Win in Wage Violation Case Enforces Need for Better Pay

A federal judge vindicated 36 delivery workers at two Saigon Grill Restaurants, who were paid less than $2 an hour and fined up to $200 for infractions as minor as letting a restaurant door slam. The workers were awarded a cumulative $4.6 million in back pay and damages, with individual workers receiving up to $328,000.

“It was worth the fight,” said deliveryman Yu Guan Ke, “because we were treated so badly for so long.” He plans to use the money to buy health insurance for himself and his family.

The verdict underscores widespread inequity in the food service industry, which mirrors the wider economic inequity that causes food insecurity. The case served as a warning for employers who refuse to comply with federal and state minimum wage laws. “Many restaurants have already started to pay their deliverymen much better,” said Josephine Lee, an organizer for Justice Will be Served.

Though touted as a victory for low-income, paying food service employees even the state minimum wage of $7.15 an hour will likely not be enough to ensure the food security of the workers and their families. Until the creation of a federal living wage, many food service workers who serve New Yorkers will continue to be unable to adequately feed themselves.

Client-Choice Model Lessens Stigma, Increases Options for Pantry Customers

For New Yorkers who cannot afford enough food, being forced to rely on food pantries often means structuring their meals around the contents of a pre-packaged pantry bag, rather than on food that healthy and culturally appropriate. The pre-packaged pantry model takes away the customer’s ability to choose and can result in wasted food if customers do not use the contents of the bag, which often includes items as desirable as pie filling or canned liver.

Now, a relatively new model food pantry model is returning some of that power of choice to customers of several pantries across the city. Client choice or “supermarket-style” pantries allow customers to self select items as they would in a grocery store, ensuring that clients retain the dignity of choice, while eliminating food waste by encouraging customers to take those items which their families can use.

The client-choice model was first introduced in 1993 at the West Side Campaign Against Hunger here in New York City. Executive Director Doreen Wohl created the model in order to better serve customers by validating their individual needs. Particularly for customers with diabetes or other diet restrictions, client-choice can mean the difference between taking home a bag of food that will exacerbate their condition, or a selection of items that will help them improve and maintain their health. Client choice also offers a far more culturally sensitive method of food distribution, reinstating the customer’s ability to select the food they know how to prepare.

A fundamental restructuring of the relationship between customers and pantries lies at the core of the client choice mode, which directly challenges the idea that clients should merely accept what they are given. “It’s about trust,” says Wohl. “We trust in the customer and the knowledge they bring to us about their diets, their illness and their family background.”

CAMBA’s Beyond Hunger Emergency Food Pantry is the latest City pantry to convert to client choice after completing the transition this summer. “It’s a more empowering model of helping people get through a food emergency,” says Janet Miller, CAMBA’s director of Food Programs. Client choice continues to gain support at pantries across the country, especially as resources wear thin and the threat of waste becomes even more detrimental to daily operations.

For more information about client choice pantries visit the Food Program page at the West Side Campaign Against Hunger.

Voters More Likely to Choose a Candidate Who Will Fight Hunger

More Americans are worried about their ability to buy food in the future, as rising food prices and a failing economy have driven up expenses for many low- and middle-income families.

A recent report from the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) shows that as many as 57% of Americans worry about being able to afford enough food, up from 27% just a year ago. The report further suggests that this concern is affecting voting behavior, with 60% of voters stating that they would be more likely to vote for a presidential candidate who is committed to fighting hunger.

"This is an issue that candidates have not focused on, but one that needs to be part of the political debate for president," said FRAC president Jim Weill. "Voters deserve to hear exactly where candidates stand and their plans to address the problem."

An overwhelming majority–94%–of respondents noted the importance of continuing government funding for nutrition programs like food stamps and subsidized school meals.

Are you concerned about food insecurity amid rising economic inequality? Join the movement to end child hunger. Sign the Interfaith Voices Against Hunger/Feed the Solution petition to end child hunger in the United States by 2014. With your help, we can insure that children don’t have to know what it’s like to be hungry. For more information about this initiative visit the NYCCAH website or contact Ali Yannias at (212) 825-0028, ext. 212.

For Millions, No End in Sight for Food Stamp Challenge

In honor of Hunger Action Month, government officials, hunger advocates and families across the country spent a week living on a food budget of $25 per person per week as part of a state- or locally-sponsored Food Stamp Challenge. How much does $25 a week buy? Not much, participants quickly realized.

