Long-Term Benefits of SNAP

While SNAP benefits average just $1.35 per person per meal for households with children, they have surprisingly important effects on children’s health, education, and long-term outcomes. SNAP enables families to spend more on food and frees up resources they can use to meet their health and other needs. Studies show that children receiving SNAP are less likely than other low-income children not receiving SNAP to be in fair or poor health or underweight, and their families are less likely to make tradeoffs between paying for health care and paying for other basic needs, like food and housing.

From Food Assistance to Financial Stability

As one of our organization’s longest-serving Mobile Foodshare drivers, Alan Prior is no stranger to hunger in our community--and while his role has him on the front lines of our food distribution work, he understands the importance of programs that go beyond the food.

At one of our sites, hosted by the Community Renewal Team (CRT), Alan met a woman who had spent the previous night in a shelter because she couldn’t afford to heat her home. Not only was she forced to cut utilities from the budget, but she also struggled to access food on a regular basis. Although biweekly visits to the Mobile Foodshare truck helped, she didn’t know how long her young daughter could endure these hardships.

After listening to this woman's story, Alan introduced her to the site coordinator who was able to enroll her in an energy assistance program. Some time later she returned with good news--since receiving assistance from CRT, she hadn’t spent another night in a shelter. Using the direct services offered by Mobile Foodshare--nutritious food crucial to her own health, but especially her daughter’s growth and development--and the program’s connections to wrap-around services, she and her daughter were already on their way to financial stability.

The real cost of hunger

How much does hunger really cost our nation's health care system?

According to the Bread For the World Institute, at least $160 billion dollars annually, with about half of that staggering figure stemming from mental health issues such as depression, anxiety and suicide. That's more than the combined federal and state spending on higher education, according to the report.

The results of the study, based on data from academic research, are considered a conservative estimate by the Bread For The World Institute because they do not include likely additional costs, such as choices between spending money on medication or food.

Research shows that children who grow up in impoverished or food insecure households are exposed to toxic levels of stress that contribute the early onset of chronic illness and make children more vulnerable to depression, substance abuse and dropping out of school.

Guest Blogger: Greg, Foodshare Volunteer

It’s 7:30 a.m. on President’s Day, and Foodshare driver Alan Prior is loading potatoes onto one of the agency’s two Mobile Foodshare trucks for the day’s deliveries. Today’s plan: deliver to three Hartford-area locations, where volunteers will be waiting to help distribute fresh produce and bread.

That volunteer commitment will be appreciated more than usual today, because it’s bitterly cold outside. Temperatures have been in the single digits for days in Greater Hartford, raising one of the big issues for millions of Americans who deal with hunger and food insecurity — do I use my limited resources to buy food, or to heat my home?

In weather conditions such as this, you realize just what a difficult choice that is.

But the volunteers are out and waiting for the truck when it pulls into the parking lot at Cambridge Park Apartments in Bristol, just before 9 a.m. Inside is produce donated to Foodshare — fruits and veggies that would have gone to waste mostly because it didn’t fit into the complicated supply logistics of the food wholesale system.

Usually, Prior says, there’s a line queued up for the truck. In the summer at some afternoon stops, clients will line up for hours for a delivery, he says. Foodshare distributes 5 million pounds of produce annually, and 3 million pounds of that goes to the community through the Mobile Foodshare program.

With the truck parked and open for business, groups of three and four clients make their way to the truck from the nearby apartments or from the parked cars where they’ve been keeping warm. They bring their own shopping bags or small carts and make their way around the truck, collecting beets, potatoes, carrots, onions, sweet potatoes apples and a loaf of bread. They chat with the volunteers and most say “thank you” before heading on their way.

Prior says a lot has changed since the program started. “We did a lot of bulk produce drops at first," he recalls. “We’d build a pallet, drop it at the site and leave.”

But that left distribution to the community-based volunteer organizations that partner with Foodshare to help solve hunger in Hartford and Tolland counties. That was harder on the volunteers, and it wasn’t as efficient.

The mobile food trucks, made possible by the Chase Family Foundations, make the experience easier. Each produce item has its own compartment along the side, and in one full lap, clients can stock up and be on their way. It takes just 45 minutes to distribute the contents to a crowd of 300-400 clients, Prior says.

