More Lower Income Americans Worried About Hunger

Over the past two years, an average of 67% of lower-income U.S. adults, have worried "a great deal" about the problem of hunger and homelessness in the United States. Concern has also increased among middle- and upper-income Americans, but they still worry far less than do lower-income Americans.

Overall, 47% of Americans now worry about hunger and homelessness "a great deal," according to a March Gallup poll. Concern about hunger and homelessness now rank as high as, or higher than, concern about most other issues Gallup tested in its annual survey.

Source: Gallup, 3/30/17, Hunger Worries

Teens Go Hungry In Food Insecure Families

In extremely poor American families, teens go hungry more often than younger children, a new study finds. Parents will first forgo food themselves to feed their kids. But if there still isn't enough food for everyone, younger children take priority over teens, the research shows.

Researchers said about 6% of kids who were 11 years old or younger weren't getting enough to eat, and 12% of those aged 12 to 18 regularly went hungry. Of those older children, 14% of boys didn't get enough food, compared to 10% of girls.

Source: UPI, 2/15/17, Hungry Teens

High Rates of Poverty and Income Inequality Within U.S

A recent study from the Population Reference Bureau has revealed that there has been a dramatic increase in both inequality and poverty, throughout the entire United States for the past two and a half decades.

"Today, 41 percent of U.S. counties suffer from high levels of combined poverty and income inequality, up from just 29 percent back in 1989. Only 28 percent of counties have low levels of poverty and low levels of inequality. In other words, more than 70 percent of counties have either high levels of inequality, high levels of poverty, or both."

Source: City Lab,1/3/17  View Article >

Harvard Seeks to Eliminate the Stigmas of Poverty

A recent international panel came together at Harvard’s Center for European Studies for a two-day workshop that examined how different forms of exclusion contribute to the spread of poverty, and how social, political, and economic inclusion may reduce it. A key issue is how the poor are stigmatized, and how that itself fosters poverty.

Check out the full article in the Harvard Gazette >

Farm To School Flourishing

October is National Farm to School Month. By incorporating local foods, farm to school programs help school meal programs fulfill the updated nutrition standards with appealing and diverse offerings. The recent 2015 USDA Farm to School Census shows farm to school programs now exist in every state in the nation and in every type of school district – large and small, rural and urban alike. The census found that strong farm to school programs can increase the number of students buying school meals, improve consumption of healthier foods at school, and reduce plate waste.

Equally important, millions of children are learning about where their food comes from and being exposed to lessons about healthy eating. USDA’s Farm to School Grant Program annually provides competitive grants up to $5 million for training, operational support, planning, purchasing equipment, developing school gardens, developing partnerships, and implementing farm to school programs. It is currently accepting applications for FY 2017 grants.

Source: USDA, 10/3/16,  View Article...

U.S. SNAP Numbers Drop Dramatically

Nationally, SNAP participation averaged 43,478,196 people in May 2016, a decrease of over 2 million or 4.6% since May 2015. This is the lowest SNAP national participation level since October 2010. In Connecticut, about 22,000 fewer people received SNAP in May 2016 compared to May 2015, a 2.8% drop. Over the past five years, though, SNAP participation in Connecticut has grown by 12%, among the highest growth rates in the nation.

Source: Food Research & Action Council, 8/11/16, SNAP Participation

New findings on food insecurity and children

Much recent research links food insecurity with negative outcomes for children’s health, education, and other areas. Other research shows that programs like SNAP can have large and long-lasting benefits, especially when the benefits are received by mothers during pregnancy and by children at a young age.

A recent study that examines the impact of the rollout of the original Food Stamp Program in the late 1960s shows that receiving Food Stamps during pregnancy reduced the incidence of low birth weight by between five and 12%. The same researchers also found that among adults who grew up in disadvantaged households, access to Food Stamps in utero and early childhood led to: a 16 percentage-point decline in the likelihood of being obese as an adult and significant reductions in metabolic syndrome (a cluster of conditions associated with heart disease and diabetes); an 18 percentage-point increase in the likelihood of completing high school; and significant improvements in overall health and economic self-sufficiency among women.