For families used to spending $200 a week on groceries, cutting their food budget in half to participate in the Challenge meant they had to buy different kinds of foods than they were used to eating. Many found that budgetary constraints forced them to choose filling foods rather than nutritious ones. "Our diet was a lot more starchy than it normally is and I think people have to eat a lot of starches and poor-quality proteins and probably not get enough fruits and vegetables," said Valerie Levanos, a Maryland mother of two taking part in the challenge. "I think it would be really hard to eat a healthy diet on food stamps. It would be impossible, I think."

When reporting on their week-long experience, government officials and bloggers noted their inability to fully modify their spending habits. After realizing that she no longer had access to food on the go, Illinois State Representative Kathy Ryg reported, “I could spend an entire $25 on Starbucks some weeks and [during the challenge] I didn't even buy coffee to make at home because I couldn't afford it.”

Said Flint, Michigan columnist Andrew Heller of his Challenge experience, “I have an advantage a lot of struggling folks in Michigan don't. I can cheat.”

Though the Food Stamp Challenge may be an exercise in empathy, the “challenge” for the 28 million Americans currently receiving food stamps will not end until the government allocates sufficient funding to the food stamp program and enacts living wage policies that will help families make enough money to sufficiently feed their families. Following the Food Stamp Challenge, participants’ memories of temporary hunger will mean little if the experience is not translated into advocacy for a living wage, job creation, and child nutrition programs like universal school breakfasts.

In the interim, USDA has released guidelines for families attempting to maintain a healthier diet on limited resources. Unfortunately, the USDA’s suggestions do not provide a way for people to gain access to fresh fruits and vegetables: The suggestions include looking for bargains on old bread and buying ultra-pasteurized milk to avoid spoiling.

35.5 Million Americans Are Not Suffering from “Overnutrition”

In “Farmer in Chief,” published in the New York Times on October 12^th, Michael Pollan proposed a new food agenda (the “sun-food agenda”) to “wean the American food system off its heavy 20th-century diet of fossil fuel and put it back on a diet of contemporary sunshine.” Pollan characterizes hunger in the United States as a problem of “overnutrition” and urges the President Elect to support the creation of a federal definition of “food” which “must contain a certain minimum ratio of micronutrients per calorie of energy.”

Pollan’s proposal incorrectly explains the underlying causes of hunger in the United States and overlooks the 35.5 million Americans living in homes that are unable to afford enough food and 25 million forced to use food pantries and soup kitchens . In reality, the nation’s rising obesity is directly tied to the inability of low-income Americans to physically obtain and economically afford less fattening, more nutritious foods.

In addition to glossing over the real problem of hunger, Pollan’s suggestion that the federal government start preventing low-income families from using food stamp benefits to purchase what he deems to be junk food is also class biased and unrealistic. Who is he to decide that low-income American families could never again enjoy guilty pleasures like Coke? Who is to decide what qualifies as junk food?

Pollan also argues that creating a federal definition of “food” would “improve the quality of school lunch and discourage sales of unhealthful products.” However, the WIC and School Lunch Programs already value nutritional content over raw calorie counts. For example, under federal law, school lunches must be served in accordance with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, ensuring that less than 10 percent of calories come from saturated fat and requiring that each lunch provides at least one-third of the recommended levels of Vitamin A, Vitamin C, iron, and calcium.

In the end, low-income Americans cannot access healthy food that is neither physically available nor economically affordable. The answer is not, as Pollan suggests, to reduce the already meager choices available to low-income Americans by creating a federal definition of food. Rather, hunger in America – which affects 35.5 million Americans – will only end when the government ensures that all Americans have wages high enough and a government safety net robust enough to give them the real-life ability to afford more nutritious foods.

A Dollar for Dinner: Discount Stores Court Shoppers with Packaged Food

While many retailers are feeling the strain of a tumbling economy, more customers are turning to discount and dollar stores for an affordable way to feed their families, often relying on heavily-processed food. Even before the economic crisis, dollar and discount stores have functioned as grocery stores for low-income populations, but as food prices climb, discount retails like Family Dollar have dedicated more floor space to food items in an effort to attract middle-income bargain-conscious customers.

Though the food is affordable, discount store food offerings pose potential health risks, as many items are high in sodium, sugar and preservatives.

The rise in dollar store sales represents a current trend in food shopping that has turned many city shoppers away from the bodegas that have traditionally served low-income neighborhoods. Bodegas have recently been the target of city agencies who have recently offered incentives to bodegas who supply fresh produce and low-fat milk as healthier options to neighborhood residents. As independent, often family-run businesses, bodegas have suffered from rising rent and product costs, which have contributed to falling sales in the past nine months, according to the Bodega Association of the United States.

