By Triada Stampas,

Right now, Congress is considering legislation that would cut off a critical source of support provided by the Child Tax Credit to our most vulnerable working families.

At a time when one in five children relies on soup kitchens and food pantries in NYC, this legislation would

Cash refunds received by tax-paying immigrants through the Child Tax Credit help some of our most vulnerable families keep food no the table. Act now >

More than half of low-income households with children in New York City struggle to afford food. Last year, ITIN filers who accessed the Food Bank’s Free Income Tax Services had an average household income of $10,800 and received, on average, $1,160 in Child Tax Credits — a significant boost for low-income working people struggling to raise children in New York City.

Simply put, the Child Tax Credit helps keep food on the table for working families. The decision is now in the hands of a Congressional “conference committee” of House and Senate members — and their decision is expected soon! 

Tell Congress: Protect the Child Tax Credit. Protect our most vulnerable children.

By Triada Stampas,

In his State of the State address, Governor Andrew Cuomo called for New York City to end the practice of finger-imaging for food stamps — a practice that stigmatizes the program and acts as a barrier to participation.

Throughout the U.S., only New York City and the state of Arizona continue to require finger-imaging, as other cost-effective, reliable fraud detection and prevention methods are in use in New York State and across the country.

With such great need in New York — nearly three million people struggle to afford food in NYC alone — and with alternate measures readily available, our neighbors cannot wait any longer for this stigmatizing and burdensome requirement to end.

With the Governor's recent statements, an end to this practice is finally in sight. We hope you will join us in our call to Albany: Let's end finger-imaging for all food stamp applicants NOW! Please act today!
 

By Triada Stampas,

This past Wednesday, Governor Andrew Cuomo delivered his second State of the State address. After a year when critical anti-hunger programs have been under threat at the national level, I was overjoyed to hear the governor highlight child hunger and speak out forcefully for expanding access to the food stamp program (SNAP) by removing barriers to participation and eliminating stigma — including ending the practice of finger-imaging.

In New York City, 76 percent of all households with children struggle to afford food.

“For all of our progress, there are still basic wrongs to right. There is never an excuse for letting any child in New York go to bed hungry. Statewide, 1 in 6 children live in homes without enough food on the table. Yet 30 percent of New Yorkers eligible for food stamps — over 1.4 million people — do not receive them, leaving over $1 billion in federal funds unclaimed every year.

“We must increase participation in the food stamp program, remove barriers to participation and eliminate the stigma associated with this program. And we must stop fingerprinting for food. No child should go hungry in the great State of New York and we will do all that we can to prevent it.”

In addition, Governor Cuomo called for a number of other initiatives that will help those we serve, including:

• improving food access in food deserts;
• foreclosure relief and tenant protection;
• setting up a health insurance exchange to provide more New Yorkers with insurance and lessen healthcare costs; and
• reducing (or, for some, eliminating) the state income tax burden on low-income New Yorkers.

It will take a lot of work to make all of this happen. But the fact that these issues all made it into this year’s address means that these are the items Governor Cuomo has pledged to prioritize and devote resources to seeing done.

We don’t see this happen every day, and we will be doing everything we can in the coming months and year to help make sure that true progress is made.

Last week, the Super-committee failed to reach agreement on a deficit reduction plan, which will result in over one trillion dollars in federal budget cuts across-the-board, including an estimated five billion dollars out of the New York State budget over the next ten years. Although substantial components of the hunger safety net will be exempt, deep cuts in other areas are likely to increase the need for emergency food. With emergency food organizations already struggling to meet need this holiday season, Governor Cuomo announced $1 million in grants to New York State’s food banks and launched a state-wide initiative urging businesses to give directly to food banks during the holidays. The New York City Council held its annual oversight hearing on hunger in New York City, focusing on finger-imaging for food-stamp applicants, which only New York City and the state of Arizona require. And the Census Bureau released sobering statistics indicating one in five U.S. children now live in poverty.

