Access To Grocery Stores Affects Food Shopping & Spending

Researchers believe that poor access to stores that sell a wide range of healthy and affordable foods results in poorer diet and diet-related health problems. Six percent (6%) of American households lack of access to supermarkets, which may mean that they rely more heavily on convenience stores or fast-food restaurants. A new USDA survey of how the local food environment influences where households get food and how much of their food budget is spent at various types of retailers reveals:

●    77% low-access households shopped at supermarket, superstore, large grocery store, or warehouse store compared to 87% percent for households with sufficient access.
●    Low-access households spend almost the same percentage of their weekly food expenditures at large stores as households with sufficient access.
●    Low-access households are less likely to buy food at a restaurant than households with sufficient access (69.5% compared with 85.8%) and spend less than half as much per person as households with sufficient access ($9.90 compared to $19.56).

Source: USDA, 10/17, Grocery Store Access

2017 Fall Newsletter

Check out our fall newsletter to see how our community is working together in support of Foodshare's mission!

23rd Annual HOG Turkey Run

Please join us on Sunday, October 29th for the 23rd Annual HOG Turkey Run sponsored by the Hartford Harley Owners Group (HOG) and Gengras Harley Davidson!

This innovative turkey drive will kick-off our 2017 Turkey and Thirty Campaign. Interested riders can register at Gengras Harley Davidson in East Hartford from 10-11:45 am.  At 12:00 pm police will escort all riders from Gengras Harley Davidson to Foodshare in Bloomfield followed by lunch at Salute. The cost is one frozen turkey per person or $30 per bike. All checks should be made out to Foodshare.

SNAP Helps Cut Child Poverty in Half

Thanks to government programs, the child poverty rate fell to a record low of 15.6% in 2016, a little more than half its 1967 level of 28.4%.  Data incorporating the Supplemental Poverty Measure (which counts the income that the SNAP, rental subsidies, and other federal non-cash benefits and tax credits provide) show that the drop is largely attributable to safety net programs, particularly SNAP and refundable tax credits for earned income and child care.

This improvement has benefited all demographic groups.  Between 1991 and 2016, SPM poverty rates among black, Hispanic, and non-Hispanic white children were all cut roughly in half.  When poverty is measured without counting safety net income, child poverty is only modestly lower than it was in the 1960s.

Source: Center on Budget & Policy Priorities, 10/5/17, Child Poverty

Food Insecurity Tied To Chronic Disease

USDA researchers recently used health, demographic, and food security information to look closely at the relationship between 10 chronic diseases in low-income working-age adults and the food security status of their households. They made two striking findings. First, they found differences in adult health across four levels of food security ranging from high to very low food security.

This finding is important because it suggests that food security status tracks closely with health. For example, the predicted probability of hypertension for low-income working-age adults living in a household experiencing very low food security was 10.5 percentage points higher than for those in high food-secure households, while in low-income households with marginal and low food-security, the predicted probability of hypertension was 3.5 and 5.4 percentage points, respectively, higher than in high food-secure households.  Second, researchers found similar differences for all of the health conditions they examined—hypertension, coronary heart disease, hepatitis, stroke, cancer, asthma, diabetes, arthritis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and kidney disease. In all cases, the likelihood of having the particular health condition increased as household food security worsened.

Source: USDA, 10/2/17, Food Insecurity & Chronic Disease

SNAP May Be Best Path To Seniors' Health

A recent study demonstrated that access to SNAP results in fewer hospital and nursing home admissions. Researchers studied the entire population of 69,000 Maryland seniors who are on both Medicaid and Medicare (known as “dual eligibles”).

The results were remarkable. Access to SNAP reduced a senior’s likelihood of admission into a hospital by 14% and reduced the likelihood of entrance into a nursing home by 23%. The study also found that the more SNAP dollars seniors received for healthy food, the lower the odds they would have to spend additional days in a hospital and nursing home. And, because connecting seniors to SNAP results in lower healthcare utilization and better health, it also leads to health care savings. The researchers estimated that connecting dual eligibles to SNAP delivers $2,100 in annual health care savings per senior enrolled.

Source: Philly.com, 9/26/17, SNAP Benefits Seniors

20th Annual Empty Bowls

The 20th Annual Empty Bowls event is scheduled for Saturday, October 21st from  
11 am to 3 pm.

 A special thank you to Manchester Community College Culinary Arts Center for once again hosting this amazing event!

Empty Bowls is an international grassroots effort to fight hunger. Potters and other craftspeople work with the community to create handcrafted bowls and guests are invited to a simple meal of soup and bread. In exchange for a cash donation, guests will get to keep the handcrafted bowl as a reminder of all the empty bowls in the world.

100% of donations will benefit Foodshare!