Though bodegas have not traditionally been outlets for well-rounded food choices, the imminent closure of many of these struggling stores threatens to further limit access to food—any food—among low-income city residents. Meanwhile, independent discount stores and a limited number of Family Dollar stores have begun accepting food stamps, thus filling, for many low-income families, the ever-widening gap left by closing grocery stores.

Act Now to End Child Hunger in the United States

Recent funding cuts and economic instability mean that more New York City children are living with the continual threat of hunger and often eating smaller meals or less healthy food.

From 2003 to 2007, the number of New York City households with children that had trouble affording enough food grew by 41%, according to a recent study published by the Food Bank for New York City. The study found that, in 2007, 45% of all City families with children were not always able to afford enough food.

Government nutrition programs can combat child hunger, but many of these programs receive insufficient funding and are further struggling to provide food for families after funding cuts at the city, state and national level.

The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act, which will be considered by the next Administration and Congress, gives the nation the opportunity to end child hunger once and for all. The legislation includes future funding for the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs, the Summer Food Services Program (SFSP), the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) and the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP).

Please take the following two actions to support the changes necessary to expand and modernize the federal child nutrition safety net.

1. Take immediate action! October 15^th (Wednesday) is the deadline to send USDA comments on reauthorization. It is critical that you and/or your organization respond. Comments may be sent by mail, fax or electronically – please see the following link: http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5118/t/1472/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=548

2. Join the movement! Interfaith Voices Against Hunger (IVAH)/Feed the Solution is currently collecting signatures for a petition to the next President of the United States and NY State Senators. Please review the petition at the following link: http://citizenspeak.org/node/1356 We believe that the bill should:

1. Set a goal of cutting food insecurity among U.S. children in half by 2012 and ending it by 2014.

2. Provide the funding and the guidance necessary to enable most elementary and secondary school in American to provide every student with free school breakfasts (regardless of their family income) in the first class period.

3. Provide the funding to enable every school in America to provide free lunches to all their students, regardless of family income. (By making school meals universal in this way, the country can decease government funding on paperwork now used to make income eligibility determinations and instead use that money improve the nutrition of children.)

4. Increase reimbursements to school districts that provide healthier foods, particularly for districts buying from small local farmers.

5. Make the Women Infants and Children (WIC) nutritional assistance program an entitlement available to any low-income parent or child who needs it and fund nutritional improvements in the WIC package.

6. Increase reimbursements for both government and non-profit agencies that sponsor after-school and summer meals for children.

Call Alexandra Yannias at (212) 825-0028, ext. 212 with any questions or for help organizing an advocacy event.

Parents Forced to Give Dietary Supplements to Ward Off Childrens' Hunger

Families living in food insecurity may be more likely to rely on “compensatory foods” to assuage their childrens’ hunger, according to a new study published in Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Of the 306 families surveyed, mothers in food insecure households were twice as likely to give their children supplements like PediaSure or Carnation Instant Breakfast to curb hunger. 13 percent used added sugar or other stimulants combat their childrens’ hunger.

For desperate parents, relying on supplements “may serve as a buffer to get their children through periodic food shortages,” said lead researcher Dr. Emily Feinberg.

Though the study identifies no clear link between relying on supplements to alleviate hunger and childhood obesity, Dr. Emily Feinberg of the Boston University School of Public Health noted that food insecurity and sporadic eating practices can lead to unhealthy weight for children. She encourages doctors to speak with patients about their access to food and to connect those patients who are living in food security with the appropriate benefits including Food Stamps and Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Program.

As the number of food insecure families continues to rise and parents use potentially unhealthy methods to compensate for the lack of adequate food, it becomes even more important for government to increase funding for nutrition programs and universal in-classroom school breakfasts to ensure that children are receiving the complete and balanced diet they need to grow into healthy and productive adults.

Rising Commodity Costs Threaten Reliability of Emergency Food

Agencies receiving commodity foods from the federal Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) are getting less food despite their calculated entitlements, recent reports show.

The $189 million federal program allots commodity foods like dried beans, pasta and canned fruit to emergency food networks. The dollar amount of many agencies’ entitlements has remained the same while TEFAP costs have risen nearly 19% in the past year, with staples like medium-grain rice increasing by as much as 70% over the past two years. “With very few exceptions, the increases are staggering,” says Melinda Annis, senior vice president of food programs at California Emergency Foodlink.

