*The following updates Dr. Cabrera's statement of August 6.
Within the past week, both houses of Congress passed legislation that will rob the Food Stamp Program (SNAP) of billions of dollars in order to provide aid for Medicaid and education programs. A Senate vote to reduce food stamp benefits by billions more to pay for child nutrition programs now awaits approval by the House. It is regrettable that these votes are being touted as a victory.
There is no question that our health care, education and child nutrition programs need adequate funding. But our public health care system, public education system and food stamps all serve the same population, and by taking money away from any one of these programs to fund another, Congress is playing a shell game that low-income Americans will always lose.
In fact, Congress is undermining its own goals: a person will not remain in good health if he or she cannot afford a healthy diet; and a child who goes to school hungry will not learn. Low-income families struggling to put food on the table will only find themselves one step closer to a food pantry or soup kitchen door at a time when emergency food resources are already scarce.
Funding services at the expense of those most in need cannot be the answer. It is the worst example of robbing Peter to pay Paul. While it is imperative that Congress find funding for health care programs, public schools and nutrition assistance programs, this funding must not come from other programs and services low-income people rely on. Congress must rectify these misguided funding proposals immediately.
Last year, more than 700 New York City public school classrooms participated in CookShop Classroom. the Food Bank’s federally funded nutrition education program for elementary-school students. Recently, one CookShop classroom in Brooklyn was featured in a report by a major international news network!
The report by Al Jazeera English shows how CookShop uses hands-on activities to get young children excited about eating nutritious foods, especially in low-income neighborhoods where access to healthy food is scarce. CookShop gives students the nutrition information and food-preparation skills to make healthy food choices on their own, and also offers complementary programming for parents and caregivers.
All of the training, materials, food and support needed to implement CookShop are provided to eligible public elementary schools free of charge. In a survey last year, 92 percent of participating New York City public school teachers said their students were making healthier food choices because of CookShop.
The Food Bank thanks PS 133K, the William Butler Academy, for being an outstanding CookShop school. Interested in bringing CookShop to your school? Learn more about the program and download an application!
Check out this video to see what makes CookShop so exciting:
Based on its performance in the past two censuses, New York State lost five seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding. If we want our fair share of resources — and the right information to use them wisely — we must improve our participation in the 2010 U.S. Census.
“We cannot afford for New York to be undercounted,” said New York Congressman Joseph Crowley at an event in his Queens district last week.
Census data is critically important. Demographic information informs government decisions about where to build things like new hospitals, schools and roads. Census data is used to calculate the number of delegates each state gets in the U.S. House of Representatives and to determine representation in state and city legislatures.
Completing the census is simple and safe. It includes just 10 questions, takes 10 minutes or less to complete and is completely confidential: by law, individual responses cannot be shared with other federal agencies or used against respondents by any government agency or court.
Questionnaires were mailed out last month, and officials are hoping most people will submit their forms by April 15 — TODAY! This will reduce the need for census takers to collect responses door-to-door in May.
But so far, the outlook is grim. As of April 12, just half of households in Queens had turned in their forms, and only 53 percent of Bronx households had done so, U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) wrote in an article for The Huffington Post. Just 31 percent of Williamsburg, Brooklyn residents had turned in their forms by April 8, according to The New York Times.
These three boroughs were among the worst-counted places in the country in 2000. Citywide, only 55 percent of residents submitted their census forms — less than 12 percent of the national average.
So this year, let’s get counted, New York! Below are resources you can use to participate in the census yourself, or to encourage others to do so.
In two weeks, on April 23, National Geographic is airing a documentary called Taking on New York about two Kenyan men from the Maasai and Sambutu tribes who come to New York City to learn more about the modern world. As National Geographic describes the special…
As the modern world begins to encroach on the Maasai and Samburu way of life, there is concern they are in danger of losing their traditions. The younger generation is being tempted to leave the villages for the promise of jobs and money in the cities. Best friends and fierce warriors, Lemarti Loyaban and Boniface Kandari decided that rather than fear the modern world, they needed to understand it. So with the elders' blessing, they traveled to the New York on a voyage of discovery — to learn and try to understand the modern world by immersing themselves into New York culture. They were also here to represent the Maasai and Samburu tribes and to try and cross the cultural divide.
