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Stories from the Hotline: Gearing Up for Summer Meals
Miss Yolanda owns a small grocery store in rural North Carolina. She doesn't have any kids of her own, but she's always looked out for the children in her community. She keeps pencils behind the counter to hand out to kids, and gives school supplies to families that have trouble affording them. After seeing a poster about the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), she called the National Hunger Hotline to see how she could get more involved. "I have a grocery store, and I help the kids, but I need to do more because these kids are going hungry." We told Miss Yolanda more about SFSP and also the Child and Adult Care Food Program and gave her the phone number to her State Agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, so she could learn look into hosting a site or helping with the program.
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New Study Reveals Hunger Makes Seniors Sick
The Health Consequences of Senior Hunger in the United States: Evidence from the 1999-2010 NHANES examines the correlation between food insecurity and negative health consequences among individuals age 60 and older in the United States. The findings reveal that food insecure seniors "were at higher risk of experiencing negative nutrition and health consequences than food secure seniors."
Specifically, seniors at risk of hunger were:
- 50 percent more likely to be diabetic
- Twice as likely to report fair or poor general health
- Three times more likely to suffer from depression
- 30 percent more likely to report at least one activities of daily living (ADL) limitation
- 14 percent more likely to have high blood pressure
- Nearly 60 percent more likely to have congestive heart failure or experienced a heart attack
- Twice as likely to report having gum disease or have asthma
Read more...
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LGBT People Are Disproportionately Food Insecure
New study shows 2.4 million (29%) LGBT adults experienced a time in the last year when they did not have enough money to feed themselves or their family. LGBT people experience disproportionate levels of food insecurity and higher participation rates in the SNAP program, especially those raising children, a risk that persists despite possible differences in demographic characteristics between LGBT and non-LGBT individuals like gender, age, race/ethnicity, and educational attainment. For example, data suggest that same-sex couples raising children are approximately twice as likely to receive food stamps as different-sex couples with children.
Read more...
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Peer-to-Peer Learning: Introducing Nourishing Connections
Nourishing Connections is a new project from the National Hunger Clearinghouse that connects emergency food providers to resources and helps bring together like-minded organizations to foster shared learning. One of our goals is to support building connections between emergency food providers that will share resources, best practices and ideas leading to greater unity between food banking and community food security. An equally important goal is to create spaces for dialogue about the role emergency food providers can play in achieving community food security and addressing the root causes of poverty.
One of our core approaches in Nourishing Connections is the Community Learning Project (CLP), a one-year peer-to-peer learning exchange which facilitates knowledge and resource sharing and builds institutional capacity for emergency food providers in the community food security/food justice movement. Our first CLP pair has connected Neighbors Together (New York, NY) and Mother Hubbard's Cupboard (Bloomington, Indiana) around community organizing, client advocacy, gardening and food justice in the emergency food system.
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Getting to Grocery: Tools for Attracting Healthy Food Retail to Underserved Neighborhoods
Bringing a grocery store into an underserved neighborhood not only makes fresh produce and other healthy food more accessible, it can provide living-wage jobs, raise the value of surrounding property, and anchor and attract additional businesses to the neighborhood. Getting to Grocery is designed to help advocates and public health agencies coordinate and leverage the tools available through local government and other organizations to bring grocery stores into low-income communities.
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From the Shriver Report, in partnership with Center For American Progress, comes an emotional film in partnership with HBO that will ignite a conversation in the nation about the story of our time, told through the life of one woman, Katrina Gilbert, whose daily struggles illuminate the challenges faced by 42 million women and the 28 million children who depend on them.
Paycheck to Paycheck: The Life and Times of Katrina Gilbert offers a deeply personal, unvarnished and moving story of a single mom of three, struggling to get ahead but constantly getting knocked back by a system that almost seems designed to see her fail. The documentary premieres tonight, March 17th at 9pm on HBO and will also be available to stream for free for one full week beginning this evening.
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Let All Who Are Hungry Come and Eat
This year marks the sixth annual Hunger Seder mobilization, a partnership between the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) and MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger. In over 40 communities, Hunger Seders will educate and empower members of the Jewish community, interfaith partners, anti-hunger leaders, and elected officials to take action to protect and strengthen anti-hunger and nutrition programs. JCPA and MAZON offer helpful resources including a Haggdah, Seder planning guide, and a supplemental reading to plan a meaningful Hunger Seder.
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For those who observe the season of Lent, 40 Days for Food Justice is a free, online resource for use in teaching, worship or devotional practice. The project is supported by the Minnesota Institute of Contemplation and Healing (MICAH) and the Presbytery of the Northern Plains. Each day, an individual offers his or her perspective on food justice. This wide range of topics will include: fair trade, food waste, environmental implications, hunger and poverty, social and racial food inequality, congregational or community food justice projects, SNAP, food pantries and soup kitchens, farm-to-table and farm-to-school programs, biodiversity vs. monocultures, GMOs, school nutrition, fair food campaigns and many more.
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Seeds of Change Gardening Grants
Seeds of Change is awarding two $20,000 grants and fifteen $10,000 grants to eligible organizations to support sustainable, community-based gardening, farming or nutrition education programs around the country. Applications are due March 31, 2014.
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Ben & Jerry's Foundation Grassroots Organizing for Social Change Program
The Ben & Jerry's Foundation supports organizations working to bring about progressive social change by addressing the underlying conditions of societal and environmental problems. The foundation will award one-year grants of up to $20,000 to nonprofit, grassroots community-organizing groups in the United States to further social and environmental justice and support sustainable and just-food systems. Grants can be used to support either programming or operations costs. Pre-applications are due March 21, 2014 at 5pm EST.
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USDA Community Food Projects Competitive Grant Program
The USDA has issued a request for applications for the 2014 Community Food Projects Competitive Grant Program. Grants go to projects that work toward developing community food sovereignty, responding to the nutritional and educational needs of low-income individuals, and planning and innovating food systems solutions. Grants are awarded up to $250,000, and this year, you don't have to be a 501(c)(3) to apply. The deadline is March 31, 2014.
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UDSA Farm to School Grants
The USDA has announced a request for applications for the third round of USDA's Farm to School grants, including the addition of a new funding track for training events and conferences. These grants help to improve the health and well being of students through school meals that incorporate locally produced foods, educate children about food and create new and expanded markets for local food producers. Letters of Intent for Conference/Event grants are due at 11:59pm EST, April 2, 2014. Proposals for planning, implementation and support service grants are due at 11:59pm EST, April 30, 2014.
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Please verify that your organization's profile is accurate in the database. To update your record, email nhc@whyhunger.org. If your organization is not in the database, please join us here.
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The Clearinghouse Connection is meant to encourage conversation and dialogue about transforming communities, community food security and the emergency food system. We want to hear from you! Email us at nhc@whyhunger.org.
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National Hunger Clearinghouse
WhyHunger
505 Eighth Avenue, Suite 2100
New York, New York 10018
212-629-8850
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Contributors: Suzanne Babb, Christine Binder and Jessica Powers
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