures that families who call the Hotline find your site. Please register here.
If you are a sponsor organization with multiple feeding sites, please fill out the Microsoft Excel file located on the USDA FNS Summer Food Service Program website and then email the file to NHC. Complete as much as of the form as you can so that callers to the Hotline can get complete information about your site.
Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) Introductory Webinars
USDA provides a free or reduced-priced lunch to 22 million children during the school year. But once school lets out for summer break, only about 2.5 million children receive a meal (about 1 in 10). Children are at a higher risk of going hungry during the summer months. There is work to be done to help feed more kids nutritious meals during the summer and you can help.
The Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) can help to fill the summer meal gap for low-income children. Faith-based, community and private non-profit organizations can make a difference in the lives of hungry children by serving meals with SFSP, a federally funded program administered by States that reimburses organizations for meals served to children during the summer. Schools, churches, recreation centers, playgrounds, parks, and camps can serve meals in neighborhoods with high percentages of low-income families. These are safe and familiar locations where children naturally congregate during the summer.
The USDA Food and Nutrition Service is offering free webinar sessions on the Summer Food Service Program, so you can learn more about the need, the program, and how you can help. The sessions will review the Summer Food Service Program, cover resources and tools available to help you get started, highlight successful programs and outreach practices from around the country, and will conclude with an open question and answer period with USDA FNS staff.
To learn more about the SFSP, please register to participate in an upcoming free webinar session:
Wednesday, March 21, 2012: 1 - 2pm EST - Public Session
Tuesday, March 27, 2012: 4 - 5pm EST - Public Session
Click here, to learn more about the Summer Food Service Program.
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Foundation Center Webinars
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New to fundraising or want to expand your current funding sources? The Foundation Center has a prerecorded series of webinars as well as webinar events available for free. Topics include: Your Board and Fundraising, Foundations and Their Role in Philanthropy, Principios de la escritura de propuestas, and Proposal Budgeting Basics. Learn more here.
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Dannon Company Announces 2012 Next Generation Nutrition Grants Program
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 | | Dannon Next Generation Nutrition Grants Program |
The Dannon Company is accepting applications for its Next Generation Nutrition Grants Program. In 2012, Dannon will provide a grant of $30,000 to one program nurturing healthy eating habits among children in each of the communities where a Dannon facility is located.
Applicant organizations must request funding for a current nutrition education program for children up to age 18, or be able to launch such an initiative by late 2012. Programs should be creative in their approach, involve community partners, include professional nutrition staff or consultants, and be designed to impact children's eating habits now and in the future.
To be eligible, programs must promote nutrition education to nurture healthy eating habits, including the consumption of low-fat yogurt, among children; serve communities where Dannon facilities are located (Auglaize, Darke, Mercer, or Shelby counties in Ohio; Salt Lake County in Utah; Tarrant County in Texas; or Westchester County, New York); and be an initiative of a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
Complete program guidelines and the application form can be downloaded at the Dannon Web site. The deadline to apply is March 30, 2012.
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Healthy Breakfast-4-Kids
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The Healthy Breakfast-4-Kids (HB4K) goal is to create and improve access to breakfast in schools nationwide as a means to lessen the huge negative impact of hungry children across our nation. In 2012, Food Family Farming Foundation (F3) and Walmart Foundation are partnering to grant 117 $2500 equipment grants to rural high needs schools for the purpose of implementing universal breakfast in the classroom programs. Grant awardees will be able to order $2500 worth of food service smallwares or equipment for establishing universal breakfast programs via an online order with their partner Tundra Specialties. As part of the grant program, F3 will create universal breakfast implementation resources to be available to all schools via their program, The Lunch Box.
To find out more and/or apply, please visit, Food Family Farming Grants. The deadline to apply is March 31, 2012.
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New York: FreshConnect Program
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The FreshConnect program, which brings fresh food from New York farms to underserved communities throughout New York, will award competitive grants to support projects across the state. A Request for Proposals is available at the Department of Agriculture's website. The deadline to apply is April 2, 2012.
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Awesome Food Grants
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The Awesome Foundation's Food chapter is now taking applications for its $1,000 microgrants to further food awesomessness in the universe. Apply at Awesome Foundation and submit under "Food" category. Every month, one microgrant will be given for an awesome idea involving food, be it urban farming, food truck, recipe collects, pop-up cafes, or health. The more inventive the better. Previous winners include SNAP Gardens. Rolling deadline.
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Philanthroper
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This site works like a daily deals site, but shares the story of a new 501(c)3 nonprofit every day. Subscribers can donate $1-$10 to the organization. Organizations cannot apply directly to be included, but the website does take "tips," or suggestions of organizations worth vetting. Learn more here .
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Sharing Your Story
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Have you had any recent successes in food sourcing at your food pantry that you want to share? What challenges are you facing? Is there anything that you want to learn more about?
We want to hear from you! Email us at nhc@whyhunger.
Contributors: India Rodgers, Patricia Rojas, and Jessica Powers
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