Last October, Lemarti and Boniface spent an extraordinary afternoon volunteering at the the Food Bank's Community Kitchen & Food Pantry of West Harlem (extraordinary for them and for everyone at the Kitchen). As you can imagine, they had many questions, among them: “Why do you build buildings that don’t let the sun in…and why do onions make me cry.”
In a follow up note from their producer, we were told that “their favorite part of ALL the shooting period was... the time that they spent with your organization because they saw the great work that was being carried out. I think that the few hours they spent with you has really stayed with them.”
The recession is not likely to end any time soon for most New Yorkers.
This month the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the January unemployment rate in New York City was 10.4 percent (almost 412,802 people) — more than double the city’s 4.8 percent unemployment rate at the start of the recession, and higher than the current national rate of 9.7 percent (14.9 million people).
And these figures don’t even include workers who are unemployed but have not looked for a job in the past four weeks or underemployed workers who are seeking full-time work but were forced to take a part-time job. If these groups were included, the US’s total unemployment rolls would include 26.2 million people.
As a result, more people are now trying to fill fewer and fewer jobs. Analysis conducted by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) found there are now 5.4 workers for every job opening, up from 1.7 at the start of the recession. That means the length of time workers are unemployed is also rising: laid-off workers now spend more time unemployed than at any other time on record — a median of almost five months.
Higher rates of unemployment and poverty mean more people will be forced to choose between food or rent, utilities and other necessities when allocating scarce dollars. January is the sixth, consecutive month of double-digit unemployment in our city, and local soup kitchens and food pantries are already feeling the effects: in the past year, more than 90 percent of our city’s emergency food programs have reported an increase in the number of people seeking assistance.
Alleviating hunger caused by high unemployment in New York City will require the preservation — even the expansion — of safety nets like the city’s Emergency Food Assistance Program (EFAP), which provides food to hundreds of soup kitchens and food pantries.
It will require the implementation of policies like Universal School Meals, which help more children from low-income families gain access to needed food while creating jobs in school kitchens and cafeterias.
And it will require the implementation of sustainable solutions — a living wage, more affordable housing and lower health care costs — that would help struggling families afford food, even during difficult times.
Some powerful New York officials are throwing their weight behind a proposed soda tax, arguing the added cost — an extra penny per ounce — will deter consumption, fight obesity and reduce health care costs.
The New York Timeseditorial board also supports the tax, saying it would help limit soda intake in low-income neighborhoods where diet-related diseases are particularly prevalent.
But the dearth of choices is just the point. The reason low-income consumers disproportionately suffer from obesity, diabetes and other diet-related diseases is that soft drinks, fast food and other foods and beverages high in added sugars and fats are cheaper and more readily available than healthier alternatives.
The soda tax might make the sugary drinks less appealing, but it would do nothing to lower the cost of healthy alternatives like milk or vitamin-rich juices, nor improve food access in neighborhoods without supermarkets or grocery stores.
In other words, the regressive soda tax supported by Governor Paterson and Mayor Bloomberg would punish low-income families for buying soda without offering better alternatives. Meanwhile, the tax will cut into families’ limited food dollars, making it even harder to afford healthy foods like fruit, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat dairy products and legumes.
Both the Governor and Mayor note the tax will create an important revenue stream during the ongoing fiscal crisis. We are sensitive to this need — particularly since Mayor Bloomberg has threatened, in response to proposed state budget cuts, to eliminate all city funding for emergency food assistance.
And helping people make healthy diet choices is an important part of the Food Bank’s work. CookShop, our nutrition and health education program, teaches more than 15,000 New Yorkers of all ages about how to read food labels and make healthy, cost-effective food purchases. Our social marketing campaign, which reaches more than 100,000 low-income teens, urges them to “Change One Thing,” swapping junk food for healthy alternatives — and specifically encouraging a switch to water from sugary drinks.
While we applaud public officials’ desire to fight diet-related disease and steer consumers away from soda, we urge them to do so by expanding poor consumers’ options, not limiting them.
Existing programs like the FRESH (Food Retail Expansion to Support Health) initiative would provide incentives for supermarkets and grocery stores to open and expand in high-need neighborhoods — and require them to accept food stamps and WIC benefits to ensure they remain affordable and accessible to low-income consumers. New York’s Healthy Food/Healthy Communities Initiative would help finance store improvements to increase capacity for sales of fresh, healthy food.
Measures like these, which lift barriers, expand choice and empower individuals, should be the approach of all food policy — not programs that hurt the people they aim to help.