For Deficit Panel, Failure Cuts Two Ways, The New York Times, 11/21
The latest Congressional failure to agree on a plan for balancing the government’s books could yield a surprising result: a sharp reduction in annual federal deficits, larger than anything contemplated by the special panel that reached its fruitless finale on Monday. But the absence of an agreement also threatens to significantly slow growth in an already ailing economy by raising taxes on almost everyone while reducing government spending on almost everything.

Soup Kitchens and Pantries Struggle to Feed Hungry New Yorkers, DNA Info, 11/21
Many soup kitchens and food pantries across the city have been struggling to meet expanding demands while their budgets are shrinking. They’re bracing for the possibility of more cuts on the horizon. The Food Bank for New York, which distributes food to a network of roughly 1,000 local programs citywide, said this summer saw several emergency food providers having to temporarily close their doors. The organization is worried that food assistance could be slashed even more by a special Congressional committee on deficit reduction, which is supposed to vote Wednesday on ways to cut $1.2 trillion from the federal government over 10 years.

NY launches food bank funding drive, Associated Press, 11/24
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is launching "Help Your Neighbor," a statewide initiative to urge businesses and New Yorkers to give directly to regional food banks this holiday season. Cuomo also says $1 million in grants will be given to eight food banks across the state and an additional $620,000 in grants for emergency food relief organizations in communities hit by recent flooding and storms. The "Help Your Neighbor" initiative encourages New Yorkers and businesses to donate resources to help restock and fill the shelves of food banks. As a result of bad weather this year, some New York farms have struggled to provide to food banks. Additionally, Cuomo says, some donors have scaled back their giving due to tough economic conditions.

The city defends a finger-imaging requirement for food-stamp applicants, Capital NY,11/22
The Bloomberg administration's practice of requiring food-stamp applicants to be fingerprinted isn't a common one. The only other jurisdiction in America that imposes the same requirement, at the moment, is the state of Arizona. The application process for food stamps In New York City isn't terribly simple to begin with. And the finger-imaging requirement is being imposed as the need for food stamps increases, with one in five New Yorkers, and one in three children, now living in poverty.

More than 1 in 5 U.S. children poor, Census says, Reuters, 11/18
The number of children in the United States considered poor rose by 1 million in 2010, the U.S. Census said on Thursday, with more than one in five of the youngest Americans now living in poverty. "Children who live in poverty, especially young children, are more likely than their peers to have cognitive and behavioral difficulties, to complete fewer years of education, and, as they grow up, to experience more years of unemployment," the Census said.

This week, Food Bank CEO Margarette Purvis talked about our city's childhood obesity problem in the Huffington Post, census data showed a record high percentage of Americans are now living in poverty, and President Obama continues to strategize passing his jobs proposals — all while the deficit “supercommittee” in Washington attempts to resolve our nation’s budget deficit. Under the threat of federal funding cuts, local organizations like Food Bank network member Project Hospitality in Staten Island are already struggling to keep pantry shelves full for neighbors in need. One bright spot, however: nutrition education programs like the Food Bank’s CookShop are empowering low-income children and families in New York City to make healthy food choices.

Beyond the Grocery Store...Teaching Children Where Their Food Comes From, The Huffington Post, 11/1
It's no secret that New York City has a major problem with childhood obesity. On the national stage, Michelle Obama's Let's Move initiative, Rachael Ray's Yum-o! and the Alliance for a Healthier Generation are all shining a light on the nation's alarmingly high rates of childhood obesity while advocating for nutrition education as a way to empowering kids to make healthier choices. And right here in New York City, nutrition education programs like the Food Bank's CookShop and Hunger Solutions New York are taking the fight locally.

Poorest poor in US hits new record: 1 in 15 people, Associated Press, 11/3
The ranks of America's poorest poor have climbed to a record high — 1 in 15 people — spread widely across metropolitan areas as the housing bust pushed many inner-city poor into suburbs and other outlying places and shriveled jobs and income. New census data paint a stark portrait of the nation's haves and have-nots at a time when unemployment remains persistently high.