The USDA has also cancelled many TEFAP bonus food purchases, which previously made millions of dollars of commodity foods free to agencies beyond their calculated entitlement. Recent bonus food cuts include canned fruit and fruit juices.

The cuts mean barer shelves for food pantries, who have found it much harder to provide customers with a balanced supply of food. The recent shortages further illustrate how “difficult it is for food banks across the nation to plan an even and consistent flow of food to serve a growing population of hungry people” said Annis.

Imminent Closure of City Senior Centers Puts More at Risk for Hunger

Dozens of the 100 senior centers operated in New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) buildings will close following extensive funding deficits. NYCHA senior centers offer meals and services to low-income seniors suffering from food insecurity and lack of access to grocery stores.

The closings follow a 2003 memorandum of understanding between NYCHA and the Department for the Aging which would have allocated $30 million in federal funds for senior center operations. The memorandum was not carried out and the city Department for the Aging (DFTA) continued to administer the senior centers until the absence of federal funds and chronic under-funding by the Bloomberg administration resulted in a $195 million overall NYCHA budget deficit.

Lack of funding may also affect other NYCHA-sponsored services including child care and community centers. Prompted by the funding crisis, NYCHA has laid off a number of employees and is considering selling its development rights to private companies, as suggested by Manhattan borough President Scott Stringer.

One in every three NYCHA residents is over the age of 62. For more information about low-income seniors and food access, see the Council of Senior Centers and Services’ report: Hunger Hurts: A Study of Hunger Among the Elderly of New York City.

New City Nutrition Standards A Step Towards Healthy Food Access

On September 19^th, Mayor Bloomberg announced an executive order which made New York City the first major city in the country to establish healthy standards for all food served at City agencies.

The City serves 225 million meals each year at City schools, public hospitals, senior centers and correctional facilities. The nutrition standards, developed by the City Food Policy Task Force, will require city agencies to comply with calorie and fat guidelines and take other steps towards providing healthier food, including: providing two servings of vegetables in lunches and dinners, phasing out deep frying, and lowering the salt content in all meals and snacks. If supported by further efforts to increase access to meals through initiatives like universal, in-classroom student breakfasts, the new standards may help to ensure that all City residents – especially children – have sustained access to enough healthy food.

The measure highlights the need for aggressive city policies to counteract hunger and poor nutrition among residents and to increase families’ access to healthy food beyond City meals by eliminating barriers to food stamp enrollment, bringing healthier options into neighborhood food stores and bodegas, and continuing to expand acceptance of food stamp benefits at farmers markets.

Protecting Food Access in Times of Crisis

With hurricanes Ike and Gustav wracking eastern and Gulf states and damaging tornadoes hitting the Midwest, federal Food and Nutrition Services (FNS) are working with state and local governments to ensure that those hit hard by disaster still have access to the food they need.

FNS is administered by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and provides the services that already-overburdened emergency food programs are unable to deliver in times of crisis. Relying on the federal food stamps program as a first line defense, FNS operates the Disaster Food Stamp Program, which expedites food stamp benefits to households that are made newly-eligible for benefits in the wake of disaster. FNS recently authorized the Disaster Food Stamp Program in counties across Louisiana and Texas with further temporary stipulations that allowed recipients to purchase hot food with their benefits and reimbursed existing food stamp recipients for food lost in power outages. Despite the essential work of FNS, the Disaster Food Program has suffered from administrative errors and has been subject to recent criticism in Louisiana, where an error temporarily doubled recipient benefits and left many waiting for benefits despite their eligibility.

In conjunction with emergency food stamp outreach, USDA also authorizes FNS to orchestrate mass commodity food shipments to food banks in disaster areas.

In the past several years, FNS has outlined strategic plans for response in the event of weather-related and medical disasters in areas across the country. For more information about FNS and the Disaster food stamp program, visit the USDA website.

Thrifty Food Plan Not So Thrifty Anymore

In “Coming up short: High food costs outstrip food stamp benefits,” the Children's Sentinel Nutrition Assessment Program (C-SNAP) at Boston Medical Center found that the maximum food stamp benefit does not buy the items included in the Thrifty Food Plan (TFP) in any size food store in Boston and Philadelphia.

