Food Stamp Failures

Today's New York Times featured an editorial on the poor state of the Federal Food Stamp program in New York City. With its somewhat misleading but eye-catching title, Why the Hungry Refuse Help, the article discusses the recent study by the Urban Justice Center, a nonprofit advocacy group, that found that of 9,500 food stamp recipients, 5,800 had benefits cut off within 20 months of enrolling. Even though most were still eligible for the program, many failed to show up at city offices to renew their benefits citing the complex paperwork involved, long waits, and inability to get off work or leave children.

While the managers of the program, HRA (the Human Resources Administration), disputed the report's findings, official statistics show that even as New York poverty levels remain fairly constant, the number of City food stamp recipients fell by 7,000 in July 2007. As the City spends it own millions to support soup kitchens, food pantries, and other emergency food programs, it fails to maximize enrollment in the Federal Food Stamp program and thereby loses hundreds of millions of dollars in federal aid. Reapplication by phone or even online, as well as changing it from the current 6 month period to the federal standard of 12 months, would help increase enrollment.

The Urban Justice Center's findings were also reported by WNYC and the Staten Island Advance.

Calorie Data Rule Dismissed

The city health regulation requiring restaurants to post calorie information next to menu items has been struck down by a federal judge. Judge Richard J. Howell of United States District Court in Manhattan threw out the regulation on the basis that some of the provisions of the rule are already covered by federal law. The NYC Department of Health had sought the regulation as a way to quell what it refers to as "an obesity epidemic" in the city. It is unclear whether the city would try to adopt a regulation that would satisfy the judge.

The calorie data controversy has been covered by NYCCAH in previous blogs on April 3 and June 15, 2007.

Also see WNYC, Forbes, CBS.

Urban Garden Oasis

Through the help of Bronx Green-Up, the New York Botanical Garden community gardening program, urban gardeners have been transforming abandoned plots in the Bronx into green oases that produce vegetables, herbs, and fruit that are then sold at the Botanical Garden's farmers' market. New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, visited the garden and farmers' market this week. The City Council recently added money to the budget to support and enable the use of food stamps at farmers' markets, thereby providing low-income families with access to fresh, nutritious, "straight from the farm" food. "Obesity and hunger are two sides of the same coin. These markets bring them to a connection to quality and to combat obesity", said Speaker Quinn.

Presidential Hunger Policy

Read NYCCAH executive director, Joel Berg's, recent post How the Next President Can End Child Hunger in America. Berg's nonpartisan entry on IdeasPrimary outlines how a president might effectively wipe out childhood hunger across the nation.

Census Reveals NYC Poverty Spike

According to new data released yesterday by the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of people living in poverty in New York City increased to 1.54 million people, even as there was a slight dip in the number of people in poverty nationwide. The New York City Coalition Against Hunger held a press conference yesterday afternoon to bring attention to these new statistics. The number of poor New Yorkers has increased by 151,000 since 2000 - in every borough except for Manhattan. About one in five city residents now live below the federal poverty line, which equals a family of three surviving on an income of $16,600 per year. Brooklyn, the borough with the most poor people, had an increase of 85,000 people in poverty from 2000 to 2006. While poverty rates soared, the number of people receiving public assistance dropped by 241,388.

The new data was released the same day New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg made a speech in Washington, DC, about his poverty initiative to increase Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) payments for single men. While advocates greatly laud the mayor's initiatives and his insistence that poverty can be solved and with government taking the lead, they still note that more can be done when there are 1.5 million city residents living in poverty.

The press conference was held at Child Development Support Corporation in Brooklyn with City Council member Letitia James, Bill de Blasio, Chair of the General Welfare Committee of the City Council, and Joel Berg, executive director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger.

It was covered by the NY Times, Daily News, Daily News Brooklyn, Daily News Boroughs, El Diario, WNBC4, the Metro, WNYC, Gothamist, NY1, News12, the Queens Chronicle, and the New York Press.

NY Post - No Hungry Children in New York

The NY Post followed up on its article covering the Coalition Against Hunger's press conference on the low rate of school breakfast participation in New York City with an editorial - Books Before Breakfast - in which it states that participation is low because children are actually "not hungry". According to the New York Post, "Hunger is simply not a problem in New York City" , a conclusion echoing its previous, "nobody of sound mind goes hungry in New York" statement. The Post denies that poverty and hunger are in an issue in New York City, but yet also covered NYCCAH's press conference and recently published an article, "NY Kids In Terrible Poverty". Joel Berg, executive director of the Coalition, wrote a letter to the editor of the Post, which, as with letters in the past, went unpublished. An excellent response to the Post's editorial was also blogged by The Neighborhood Retail Alliance.

Joel Berg's unpublished letter to the editor of the NY Post:

To the Editor, NY Post:

Your editorial, "Books Before Breakfast" - opposing calls to expand school breakfast participation among low-income children in the city - missed the point.

