June 2016
Summer Meals
Twitter Chat: Summer Meals Essential to Kids' Well-Being


 
We're hosting a Twitter Chat about the importance of the Summer Food Service Program. Join us on Twitter on June 28th at 1pm EST! #SummerMeals
Be a Rock Star - Support Summer Meals for Kids



It's officially the summer and that means a lot of different things for people. Unfortunately for the millions of children in the United States that rely on schools to get their breakfast and lunch meals, it means the summer is the time that they are the hungriest. Yet, we can all do something about it. Each year, WhyHunger teams up with the USDA and organizations across the country to help fill the gap during the summer for children who receive free or reduced in-school meal programs during the school year. For 9 months of the year, more than 21 million children rely on free and reduced priced meals provided by the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs, but only 3.8 million participate in USDA's summer meal programs. The Summer Food Service Program provides free, nutritious meals for kids at local organizations, like schools, recreation centers, playgrounds, parks, churches, summer camps and more all over the country - all summer long. However, these locations tend to change year to year - that's where you and WhyHunger come in!
 
WhyHunger's Summer Meals Rock for Kids campaign creates awareness about the summer meals program, and activates celebrity auctions and artist ambassadors that raise funds to support the national WhyHunger Hotline and our comprehensive database that is updated regularly and now includes over 14,000 summer meal locations to connect families in need to free, healthy food closest to them.
 
To find your closest Summer Food Service Program summer meals site:
  • Call the WhyHunger Hotline at 1-800-5HUNGRY (1-800-548-6479) for service in both Spanish and English. The hotline is open Monday through Friday, from 9:00am to 6:00pm EST
  • Text "summer" and your zip code to 1-800-548-6479 to get a location within minutes
  • Visit whyhunger.org/summermealsearch
    to find a site online.
And here's how you help. Spread the word about these resources to your network and community by:
  • Downloading and distributing our Summer Food Service Program flyers at your local community centers, schools and libraries
  • Adding a graphic to your blog, website or social media pages
  • Asking your local radio station to play a free Public Service Announcement about the Summer Food Service Program
You can find these materials and more at: whyhunger.org/summermeals
"Ending Childhood Hunger in the Summer Is A Snap"
  
More on strategies to end childhood hunger in the summer from WhyHunger's co-founder Bill Ayres. Published recently in the Huffington Post:
 
"One in five children in America lives in poverty. Summer is the time when more children are hungry than at any other time of the year because they are not receiving free school meals during the week. That means that their families have to provide for some 150 meals during the summer just for one child. For a family with two or more children earning $15,000 or less, or even earning twice as much, the cost is a budget breaker. Fortunately, there are government-supported solutions that, with proper support and advocacy, can help all children have a hunger-free summer."
 
Read more here.
For Your Consideration
Voter Turnout Matters to our Nation's Food Policy
 
The midterm election of 2014 saw the lowest turnout rate since 1942. Out of the five states that ranked in the lowest for voter turnout in 2014, four have laws dealing with voter identification. Indiana, Texas and Tennessee, the states with the lowest, second lowest and fifth lowest turnout, require strict photo ID. While ensuring integrity with voting is essential, voting restrictions that are onerous or discriminatory disenfranchise many legitimate voters. The midterm election was, by and large, not much to brag about. The state with the highest turnout was Maine with 59.3%. Such a week turnout, only serves to stymy the democratic process. Robust turnout is one of the essential ways to challenge and even overturn the influence of money in politics and ensure everyone has a voice, as democracy promises. Unfortunately, low-income members of society disproportionately do not vote. As well, these individuals are often food insecure. Reasons for not voting may include pragmatic ones, such as transportation, not being able to get a voting ID because of the time and money needed, not being able to get off from work, or apathy due to feelings of disenfranchisement and hopelessness. 
 
Strong voter turnout among those who are most food insecure in our country could make a difference in how our country's food and farm policies are shaped. When preparing to vote, consider how and if just food policy helps create a just society. Further, food justice sits at the intersection of many social justice issues.  Food justice is influenced by and influences health care justice. Food justice is influenced by and influences climate change. Food justice is influenced by and influences income inequality. Developing a comprehensive and equitable food policy will help the United States reduce, and ultimately, end hunger. Currently, food policy seems to value profit over health, and healthy food has become increasingly less affordable.  Transforming our food systems starts with innovations at the grassroots level, and structural government reform must be rooted in the lived experiences of those who are the most impacted by hunger and poor health. We all have a right and a responsibility to vote, and we all have a right and responsibility to advocate for a just and equitable food system.  Although it plays just one part in ensuring nutritious food for all, a higher voter turnout can move us one step closer to our vision of a just society.

Hundreds of Thousands to Lose Their SNAP Benefits

During the most recent recession, policies mandating work requirements for able bodied adults receiving SNAP benefits were waived.  In 2016, twenty-two states have chosen to reverse that waiver which effectively increased access to food for those struggling financially. These states will once again restrict able bodied adults, an individual from 18 to 49 years of age, without dependents from receiving SNAP benefits for more than three months in a three year period if the adult fails to meet work requirements. Work requirements mean the individual must be in job training, working or volunteering for at least 20 hours a week. Exemptions, such as pregnancy or a documented mental illness, or living in an exempt area, can be granted to certain individuals.
 