Deficit Committee Could Seek More Time, a Top Democrat Says, The New York Times, 11/2
A top House Democrat said Wednesday that a bipartisan committee seeking ways to slash the budget deficit could seek an extension if it was unable to meet its deadline, just three weeks away.
With no visible signs of progress, 6 of the 12 committee members have begun meeting privately in hopes of overcoming what appears to be the biggest obstacle to agreement: a deadlock over whether tax increases should be part of a deficit-reduction deal.

Obama, Top Democrats Meet to Plot Jobs Strategy, Reuters, 11/1
President Barack Obama will meet top Democrats from the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday to plot strategy on how to advance his jobs proposals that are stalled in Congress amid Republican resistance. The White House talks follow a series of unilateral steps by Obama over the past week aimed at seizing the initiative from his Republican foes and showing voters he is serious about tackling high unemployment and a sluggish economy.

The cupboard is bare at Staten Island's food pantries, Staten Island Live, 11/4
Indeed, there is a crisis at the Project Hospitality Food Pantry, at its main location on Bay Street and the 21 mobile food pantries in churches and other sites the not-for-profit serves in every part of the borough: Donations from food drives and private individuals that usually pour in at this time of year have virtually dried up. Add in cuts in the federal, state and city food assistance programs serving the hungry and the result is chilling insecurity for the borough's thousands of hungry families.

This week, as New York City considered the potential impact of the federal debt deal, which could drastically cut federal aid for a range of programs, Mayor Bloomberg unveiled a new initiative to combat poverty in NYC. One new study suggests that eating healthfully is too expensive for many Americans, and another found that fast food marketing to kids has increased.

Finally, a big “Like!” to one of our own member food pantries, which launched a buzzworthy initiative to fight hunger!

Debt deal impact: New York City could lose billions in federal aid, New York Daily News, 8/2/11
From health care to security and transportation, the debt ceiling deal threatens long-term pain for New York City, which stands to lose billions in federal aid.

Inside the mayor's new poverty plan, Crain’s New York Business, 8/4/11
The Young Men's Initiative will include efforts to improve education, job placement, health and criminal justice outcomes for about 315,000 black and Hispanic men between the ages of 16 and 24. More than a dozen city agencies will be involved.

Grow Local and Eat Local, City Council Says, The New York Times, 7/29/11
In an effort to ramp up support for the consumption and production of local food, the City Council passed a package of bills on Thursday to facilitate the building of rooftop greenhouses and free up land for urban gardens.

Study: Healthy eating means spending more at store, AP, 8/4/11
A healthy diet is expensive and could make it difficult for Americans to meet new U.S. nutritional guidelines, according to a study published Thursday that says the government should do more to help consumers eat healthier.

Food Ads Still Bombard Kids, Augusta Chronicle, 8/1/11
Though overall exposure to food advertising for children went down after a voluntary agreement to limit it, the amount of fast-food advertising went up, and most of the foods still marketed to kids are not good for them, according to a report out Monday.

Sweet Relief: Helping Hungry with Honey, New York Post, 8/4/11
A Brooklyn food pantry is abuzz about its new beekeeping project to fight hunger -- harvesting and bottling the honey from two hives.
 

By Triada Stampas, 

The spending-reduction deal Congress and the President struck this week to avoid defaulting on the national debt (the Budget Control Act of 2011) leaves every federally funded program — including those that make up our social safety net — vulnerable to deep cuts, restructuring or elimination. With the recession having left low-income households even further behind, the nation’s poor can ill withstand the unraveling of that safety net.

