Joe's SNAP caseworker gave him the number for the National Hunger Hotline because his food stamps had just been cancelled. Joe lives in the "thumb region" of Michigan and is seasonally employed at the local beet sugar mill. The sugar company hires over 1,700 workers for several weeks every winter to help harvest and process beets, but unfortunately, Joe's paycheck from this brief period of employment causes him to lose his SNAP benefits. This happens like clockwork every year. Often, he winds up with less money than he had than when he was unemployed.

 

Joe is responsible for providing for his family of five: himself, his wife, two children, and his middle-aged brother who is disabled. Currently, he has no money to pay for utilities and barely enough to fill his tank with gas to drive to his local SNAP office. The Hotline advocate provided Joe with contact information for the food bank and several food pantries. Earning too much to receive government benefits, but not enough to provide for his family, turning to local emergency food providers is often the only option for Joe and many others stuck in the same Catch-22.

 

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 español. The Hotline is funded in part by the USDA Food and Nutrition Service.

 

The Fourth Annual National Hunger Free Communities Summit will be held on Saturday, March 1, 2014, at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC. The Hunger Free Communities Summit is a one day event providing current and aspiring Hunger Free Community organizers- nonprofit, religious, private sector and public sector leaders committed to ending hunger in their communities- a forum to hear from local and national experts about innovative models for building community coalitions to end hunger; share lessons learned and successful strategies; and learn about best practices to coordinate hunger relief, leverage available resources and implement multi-year plans. Visit hungerfreecommunities.org for information and registration.

 

The 2014 National Anti-Hunger Policy Conference will be held March 2-4, 2014 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC. The National Anti-Hunger Policy Conference draws anti-hunger and anti-poverty advocates; federal, state and local government officials; child advocates; representatives of food banks and food rescue organizations; and nutrition and anti-obesity groups, for three days of training, networking and Capitol Hill advocacy. Participants share information and learn how to strengthen the quality and reach of federal nutrition programs, learn best outreach and program practices from other states and localities, fill in the gaps in food service for millions of low-income children, and identify creative ideas for new and innovative approaches to ending hunger. Visit antihungerpolicyconference.org for information and registration.

 

Hope to see you there!

 

 

The National Farm to Cafeteria Conference: Powering Up will be held April 15-18, 2014 in Austin, TX. The Conference convenes a diverse group of stakeholders from across the farm to cafeteria movement- more than 1,000 food service professionals, farmers, educators, youth leaders, policy makers, advocates, state/federal agency professionals, entrepreneurs, public health professionals and others- working to source local food for institutional cafeterias and foster a culture of food and agricultural literacy across America. Cafeterias in schools, universities, prisons, hospitals and childcare centers serve more than 40 million Americans every day during the school year, placing the farm to cafeteria movement at the forefront of the fight to end obesity and strengthen local food systems. Visit farmtocafeteriaconference.org for information and registration.

 

 

   

 

Vermont FEED, Vermont Agency of Education and School Nutrition Association of Vermont have published a new cookbook: New School Cuisine: Nutritious and Seasonal Recipes for School Cooks by School Cooks. Developed by Vermont school nutrition professionals with support from the New England Culinary Institute, New School Cuisine includes 78 kid-tested and approved recipes that meet new USDA dietary guidelines and feature local, seasonal foods. The majority of recipes are scaled to yield approximately 50 servings, making them applicable to emergency food settings as well as child nutrition or nutrition education programs. To download the entire cookbook or individual chapters for free, visit vtfeed.org.

 

    

 A Woman's Nation Pushes Back from the Brink will examine the rates of financial insecurity among American women and the children who depend on them, investigate the impact of it on our nation's institutions and economic future, and promote modern solutions to help women strengthen their financial status.

  

 

The report is a groundbreaking investigation into the millions of women who are doing it all and barely scraping by, struggling to provide and parent in a nation that hasn't kept pace with the modern realities of their lives. It combines research, analysis and ideas from the nation's top academic institutions and think tanks, essays by leading thinkers, stories of real women struggling with our modern economy, and a comprehensive poll.

 

The report is available via Amazon Kindle and will be available free of charge until 11:59 p.m. tonight, Wednesday, January 15th. You can also click here a sneak peak at the 400-page, comprehensive report, which includes essays from Hillary Rodham Clinton, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Beyoncé, Eva Longoria, LeBron James, Jada Pinkett Smith, Anne-Marie Slaughter and Sheryl Sandberg. The report will be associated with continued media attention, culminating in an HBO documentary, Paycheck to Paycheck: The Life and Times of Katrina Gilbert, which will air on March 17.

 

 

The 31st annual assessment of hunger and homelessness conducted by the US Conference of Mayors, released in December, found continuing growth in the demand for emergency food and housing across 25 cities whose mayors are members of the Conference's Task Force on Hunger and Homelessness. Again this year, unemployment led the list of causes of hunger cited by officials in the survey cities, and unemployment also was seen as the chief cause of homelessness among unaccompanied individuals. Among families with children in the survey cities, poverty topped the list of causes of homelessness. Click here to download a pdf of the full report.