Furthermore, it gives the community coordinators the chance to meet with the clients. This way, Prior explains, “It’s like the community serving the community.”

With the delivery over, it’s back into the cab for the next stop.

Yes, it’s really cold, Prior agrees. “But we served 28 people. Twenty-eight people came out in that weather. Isn’t that cool?”

MetroHartford Alliance Rising Star Breakfast

Foodshare's Beatrice Maslowski and United Way's Amy Helbing (photo courtesy of MaryEllen Fillo)

The MetroHartford Alliance Rising Star Breakfast was held at the Hartford Marriott downtown on September 12. Among those attending the breakfast to discuss the "ALICE: Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed" working poverty report were Foodshare representatives, Beatrice Maslowski (pictured), Community Network Builder and Terri Loso, Volunteer Services Lead. Foodshare has a long term partnership with the United Way, and the ALICE report is a valuable tool for discussing the hardship that many Connecticut families face who earn too little to afford the basic necessities.

Why Are We So Uncomfortable Talking About It?

A moving article by Katie Klabusich -- activist, writer and instigator of the #PovertyIs hashtag -- hits on all that is true and honest about food insecurity in our nation today:

"I was more grateful to qualify for a social program [SNAP] that could bridge the gap until I was self-sufficient than I was worried about stigma or people thinking I had gamed the system somehow.

Sometimes I wonder if these people realize the 49 million of us living with food insecurity in this country can hear them debating how we should ration our rations. What do you — any of you! — care if I use $9 of my allotted $140 per month to occasionally buy food I like? It might be my only entertainment that week, and it might be worth eight Ramen lunches in a row to reward myself.

If we can get you, the 86% who know where your meals are coming from next week, to see us as people, it becomes less necessary to continually explain that every dollar invested in food assistance creates $1.84 in economic stimulus, or that only about 1% of welfare and food stamp recipients are gaming the system. Even if Medicaid fraud were perpetrated by beneficiaries rather than providers, the net good of helping people maintain a base level of health far outweighs a few percentage points in the federal budget."

Read the entire article here, and don't hesitate to share, share, share!

The Reality of Surviving Poverty

"I have lived in poverty both as a child and as an adult, and I can say with full confidence that it is a life-crushing force. I hated it. “Poverty” is also one of the most misunderstood labels that gets slapped onto individuals without their approval — cast upon them simultaneously by both unseen and more visible forces of society.

Poverty is a word loaded with preconceived notions, common misperceptions and seemingly innocuous assumptions. What the word does not do is delve below its surface meaning, into the reality of poverty — a world that no one wants to live in.

Poverty is exhausting. Poverty is despair and desperation-inducing. Poverty is soul, dream and hope crushing. Poverty is like being enclosed in a prison cell with no doors or windows. It feels claustrophobic, as if there is no way out. Only the most resilient do not give up. Still, there is no guarantee that life will get better — and those in poverty know this all too well. They either become hardened or submit to fate. You don’t live life, you don’t thrive — you survive. You wonder if you are predestined, like a caste in another country, to live out a life destitute of fulfillment — whether financial, professional or just having a better life."

Read the full article...

Winter is Hurting...

“I really want to help with whatever I can. I know this is hard for a lot of people.” A staff member got that phone call today from an elderly woman who wants to donate. She said she was having a hard time herself this winter, but she’s been lucky in her life and wants to share what she can.

And we’ve heard from even more people since that call just an hour ago.

Hungry people are in desperate need this winter due to increased expenses and missed meals. They need your donation now.

Elderly widows are being forced to choose between repairing a leaking roof and putting food on the table. Kids have missed healthy meals they rely on because schools have been closed more times than we can count, and working parents are taking days off without pay to keep their kids safe. Heating bills are increasing…and food becomes the place people have to cut expenses.

Our hungry neighbors are facing an emergency situation right now, and I’m asking you to donate to help bring relief. Please help —your neighbors can’t wait to get the food they need right now. Please donate online or call us at (860) 856-HELP.