When kids eat breakfast in a classroom instead of a lunch room that is a hallway or two away, that gives them more time to focus on their studies. A vast amount of research proves that children who eat breakfast have higher test scores, fewer school nurse visits, and act up less in class. It makes no sense to say that children should get either books or breakfast - they
should obviously get both.

But more absurd than your opposition to school breakfast is your continued insistence that child hunger isn't a problem in New York. Even the Bush Administration released data proving that one in five of the city's children live in homes without enough food. Not only that, children are one of the fastest growing populations forced to use the city's more than 1,200 soup kitchens and food pantries. The Post's denial reminds me of an old Chico Marx line: "Who are you going to believe? Me, or your own eyes?"

- Joel Berg
Executive Director
New York City Coalition Against Hunger

NYCCAH Holds Press Conference to Bring Awareness to NYC's Trailing School Breakfast Participation

The Coalition Against Hunger held a press conference yesterday at City Hall to bring attention to the low rate of school breakfast participation in New York City. The Coalition brought together leading elected officials and anti-hunger advocates to comment on a new national study that finds that New York City trails virtually every other large city in the nation in school breakfast participation, even with one in five New York City children living in food insecure homes.

The study by national anti-hunger group, the Food Research and Action Center, found that New York has the second lowest participation rate out of 23 large American cities. Breakfast participation has increased by six million meals over the last three and a half years owing largely to the Bloomberg administration's adoption of universal school breakfast, as well as experimenting in allowing children to eat breakfast in their classrooms.

Even so, 80% of low income City public school students fail to receive school breakfasts, and only 29% obtain school lunches as opposed to 98% in Portland, Oregon, 94% in Newark, and 64% in Boston. Higher participation rates were linked to districts where school breakfast was made more available in the classroom, unlike New York where students have to go to a separate lunchroom to eat. Joel Berg, executive director of NYCCAH, called on the city to increase participation by allowing breakfast to be served in the classrooms. Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-NY), State Senator Carl Kruger, Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, City Councilman Eric Gioia, and City Councilman David Weprin joined Berg in calling for increased efforts to boost school meals participation.

The conference was covered by the New York Times, New York Post, WNYC, NY1, News12 Brooklyn and Bronx, El Diario, DailyNews1, DailyNews2, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, and the Staten Island Advance.

Farm Fresh Produce Comes to West Harlem

Yesterday a partnership of groups - including the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, Hunger Action Network of New York State, West Harlem Action Network Against Poverty, United Way and Just Food - gathered with elected officials and West Harlem residents on the historic campus of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine to inaugurate the first year of the Farm Fresh project.

The pioneering, three-year initiative is designed to simultaneously fight hunger and obesity in New York City by connecting low-income residents to regional farmers through cooperative buying groups, farmers’ markets, and innovative uses of the federal Food Stamp Program.

Hoy, NY Press, All Things Considered (Hour 2, 38:00)

Yet One More Reason to Eat Ice Cream!

Alphabet Scoop, an East Village ice cream shop organized by Father's Heart Ministries, not only doles out delicious scoops of homemade ice cream, it also benefits the at-risk local youth who work at the shop and learn about work ethic and saving money. Recently covered in Time Out New York Kids, the program was conceived in 2003 and focussed in on at-risk teens two years ago - Father's Heart Ministries also runs a soup kitchen, an after-school program, and a job readiness program. Teaching young people work ethic and how to hold down a steady job is a vital step in helping families move out of poverty and into self sufficiency.

NY Post Confused On Poverty

Today, the New York Post published an article - "NY Kids in Terrible Poverty" - covering the newly released Kids Count 2007 study, which found that one in 10 kids in the state of New York currently live in extreme poverty. This is an interesting contribution, as the NY Post just published an editorial last month that denounced Governor Eliot Spitzer's enhancements to the Food Stamp Program as welfare "trolling" and claimed that "no one of sound mind goes hungry in New York." (The ill-informed editorial was covered in a previous NYCCAH blog and Joel Berg, executive director of NYCCAH, responded to it with a countering letter to the editor - which went unpublished). The Food Stamp Program is one of the bulwarks against extreme poverty and helps families make the transition to self-sufficiency.

Maps Mania!

NYCCAH's free summer meals and farmer's markets maps were blogged by Google Maps Mania. Check them out!

New Yorkers Hit Hard by Diabetes

A new study by the New York City Health Department shows an alarming 71% rise in deaths and hospitalizations from diabetes. The City death rate due to diabetes rose between 1990 and 2003, and during that time patients were hospitalized 80% more often than in the rest of the U.S. Black New York diabetics die at three times the rate of whites, while the Hispanic death rate rose 169% since 1990. In low-income neighborhoods, such as East Harlem, residents are hospitalized for diabetes at 10 times the rate of those from upscale neighborhoods, like the upper East Side. Diabetes is directly linked to obesity, and obesity is often extremely high in low income neighborhoods where there is lack of access to fresh, nutritious food. The city also has a lower average income than nationally. According to Dr. Shadi Chamany, the city Health Department's head of diabetes prevention and control, "That can be a risk factor if people are more likely to be overweight or obese and less physically active because they live in a particular neighborhood where they don't have access to resources."