The Ohio Association of Food Banks serves as a good example of a charitable organization advocating and helping individuals whose benefits were about to be cut by the state. While twenty-two states are phasing in work requirements this year, some states phased in work requirements earlier. For example, on January 1, 2014 Ohio dropped the SNAP waiver, which was enacted when unemployment reached high levels during the recession. Now, work requirements are mandatory in all but 16 of the counties in Ohio. Seeking to help individuals to maintain eligibility, Ohio Association of Food Banks sought to find jobs for able bodied individuals without dependents. Detailing their approach, the Ohio Association of Food Banks reported their findings, successes and setbacks. As a result, local community organizations, while navigating financial and logistical challenges such as transportation and background checks, have offered jobs to help adults reach the requirement. While food banks and food pantries continue to step up to help their clients, the legislation can lead to an unfair strain, at least temporarily, on these organizations. As the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reports,  other safety net programs rarely exist for able bodied adults making SNAP that much more beneficial for this particular demographic. While reducing SNAP benefits and adding employment and training caveats could be justified in terms of economic costs, the human costs will likely be significant. For example, 350,000 people in Florida and 33,000 people in Pennsylvania are at risk for losing their benefits. The very existence of emergency food providers is already indicative of just how many citizens' rights to nutritious food are failing to be fulfilled. Decreasing access to SNAP benefits for anyone struggling to eat only enlarges the already gaping holes in our social safety net.
What We're Reading Now
"Race and Corporate Power in the US Food System: Examining the Farm Bill"

Food First has released their second Backgrounder in their multi-authored series "Dismantling Racism in the Food System" that is seeking to uncover the structural foundations of racism in the food system and highlight the ways people, communities, organizations and social movements are dismantling the attitudes, institutions and structures that hold racism in place. Dismantling the injustices of racism in the food system, in the food movement, in our organizations and among ourselves is fundamental to transforming the food system and our society. This issue focuses on how the US food system "is characterized by widespread inequity. To challenge and eliminate corporate power and structural racialization in the US food system and society as a whole, we need to analyze the ways that public and private institutions are structured - including the Farm Bill, and how government programs are administered and operated in a way that marginalize low-income communities and communities of color."
 
Read the backgrounder here
"Stop Trying To Solve Hunger with Corporate Food Waste"

Advocacy efforts have brought the discussion around food waste back into conversation. The House Agriculture Committee began to hold hearings on food waste, and in early June, New York City Council held a public hearing on the issue. Many countries have been passing legislation to reduce waste, such as France's law that bans supermarkets from throwing away unsold food, and yet policymakers seem to refuse to address the root causes of hunger and how these bills will fail to address the issues of poverty, inequity and injustice. Nick Saul, President and CEO of Community Food Centres Canada, wrote an article about how we need to create long, lasting solutions to poverty and hunger. 

Read more here.

We'll continue to follow these conversations to see what comes from them.
Resources
New Community Eligibility Database for the 2016-2017 school year


The Food Research and Action Center has a new database which makes it easy to search and determine which schools in a community or state are eligible, or near-eligible, for the Community Eligibility Provision for school year 2016-2017.

Community Eligibility allows schools and local educational agencies with high poverty rates to provide free breakfast and lunch to all students, while also reducing the administrative burden on schools. 

By using this database, we can help ensure that more eligible schools will adopt this cost-saving provision.

Learn more about the database and start using it here
"Boosting SNAP Benefits Would Improve Diets of Low-Income Households"



New research finds that raising SNAP benefits would not only increase low-income households' spending on food but also improve the nutritional quality of their diets. Read the policy brief by The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities here.

Report: Hunger Doesn't Take a Vacation

The Food Research & Action Center released their annual Hunger Doesn't Take a Vacation report which measures the success of Summer Nutrition Programs at the national and state levels by comparing the number of children receiving summer meals to the number of low-income children receiving school lunch during the regular school year. During July 2015, Summer Nutrition Programs served nearly 3.2 million low-income children across the country, which means that less than one in six children who needed summer nutrition received it.

Read the report here.
The SNAP-Ed Library

 

What's SNAP-Ed? Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education is the nutrition promotion and obesity prevention component of SNAP. This program's goal is to increase the probability that a person eligible for SNAP will make healthy food and lifestyle choices that prevent obesity. The new Snap-Ed library will have all of the education information and campaign materials in order for states to provide nutrition education. Go to the website to learn more here
In This Issue
 
Please verify that your organization's profile is accurate in the database. To update your record, email
database@whyhunger.org. If your organization is not in the database, please join us here.
The WhyHunger Hotline number is 1-800-5-HUNGRY. Please update your records and find outreach materials here.   
Nourishing Change is a space to share critical thoughts around the systemic change that needs to happen to end hunger and transform the emergency food system. We want to hear from you! Email us at nourish@whyhunger.org
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WhyHunger
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Contributors: Bill Ayres, Betty Fermin, Calondra McArthur & Robert McCarthy.