Food Bank For New York City continually works to raise awareness and support for hunger relief through media outreach and information sharing. Here are highlights of the recent stories that have featured the Food Bank:
NY1, “Food Bank Offers Free Tax Help As Uncle Sam Offers Sizable Tax Credit”
With tax season officially in full swing, the Food Bank For New York City, elected official and government agencies join forces to make sure New Yorkers get back every penny they deserve…read more[Includes VIDEO]
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, “Free Tax Site Helps Brooklynites File for EITC Credits”
The Food Bank partners with the Brooklyn Community Foundation and Capital One Bank to provide tax assistance for the working poor in northern Brooklyn as part of our Tax Assistance Program...read more
The Huffington Post, “My 2010 Wish List for NYC”
Gordon Campbell, President and CEO of United Way NYC, brings in the New Year with a loud cheer and his recommendations of achievable goals for 2010 that will help low-income New Yorkers…read more
The Economist, Letter to the Editor
Food Bank For New York City President and CEO Lucy Cabrera responds to “The Big Apple Is Hungry,” published in January 2010 by The Economist…read more
The Packer, “Produce Industry Contributes Heavily to Feeding New York’s Hungry” The Packer — the leading source of news for the fresh fruit and vegetable industry — explores the Food Bank’s food distribution efforts, which provided more than 13 million pounds of fresh produce for New Yorkers in need in fiscal year 2009…read more
Former President Bill Clinton speaking at the Food Bank's 2009 Can-Do Awards Dinner; photo by Tran Dinh
Here at the Food Bank, we work to improve child nutrition because we know kids’ food choices can have lifelong health effects. Last week, at a press conference in Harlem, former President Bill Clinton said he learned that lesson the hard way.
We’re working to meet similar goals through programs like CookShop, which encourages the development of healthy diets among New York City students and their families, as well as community outreach and advocacy on issues like universal school meals.
With work like ours — and similar efforts from a dynamic duo like the former president and the current first lady — maybe we can protect more children from the outcomes of poor nutrition.
Congressman Charles Rangel shows his support for strong student leadership as he chats with students trained as tax preparers from Frederick Douglass Academy and Rice High School.
Our free tax services can constitute a significant step from food poverty toward self-sufficiency.
Food Bank Board Chair Rev. Henry Belin hosted our special guest speakers at the kickoff event and emphasized the importance of community support for the program.
Then, on February 18, the Food Bank, Capital One Bank and the Brooklyn Community Foundation joined forces to bring attention to the program at the Fulton Street Capital One, where our program provides tax assistance for the northern Brooklyn community. Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz joined Fran Freedman, LMSW, Deputy Commissioner, External Affairs NYC Department of Consumer Affairs; our Vice President of Agency Resources & Benefit Access Carlos Rodriguez and Capital One’s Brooklyn Market President B.J. Duffy to extol the benefits of free tax assistance.
The Food Bank’s Tax Assistance Program provides low-income New Yorkers with free tax preparation services as well as information on how to access the various credits they are entitled to – including the Earned Income Tax Credit , a key piece of the public safety net for the working poor. One of the largest programs of its type in the country, the Food Bank's Tax Assistance Program has completed up to 50,000 tax returns for low- to moderate-income New Yorkers annually — helping to provide as much as $100 million in tax refunds.
If you think you may be eligible for EITC, use Intuit’s free EITC calculator today. For a listing of the Food Bank’s Tax Assistance Program sites, click here.
Our advocacy page contains up-to-date information on ways members of the public can help protect this vital program, including contact information for key elected officials and talking points people can use to help convince them that cutting funding for emergency food is the wrong way to plug the city’s budget gap.
For example, EFAP represents just 0.017 percent of the city budget — a tiny amount that supports hundreds of local food pantries and soup kitchens.
And even with EFAP funding, almost half the city's soup kitchens and food pantries had to turn hungry people away last year. With local unemployment now over 10 percent, the number of people needing help is expected to grow.
What are your reasons for protecting EFAP? Share your thoughts and help spread the word!
There is no question that our health care, education and child nutrition programs need adequate funding. But our public health care system, public education system and food stamps all serve the same population, and by taking money away from any one of these programs to fund another, Congress is playing a shell game that low-income Americans will always lose.
Last October, Lemarti and Boniface spent an extraordinary afternoon 
As we 