Federal government programs fall into one of two categories: “entitlement,” for which  funding is able to adjust in order to meet fluctuating levels of need, guaranteeing that benefits are provided to all people who meet the program's eligibility standards; and “discretionary,” meaning program funding must receive Congress’s approval every year. The process for reducing the deficit by at least $2.1 trillion over ten years splits the process into two phases and treats each of these categories differently:

Phase One
The debt deal sets a target of $900 billion in discretionary program cuts to be made over 10 years, starting in Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 (which begins October 1, 2011). Of this amount, $550 billion must come from non-defense discretionary spending. Essential programs like the federal emergency food program (TEFAP) — the single largest source of food distributed to our city’s soup kitchens and food pantries — may be on the chopping block. While only $21 billion will be cut in the FY 2012 budget, the cuts will increase each year over the next 10 years until the target is reached.

In NYC, 1.4 million people rely on emergency food and 1.8 million people rely on food stamps.

Phase Two
Next, the agreement creates a twelve-member Congressional committee to identify $1.5 trillion in further cuts over 10 years. At this step in the process, all federal government programs, including TEFAP and food stamps (SNAP), will be fair game for cuts, restructuring or elimination. The committee will move quickly: it must produce a plan before Thanksgiving for Congress to approve by December 23, 2011 in order to avoid triggering across-the-board cuts.

If the committee fails to produce a bill or the bill doesn’t pass, automatic across-the-board cuts of $1.2 trillion will take effect on January 1, 2013. Half of those cuts will be in non-defense programs, with certain exemptions (including SNAP benefits and child nutrition programs).

The programs that low-income Americans rely on are in danger at every step of this process, and the next four months will be absolutely critical. Even before this agreement was reached, the House of Representatives had already passed an Agriculture Appropriations bill for FY 2012 that would provide 10 million fewer meals for New Yorkers in need — under this new budget-slashing mandate, however, the impact on low-income New Yorkers could be far, far worse.

With the cuts spaced out over ten years, the Food Bank is committed to protecting the New Yorkers we serve in the long run.

The following editorial by Food Bank President and CEO Lucy Cabrera was originally published in the Huffington Post, July 27, 2011.

As the debate over budget cuts heat up in Washington, let's hope cooler heads prevail when it comes to supporting something as basic as food assistance for those in need. Taking food away from those who are struggling the most should not be considered a budget fix. Without proper access to food, the system will begin to break down.

Cuts currently under debate by Congress threaten to drastically reduce vital food support for those already enduring the greatest brunt of the economic downturn. Proposed cuts to The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) and SNAP, the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as Food Stamps, would be devastating to those who are already struggling to just get by.

Today, key economic indicators show that the recovery is slowing and food costs are increasing. As a country, how can we talk about strengthening our ability to compete in the future by making decisions at the expense of the weakest and most vulnerable among us? If the people in need whom we serve cannot be helped, we are putting more at risk than our economic recovery.…

Read the full editorial on the Huffington Post.

By Triada Stampas,

With the ongoing budget and deficit reduction talks in Washington, a lot is unclear. However, budget negotiations that began this spring have broadcast loud-and-clear that the federal safety net for low-income Americans could be slashed to ribbons.

 In late April, the House of Representatives passed a federal Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 Budget Resolution that brutally cut funding for programs like Medicaid, Food Stamps (SNAP), the Special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) and low-income housing. At the same time, significant reductions in commodity purchases for the federal Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) mean that food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters — the resource of last resort for those struggling to afford food — would be unable to maintain existing levels of service, let alone meet the additional need that reductions in SNAP, WIC and other benefits would clearly create.

With a broad blueprint for overall expenditures in its Budget Resolution, the House then passed a detailed spending plan in an Agriculture Appropriations bill that would make further cuts to TEFAP and other nutrition assistance programs. The combined impact of these cuts on the emergency food supply in New York City would be a loss of 10 million meals for New Yorkers in need, or approximately one sixth of the Food Bank’s food supply.