Foodshare continues to provide food even on the harshest winter days. Recently at a Mobile Foodshare site in Manchester it was snowing heavily, and the wind chill was 10 degrees below zero. When our truck arrived there were 50 people waiting, huddled together and covered in snow. They had arrived that morning to receive what was maybe the only food they would eat that day. Only a few of them had an actual winter coat, and one man had no shoes, only a pair of bedroom slippers. This is very different from waiting for a parking space at the grocery store; this is what hungry people have to do to get the food they need.

People need your donation right now so we can get them food today. I want you to know how much we appreciate your continued support and your understanding that we must ask for help when people need it most. You’ve done so much for hungry people in Connecticut. Your generosity has helped so many people get the food they need. Your gift means the difference between hungry and healthy.

Thank you for all that you do,

Christine O’Rourke, Interim President

Energy challenges contribute to food problems

An interesting blog post from Children's Health Watch about how "energy insecurity" affects food insecurity, even in the summer months.

More discussion of the "heat or eat" provisions of the Farm Bill

USDA Secretary Vilsack testified before the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee yesterday. At the hearing, Republican members of Congress pressed the Secretary with concerns about the now seven states that have taken action to avert the farm bill heat and eat cut. The farm bill heat and eat cut impacted 16 states but 7 have taken action to avoid the cuts by allocating state resources to meet the new $20.01 floor for the minimum level of LIHEAP benefits before a SNAP household can take the heat and eat option.

At the hearing, Agriculture Appropriations Chairman Robert Aderholt said it appears the states are trying to circumvent farm bill language designed to deter the "heat-and-eat" practice. "It boils down to the intent of Congress. They didn't intend for governors to artificially raise the (heating assistance payment) so people can continue to qualify," he said. Aderholt said he planned to raise the issue with House Agriculture Chairman Frank Lucas. “One federal program should not be manipulated in order to get more federal dollars from another,” Aderholt said.

In an interview later, House Agriculture Chairman Lucas said that states' decisions to meet the new minimum payment are refocusing attention on the connection between the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program and the SNAP, characterizing the efforts by states as an effort "to mine the treasury." "Whether it gets addressed in calendar year 2014 or not, it could become a very high profile issue in calendar year 2015, maybe 2016, maybe 2017. The political lay of the land might be dramatically different in 2016 or 2017. The concern expressed by a number of my colleagues is that this is just a way [by the states] to squeeze money out of the treasury," Lucas said. Cucas suggested that Congress may decide that the link between the two programs should be eliminated entirely.

At this time, no legislation has been introduced to further amend SNAP heat and eat policy. While it is unlikely that lawmakers will want to reopen the farm bill, it is likely that we will see amendments offered or legislation introduced as messaging vehicles.

USDA Food and Nutrition Service Under Secretary Kevin Concannon told the appropriations committee that states were simply exercising an option the farm bill gave them to raise SNAP benefits for people who qualify for food aid. Concannon said that if Congress had wanted to end the practice, it should have clearly prohibited it. He also stressed that the LIHEAP-SNAP connection has no effect on whether a household qualifies for SNAP, only on the amount of benefits for which they qualify.

 

Source:  Feeding America

 

Heat or eat issues

Senators Murphy and Blumenthal voted against the Farm Bill, in part because of the SNAP cuts related to the bill's "heat or eat" provisions, which will disporporionately affect Connecticut and other northern states.

They are still on the case, having sent a letter today to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius urging that funding be restored to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, in order to help offset the cuts in the SNAP program.

FARM BILL’S EFFECT IN CONNECTICUT

Lucy Nolan, executive director of End Hunger Connecticut!, slammed the Farm Bill, saying it would cut SNAP benefits for more than 65,000 Connecticut households by an average of $90 a month. According to the Department of Social Services (DSS) some 68,000 SNAP-eligible households are aid thanks to the $1 payment from the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). The Malloy administration is reviewing the bill’s details but has not yet determined how it might deal with that provision, said DSS spokesperson David Dearborn. Nolan said if there’s a “silver lining” in the situation, it’s that Connecticut has already distributed LIHEAP funds for 2014, so the food stamp cuts would not be implemented here until 2015.

 

Source: Connecticut Mirror, 1/28/14, Farm Bill in CT