Source: Food Research & Action Council, 8/3/16, Food Insecurity Research

Improving health, while cutting costs

Patients’ social and economic circumstances powerfully influence their health and well-being. But until recently there’s been relatively little effort to systematically address these factors. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, a government organization established by the Affordable Care Act, is trying to change that. It recently announced a pilot program to help health systems close gaps between medical care and social services in their communities.

The program, known as Accountable Health Communities, will invest $157 million over five years to study whether helping patients with social needs in five key areas—housing, food, utilities, transportation, and interpersonal safety—can improve health and reduce medical costs.There’s good evidence that social support can improve health and cut costs. Research suggests nutrition assistance for low-income women and children reduces the risk of low birth weight, infant mortality, and developmental problems—at a cost that’s more than fully offset by lower Medicaid spending. Other work suggests providing elderly patients with home-delivered meals can help them live independently and prevent expensive nursing home stays.

The program will award grants to 44 organizations around the country to build partnerships among state Medicaid agencies, health systems, and community service providers to identify which strategies are most effective for linking patients to the services they need.

Source: New York Times, 7/20/16, Food for Health

Hunger touches every county in U.S.

USDA reports that more than 48 million people in America—including 15 million children—are food-insecure. On average, the food-insecurity rate among the nation’s 3,142 counties is 14.7% (even higher for children).

Food insecurity ranged from a high of 38% in Jefferson County, Mississippi to a low of 4% in Loudoun County, Virginia where median household income at nearly $124,000 per year. Currently, here in Connecticut 1 in 8 people struggle with food insecurity.

According to USDA 353 counties struggle with “persistent poverty,” where at least 20% of the population has been living in poverty for 30 years. There is a significant overlap between these counties and those that fall into the top 10% percent for food insecurity nationwide: of the latter, nearly two-thirds suffer from persistent-poverty. Moreover, hunger doesn’t necessarily stop once someone is above the SNAP income eligibility threshold--185% of the poverty level. In fact, more than a quarter of all food-insecure people live in such households. There are now 115 counties where the majority of food-insecure individuals are likely ineligible for most federal nutrition assistance programs based on their household income.

Source: Talk Poverty, 8/3/16, Widespread Hunger

Study: 1 in 6 Americans reported not having money to buy food in 2015

America is making headway in addressing food hardship, but one in six respondents to a recent Gallup poll answered “yes” when asked if there had been a time in the past 12 months where they didn’t have enough money to buy food.

That’s according to the Food Action & Research Center’s “How Hungry Is America” report, which found 16 percent of Americans answering the survey answered yes, a drop of nearly 3 percent from 2008.

While the improvement is welcome, that still means millions of Americans are without the resources to feed their families.

“It’s good to see progress, but the food hardship rate is still unacceptable,” FRAC president Jim Weill said in a news release announcing the findings. “The data in this report represent an economic and political failure that is leaving tens of millions of Americans struggling with hunger, and this struggle is happening in every community in America. We must redouble our efforts to ensure no American is left behind.”

In Connecticut, according to the FRAC study, the food hardship rate was 13.5 percent in 2015, ranking the state 39th out of 50 and below the national average.

The study also produced food hardship rates for the largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas – the population centers established by the U.S. Census. According to the study, the Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford MSA had a food hardship rate of 15.1, placing it 72nd overall among 104 MSAs.

Report: Food Insecurity Among Seniors On The Rise

The number of senior citizens facing food insecurity – the threat of hunger – has skyrocketed since the economic downturn of 2007-08 and affects 1 in 6 American  seniors, according to 2014 figures reported this month by a pair of university professors.

The report, commissioned by the National Foundation to End Senior Hunger,  found that 15.8 percent of Americans ages 60 and older faced the threat of hunger in 2014, according to data from the U.S. Census Current Population Survey. That translates to 10.8 million seniors facing food insecurity – an  increase of 600,000 seniors over 2013 figures.

Racial or ethnic minorities, residents of the South and Southwest, those with lower incomes, and younger seniors (ages 60-69) were most likely to be facing hunger, according to the report.  However, the majority of seniors facing the threat of hunger were white and had incomes above the poverty line, the report said.