The situation in Boston and Philadelphia reflects a nation-wide phenomenon in which Food Stamps benefits no longer cover the cost of basic foods. The USDA uses the “Thrifty Food Plan”as an example of the types and quantities of foods that people could purchase to obtain a nutritious diet at a minimal cost. The USDA uses the cost of this mix of foods to determine the maximum food stamp allotment. The USDA reported that, from July 2007-July 2008, the cost of the Thrifty Food Plan increased 10% while the Consumer Price Index of food overall increased by only 7.1 percent.

The C-SNAP’s report found that families in Boston would have to spend an additional $2250 per year to purchase the TFP. Access was another obstacle to these families obtaining nutritious food: researchers were unable to find 27% of the items that make up the TFP – predominantly the healthier options like whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, and low-fat milk and cheese – in the neighborhoods surveyed in the report.

Congress is currently debating a second economic stimulus package that could provide effective, nationwide relief for low-income families. We need to take action now to make sure our elected officials know that anti-hunger and anti-poverty legislation needs to be a priority in the final days of the 110^th Congress. Ask to meet with your U.S. House Representative or U.S. Senator (Clinton or Schumer) to urge them to increase funding for nutrition programs in the “Second Stimulus Supplemental Appropriations Bill.” Please contact Alexandra Yannias at (212) 825-0028, ext. 212 for more information about the Bill or about how to effectively lobby your representatives.

Despite Improvements, Healthier Commodities Still Absent in School Meals

For school food programs, healthier options are still a hard sell.

The United States Department of Agriculture’s Child Nutrition Commodity Program offers 180 items to school food programs, which account for 20% of the food served in school meals. Though the Commodity Program has increased its offering of more nutritious food in recent years, a recent study released by the California Food Policy Advocates (CFPA) suggests that state schools are bypassing healthy choices in favor if high-fat, heavily processed options.

The Food Research Action Center (FRAC) has followed similar trends in schools across the nation and is calling for policy changes to improve the quality of school meals. Recommendations include harmonizing school meal standards with national Dietary Guidelines; increasing the amount of fresh produce made available by the government to school lunch programs; and holding food processors to higher standards for processing commodity food items.

“Federal nutrition programs can play an important role in the nutritional quality of children’s diets and in reducing childhood obesity,” said FRAC President James Weill, who further urged “school districts to band together to maximize their buying power for healthier foods.”

“Past Time” to End Child Hunger

Seventy years after the Great Depression, children in the United States still suffer from food insecurity and hunger, despite the fact that the United States has more than enough resources to end child hunger once and for all.

Marian Wright Edelman, President of the Children’s Defense Fund recently called attention to the critical need for government to intervene on behalf of food insecure families and children. Government programs that have proven effective in combating hunger and poverty remain woefully under-funded, with partisan gridlock standing in the way of action. The Food Stamps, Women, Infants and Children (WIC) and School Meals Programs feed millions of children, but cannot currently fill the gap between stagnated wages and rising food costs. “It is past time to correct and strengthen national nutritional programs if we are to prevent families in need from being abandoned,” said Edelman, who called for greater access to nutrition programs and further emphasis on long-term food security.

NYCCAH Executive Director Joel Berg and policy developer Tom Freedman recently highlighted specific policy measures that the current and future administration should take to end child hunger by 2012.

Please visit NYCCAH's website for letters and other advocacy materials to help feed the solution and to end child hunger!

Food Security Funding on Hold Due to Farm Bill Red Tape

An error in legislative language has prevented the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) from distributing nearly $5 million in Community Food Projects (CFP) grants to low-income communities this year.

The USDA awards competitive grants up to $300,000 to projects that improve community self-reliance in relation to food distribution and production. Imprecise wording in a section of the Farm Bill inhibits the dispersing of CFP funds in 2008: an error which food security experts are calling inadvertent, but unfortunate. “Through our advocacy on the Farm Bill, we are certain that it was the intent of Congress to ensure that there was not an interruption in funding for Community Food Projects,” said Andy Fisher, executive director of the Community Food Security Coalition. “Unfortunately the legislative language was not clear in this regard.”

Past CFP funded projects include community garden projects run by at-risk youth; a community kitchen network supporting micro-enterprise ventures for low-income community members; and supermarket development programs which aim to bring food access back to underserved communities.

Nearly a hundred Community Food Projects are in limbo as members of Congress attempt to repair the gaffe with a technical amendment to the errant section.

Long Island City CSA Members at the Farm

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is an innovative program that builds a relationship between local farmers who grow produce and individuals who want access to locally grown fresh produce. For city dwellers, it offers an opportunity to gain access to freshly grown food and to support the local economy.