A Question for the Candidates

Today the Coalition Against Hunger submitted a question for the first-ever YouTube Presidential Debate. The Democratic debate, to be held online July 23rd, will feature only questions submitted by YouTube users to be answered by the all candidates.

Submit your own question about hunger and food policy in the U.S.!

Some Summer Meals Won't Last All Summer

Today Metro NYC reported that due to new guidelines for the implementation of the free Summer Meals program in NYC, several school sites will only be open for the duration of summer school, not all summer.

While these site closures may cause some confusion, there are many more sites in each neighborhood, from parks and pools to NYCHA housing projects. Find all the sites near you!

(Metro)

Summer Meals "Feed Multitudes," Reports Times

On the front page of the New York Times today, the Summer Meals Program in NYC was highlighted as one of the largest programs assisting low-income New Yorkers and their children during the summer months.

Joel Berg, Executive Director of the Coalition Against Hunger, was quoted as saying, "Not only will no single pantry or kitchen serve even in that ballpark, there is a good chance that even the combined 1,200 pantries and kitchens in New York City won’t serve much more for children over the summer."

Despite it's size and the fact that it is almost purely funded by the federal government, the Summer Meals Program has historically been drastically underutilized, mainly due to lack of awareness. Find a free summer meals site near you!

(New York Times, Newsday)

Speaker Quinn Bolsters Food Stamps at Farmers' Markets

This morning, Speaker of the New York City Council Christine Quinn paid a visit to the Bronx to highlight the use food stamps at the Poe Park Farmers' Market.

Through Quinn's efforts, the City Council agreed in this year's budget to increase the City's support of efforts like those at Poe Park to $295,200.

“We hail Speaker Quinn for building on the City's success in providing more neighborhoods with access to fresh food that is both nutritious and affordable,” said JC Dwyer, Director of Programs and National Service at the New York City Coalition Against Hunger. “These efforts will help more low-income New Yorkers avoid both hunger and obesity, as well as support small family farmers in our region. This is a quintessential ‘win-win’ situation for New York City.”

(1010 WINS, WNYC, Press Release)

Free Summer Meals Open For Business

The kick-off for this year's free summer meals program for children in NYC was covered in-depth by the WNBC News 4 team.

Free summer meals are available all summer to all children 18 and below at schools, housing projects, parks and pools. There is no paperwork, and no restrictions except age.

This program is particularly important for low-income families who rely on school meals during the rest of the year to help them make ends meet and provide their children with food that is nutritionally sound.

NYCCAH Maps Highlighted in Today's Dietitian

The New York City Coalition Against Hunger's groundbreaking online maps of hunger resources, and a spin-off project based on the same Google Maps technology, were highlighted this week in the national magazine Today's Dietitian.

The article lauded the Coalition's maps of soup kitchens and food pantries as a resource for nutritionists and dieticians, as well as introduced HungerMaps.org, a free resource now available for anti-hunger organizations across the country.

Last week, NYCCAH also released its 2007 map of free Summer Meals Sites for children; a map of the city's 2007 Farmers' Markets is forthcoming.

NYC Trans Fat Controversy

The city-wide trans fat ban and rule requiring fast food restaurants to post calorie information on menus have officially gone into effect - sort of. Chain restaurants, including McDonald's and Burger King, are resisting the calorie policy and seem to be waiting for a federal lawsuit to throw out the rule - the City also does not plan to issue any fines for violations until October 1.

The trans fat ban has created some controversy in the food industry as restaurants fear altered food and higher prices due to making the switch to more expensive, healthier oils. However, many restaurants have already been using healthy oils, like canola and peanut oils, and others are not finding any drastic differences in food quality with the switch. According to the Wall Street Journal, emergency food programs are also affected by the trans fat ban as Joel Berg, executive director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, says, "Logistics are an issue for other food servers. Volunteers at soup kitchens and food pantries are now supposed to examine labels on food products and separate which can be served where. That's because the ban covers food served in soup kitchens, but not packaged foods handed out by food pantries." Most facilities are "run by unpaid volunteers. They have enough trouble keeping track of inventories" says Mr. Berg, who adds that he nevertheless favors the law."

Bloomberg Sets His Priorities for the Farm Bill

NYC anti-hunger advocates were pleased to learn today that Mayor Bloomberg has offered his own letter to Congressional leaders asking for positive changes to the Food Stamps Program in this year's Farm Bill.

Calling the changes "critical" to the City's ability to support low-income working families, Bloomberg proposed increasing the minimum Food Stamps allotment to at least $25, increasing the resources limit to $4000 per household and allowing for simplification and increased flexibility in the program's administration.

Congressional leaders will meet for the next round of discussion on the Farm Bill this month. To get involved, consider writing a letter to your legislators!