According to the report, an estimated 15.43 percent of Connecticut seniors  ages 60 and faced the threat of hunger in 2014. Regionally, Massachusetts had the lowest rate of senior food insecurity, at 9.87 percent, while New York had the highest rate, at 19.28 percent.

The percentage of American seniors facing food insecurity increased 47 percent from 2001-2014, and a stunning 65 percent from the start of the Great Recession in 2007 to 2014, according to the report.  That’s among a senior population that increased by 119 percent since 2001.

The report was written by James P. Ziliak, a professor at the University of Kentucky, and Craig Gundersen, a professor at the University of Illinois. It’s the latest in a series of studies by the two professors researching levels of food insecurity among senior citizens. The findings are calculated based on responses to the core food security module (CFSM) within the Current Population Survey.

Eliminating Hurdles to Summer Meals

The National School Lunch Program reached 22 million school-aged children with free or reduced-price lunches in 2015.

But what happens to all those children when the school doors close?

The Urban Institute reports that about 2.6 million children take part in the Summer Food Service Program. That means the program is reaching a little more than 1 in 10 of the children eligible for the benefit. Several barriers are getting in the way nationally: Limited eligibility for parents and caregivers, the lack of sponsorship and suitable program sites; lack of transportation in rural areas, and older kids being embarrassed to be seen receiving free meals are all hurdles to delivering the benefit to children in need.

The result? Higher rates of food insecurity during summer months. And a 2007 study published in the American Journal of Public Health suggests that children are more vulnerable to obesity during the summer months, as families turn to cheaper and less-nutritious food to stretch limited dollars.

To fight this trend, the Urban Institute reports, agencies are thinking outside the lunchbox to reach children facing food insecurity over the summer.

One demonstration project by the USDA that provides SNAP assistance benefits via electronic cards has shown promise in reducing food insecurity. The Obama administration has proposed phasing in this approach in the Fiscal 2017 federal budget, but lack of cooperation from Congress could derail the plan.

Another three-year pilot program launched by Feeding America and funded by the ConAgra Foods Foundation is bringing separate agencies and stakeholders together during the summer months. For example, a food bank in greater Cincinnati is working with partner agencies to create a culinary summer camp that provides teens with seasonal jobs and programs teaching younger kids about healthy eating and cooking skills.

Modernizing SNAP Benefits

SNAP benefit levels are “based on increasingly outdated assumptions, including unreasonable expectations about households’ availability of time to prepare food, and need to be modernized,” a new paper explains. It calls for a 20% benefit increase in the short term and more research to modernize the Thrifty Food Plan (TFP) — the estimate of a bare-bones, nutritionally adequate diet that USDA uses to calculate SNAP benefits. The cost of the TFP, which hasn’t been updated to reflect changes in dietary recommendations since the 1970s, “assumes that low-income households can spend an unlimited amount of time preparing food from scratch and has consequently shifted toward the food items that are lowest cost but most time-intensive,” according to the paper.

Source: Center for Budget & Policy Priorities, 5/25/16, SNAP

Growing up hungry may lead to obesity

How much you eat when you're not really hungry may depend on how well off your family was when you were a child, according to new research. Previous research has established childhood poverty as a risk factor for obesity, but the mechanisms driving this relationship are not completely clear. New research shows that growing up poor promotes eating in the absence of hunger in adulthood, regardless of one’s wealth in adulthood. This biological blueprint would help children survive in impoverished environments, leading them to seek out food whenever it is available, and would continue to drive their behavior as they aged, regardless of whether their access to food had improved.

Source: Science Daily, 2/4/16, Obesity/Poverty Connection

Low Wages Jeopardize Childrens' Success

For many low-wage working parents, the conditions of their jobs effectively set them up to fail: meeting both their work and family obligations becomes an impossible juggling act. And too often, parents’ low wages and work conditions undermine their children’s chances for success as well, despite parents’ best efforts.

Research shows that the achievement gaps between poor and low-income children and their higher-income peers emerge in the earliest years of life, can persist and even widen throughout childhood. Other features of low-wage work that increase parents’ stress—including nonstandard and constantly fluctuating work hours, rigid attendance policies, and a lack of any paid time off—can also adversely affect children’s development. A new report, Set Up to Fail, draws on academic and policy research and parents’ own stories to describe the interconnected challenges they face.