On Friday, August 22, members of the Long Island City CSA were given a chance to see the fields, streams and soil that sustain the fruits and vegetables in their weekly produce delivery. Chris Cashen and Katie Smith, the owners of the 200-acre Farm at Millers Crossing, hosted the trip so that members could see first-hand where their food grows. Cashen emphasized the mutual benefit of CSAs and thanked members for their participation in the program. “Because members pay up front and are open to a wide array of seasonal produce, we are able to offer them a very affordable way to buy and eat organic produce,” said Cashen. The owners of the thirteen-year-old family farm in Hudson, NY, which has operated CSAs since its beginning, celebrated its inaugural season with the Long Island City CSA by inviting members to better understand how food goes from field to CSA box.

Visitors learned about hay production, helped bag onions for sale at a nearby farmers market, and spent much of the afternoon wading in the creek and picking apples from the farms trees while eyeing the farms cattle herd from afar. The trip included representatives of NYCCAH and Just Food, who sponsor the 50-member CSA, as well as a group of young CSA members from Hour Children, many of whom were visiting a farm for the first time.

Green Light for Food Stamps at Farmers Markets

New York State is leading the way in increasing food stamp recipients’ access to local, fresh produce. Supported by the Federal Food Stamp program, farmers markets across the state have installed wireless electronic benefits transfer (EBT) terminals that work like credit card machines to accept benefit cards.

The initiative is helping to ensure that benefits recipients, whose food options are often limited to the unhealthy offerings of bodegas or discount stores due to the low concentration of grocery stores in low-income neighborhoods, have an accessible and affordable source for fresh food.

The wireless EBT terminals benefit both food stamp customers and farmers market retailers, who have reported increased profits after installing the EBT terminals. “The markets much, much busier,” said New York farmer Richard Hayberger, who reported a $500 monthly increase in profits since Rochester farmers markets started accepting EBT.

EBT terminals have been installed in 87 of New York’s 400 markets, sparking a dramatic increase in statewide food stamp sales at farmers markets from $3,000 in 2002 to $90,000 in 2007.

More federal funding will be needed to extend EBT access to all state farmers markets. Current funding levels will only cover the cost of expanding the program to 130, or about 1/3, of all New York’s farmers markets.

New York Tops Nation in Economic Inequality Despite Mayor’s Anti-Poverty Strategy

The income gap between the poor and the rich is greater in New York than in any other state in the nation, according to 2007 American Community Survey data released on August 26.

The data indicated that, though nationwide poverty levels have remained relatively stable over the past year, the inequality of wealth in New York City exceeds that of Mexico and Sri Lanka, with the poorest 20% of New Yorkers earning only 2.9% of the state’s income.

“When our income inequality is closer to the developing world than to the rest of the industrialized world, we should be ashamed of ourselves,” said NYCCAH Executive Director Joel Berg.

Though the number of New York City residents living in poverty dipped slightly in 2007, one in five New Yorkers continue to live in poverty. While some viewed the slight decrease as a sign of progress, it can also be attributed in part to the number of low-income residents who have recently left the City due to the rising cost of living.

The report further showed that the number of City residents living in poverty grew from 1.491 million in 2002 to 1.50 million in 2007, despite the implementation of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s vaunted anti-poverty initiative.

Continued Berg, “These federal numbers are the clearest indication yet that Mayor Bloomberg’s anti-poverty strategy – comprised mostly of small-scale, underfunded pilot programs – is failing to make a significant dent in the City’s massive poverty and hunger. At the same time, incomes for the richest New Yorkers have continued to skyrocket. I hope this new data is a wake-up call for all our elected officials to convince them that we must devote real resources to our anti-poverty efforts.”

The New and Improved 2008 Farm Bill

On Friday, August 22, the USDA released a comprehensive comparison of the 2008 Farm Bill and previous farm bill legislation. The report highlights many changes that received little public attention during the extended debate surrounding the omnibus legislation. For example, the 2008 Farm Bill allows states to establish methods whereby food stamp applicants can sign their application by over the phone, potentially cutting down on long lines at benefits offices. The 2008 Farm Bill also includes provisions to protect food stamp applicants from discrimination based on age, rehabilitation status or disability. In addition to measures designed to help low-income Americans gain access to benefits, the 2008 Bill also authorizes $15 million a year in matching grants to improve food bank infrastructure, which would include funds to purchase more locally-sourced food. For a complete listing of legislative changes in the 2008 Farm Bill, please visit The Farm Bill Side-by-Side.