The current budget negotiations are occurring in a political environment dominated by concerns about the size of the federal budget deficit and spending. And pressure to limit federal spending and reduce the budget may come at the expense of safety net programs, as the House Budget Resolution and Agriculture Appropriations bill demonstrate.

Current negotiations between the White House and Congressional leaders will determine whether deficit reduction goals can be reached while protecting the most vulnerable among us, such as the poor, the sick, children and the elderly.

TEFAP and SNAP are the United State’s two major supports for low-income, food-poor Americans. Last year in New York City alone, TEFAP helped supply more than 28 million meals for New Yorkers in need, and SNAP provided low-income New Yorkers more than $3 billion for food purchases.

The ongoing negotiations carry even greater import as it is widely recognized that they will set the stage for next year’s reauthorization of the Farm Bill, which will set spending levels for TEFAP and SNAP for the following five years.

We hope that you will stay tuned for updates and opportunities to take action on this historic round of budget negotiations and their potential affect on low-income New Yorkers by continuing to read this blog, subscribing to Food Bank e-newsletters or joining us on Facebook or Twitter. Please consider taking action now — visit our Advocacy page to see how you can make a difference!

By Katy Mitchell-Gilroy,

That’s right, there’s a food fight coming. Nothing as funny as the epic scene in Animal House, but rather a fight for the health, safety and nutrition of the millions of children that participate in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP). In early 2011, new Dietary Guidelines for Americans were released, and as a result the USDA has proposed new requirements for school lunch  - however, foodservice professionals argue, if the guidelines are too difficult to adhere to, they may cause chaos on our public school lunch lines.

The National School Lunch Act was signed in 1946 by President Harry S. Truman. Considered a matter of national defense at the time, it was responding to a large number of men who were medically unfit to serve in the armed forces during World War II because of nutrition related diseases.  By the end of its first year, about 7.1 million children were participating in the NSLP. By 1970, 22 million children were participating, and by fiscal year 2009, that figure rose above 31.3 million. Since the modern program began in 1946, more than 219 billion lunches have been served.

Currently, school lunches must meet the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which recommend that no more than 30 percent of an individual's calories come from fat, and less than 10 percent from saturated fat. Regulations also establish a standard for school lunches to provide one‐third of the Recommended Dietary Allowances of protein, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, iron, calcium and calories. School lunches must meet federal nutrition requirements, but decisions about what specific foods to serve and how they are prepared are made by local school food authorities.

The new Dietary Guidelines for Americans have led to a set of proposed changes to school lunches, some of which are welcome, and others that have stirred up controversy. The new NSLP lunch would include more green, orange and red (nope, this is not about Crayola’s famous 64 colors of fun, it’s about vitamins and minerals) and much less starchy vegetables, saturated fat and sodium.

Some proposed changes would be phased in. For instance, half of the grains offered as part of school lunch over the next two years would be whole-grain. After two years, it would be required that 100 percent are whole. Sodium would also be cut in half over a ten year period, going from the average school lunch of 1,520 mg of sodium to a target of 710 mg of sodium for a middle school lunch.

While some of the NSLP changes – such as adding fruits and vegetables and reducing starchy vegetables to one cup a week – may provide simple fixes, many foodservice professionals are pointing out the potential difficulty of meeting the full range of new guidelines.

The proposed rules include a slew of costly measures – from the cost of different food products to the need for capital improvements such as more cooler space to store fresh produce – at a time when the education system is feeling particularly conscious of its budget.

Among the points made by the School Nutrition Association, a professional organization of school foodservice professionals, they note that providing entrée options that meets the new nutrition guidelines is no easy task. Food manufacturers do not have many affordable, lower sodium items, and school foodservice is hard pressed to make everything from scratch and still stay under budget and within time and staff constraints.

As a champion of good nutrition in schools through our CookShop program, the Food Bank will be watching this issue as is progresses. Stay tuned to our blog, and join us on Facebook and Twitter for updates. Even better, tell us what you think about these school lunch changes in the comments!