Source: National Women’s Law Center, 1/28/16, Parents' Challenges

Tracking hunger in America

Since 1995, USDA has monitored the food security of U.S. households through an annual, nationally representative survey. In addition to publishing reports on its findings, the agency has produced a set of graphics that illustrate current data and trends dealing with the prevalence of food insecurity, food insecurity rates by demographic, and spending on federal food aid, among other topics.

Among the most interesting is one showing a decline in food insecurity across the country between 2011-2014. Now let's make sure the trend continues!

The Cost of Hunger

Did you know?

Hunger and food insecurity cost Americans over $160 billion in 2014, according to a new report from the Bread for the World Institute. According to the researchers, most of that price tag was attributable to health conditions related to living in a food-insecure household, such as depression, anemia, or diabetes. Treatment of depression and anxiety cost over $50 billion, while additional neonatal and adult hospital stays cost about $17 billion.

Source: Bread for the World Institute, 1/16, Hunger Costs

Low Wages Major Cause of Hunger

Low wages, followed by poverty and high housing costs were the chief causes of hunger citied by officials in the 22 cities surveyed in the U.S. Conference of Mayors 33rd annual assessment of hunger and homelessness. Two-thirds of the cities reported increased requests for emergency food assistance this year over last. People in families represented 67% of those who asked for emergency food, 42% were employed, 23% were elderly, and 10% were homeless. Despite increasing their budgets for emergency food assistance by 7.2%, in nearly half the 22 reporting cities, emergency kitchens and food pantries had to reduce the quantity of food they could offer, and in over half, facilities had to turn away people because they lacked resources. The reporting cities also estimated that 23% of the demand for emergency food help was unmet.

Source: U.S. Conference of Mayors, 12/22/15, Hunger in Cities

Hunger on College Campuses

Recent research on hunger at colleges suggests that more than half of all community-college students struggle with food insecurity. A University of Wisconsin professor of education policy and sociology last year surveyed 4,000 students at 10 community colleges across the country. Roughly half—52%—of the respondents reported marginal to very low food security. Specifically, one in five respondents had very low food security; 22% indicated that they had cut the size of their meals or skipped meals and were hungry because they didn’t have enough money for food. The professor also tracked 50 students over six years. She found that two types of students struggle with food insecurity. The first group lived in poverty before they began college; hunger and poverty is a preexisting condition for them. The second includes lower-middle class students who were forced to deal with food insecurity for the first time by their college expenses.

Source: Atlantic, 1/14/16, Hunger at College

National Commission recommends ways to improve SNAP

The National Commission on Hunger issued it final report to Congress at the end of 2015. Ten of its numerous recommendations, with accompanying action items, focused on SNAP:

1. Encourage a greater focus on job placement, job training, and career development among SNAP recipients, and ensure necessary supports and infrastructure to facilitate finding work.
2. Ensure SNAP eligibility encourages work by improving responsiveness to earned-income fluctuations.
3. Encourage the use of financial incentives to SNAP recipients to facilitate the purchase of fruits, vegetables, high-quality proteins, whole grains, and other healthy foods.
4. Exclude a carefully defined class of sugar-sweetened beverages from the list of allowable purchases with SNAP benefits.
5. Use evidence-based product placement strategies that encourage purchase of healthy products with SNAP benefits, and tie it to SNAP eligibility for stores.
6. Reform SNAP Nutrition Education (SNAP-Ed) to ensure that efforts are likely to lead to measurable improvements in the health of SNAP recipients.
7. Continue to promote and facilitate greater coordination of means-tested programs across federal and state agencies and provide state incentives for establishing a “no wrong door” approach between SNAP and non-nutrition family support programs.
8. The USDA should use its current flexibility to the greatest extent possible to support state innovations that would help clients to become more food secure and more self-sufficient, and should approve or disapprove these requests within 90 days of submission.
9. Create mechanisms for improved training for front-line SNAP caseworkers to maintain a customer service perspective that facilitates best practices of case management.
10. Support the wellbeing of families that have members who serve or have served in the U.S. Military.

Source: National Commission on Hunger, 12/15, Final Report; American Enterprise Institute, 1/7/16, A Conservative's Viewpoint