The Food Bank released its annual research report this week, NYC Hunger Experience 2011: Support and Sacrifice, which revealed a startling increase in the number of middle-income and college-educated New Yorkers struggling to afford food. “The fact that education is no longer a buffer against poverty and hunger is antithetical to conventional wisdom and a blow to everything we’ve ever been told,” Food Bank President and CEO Margarette Purvis said. In other news, the mayor and the governor disagreed on finger-imaging of food stamp applicants and the NYC Health Department launched a new campaign to warn New Yorkers against super-sized portions.

More College-Educated NYers Struggle To Afford Food, Report Finds, NY1, 1/11
The Food Bank's NYC Hunger Experience 2011 report finds that between 2010 and 2011 the number of college-educated New Yorkers concerned about affording food or needing assistance getting food increased by 25 percent. The Food Bank says the study shows that higher levels of education don't always provide a safety net against hunger.

NY Gov. Cuomo sets aggressive agenda for 2nd year, Associated Press, 1/5
While outlining an aggressive agenda to boost New York's economy during his second year in office, Gov. Andrew Cuomo advocated several measures to help the poor and dispossessed, such as better access to food stamps. He said 30 percent of New Yorkers eligible for food stamps, about 1.4 million people, don't get them — leaving more than $1 billion in federal funds unclaimed annually. The state should help remove barriers and stigma and end fingerprinting as a requirement, he said.

Bloomberg Says He Will Fight for Fingerprinting Rule, New York Times, City Room, 1/5
A day after Gov. Andrew Cuomo vowed to end New York City’s policy of requiring food stamp applicants to be electronically fingerprinted, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg defended the policy and said he would try to convince the governor to keep it in place.

In New Ads, Health Department Offers Super-Sized Warnings, New York Times, City Room, 1/10
In a new set of posters in English and Spanish, the health department depicts the steady increase in sizes of soda cups and French fry sleeves against backdrops of unhealthy people, including a diabetic man who is missing most of one leg. The ads, which began appearing in the subway system on Monday, warn that obesity and diabetes have become more common as the average size of food servings has risen.

Break‘fat’ club, New York Post, 1/8
A study led by Department of Health official Gretchen Van Wye compared kids who ate breakfast in class with kids in control schools where breakfast is served only in the cafeteria. It found that about one in five kids who ate in class were eating breakfast twice. “Special care should be taken to ensure that children are not inadvertently taking in excess calories by eating in multiple locations,” she writes in the research paper. Some of her colleagues fear that the controversial study could lay the groundwork for scrapping part or all of city’s free breakfast program.

By Danielle Pagano McGunagle,

When a child gets his or her acceptance letter for college, it is a proud day for the entire family. College means a hopeful future of limitless possibilities: a career, a comfortable life and the security of never having to worry about how to keep food on the table.

Food Bank For New York City’s latest research report, NYC Hunger Experience 2011: Support and Sacrifice, turns that conventional wisdom on its head.

The percentage of residents with a college degree who reported difficulty affording food increased from 24 to 30 percent between 2010 and 2011.

This year's report finds nearly 1 in 3 college graduates in New York City are struggling to afford food — and equal numbers are concerned they will need food assistance over the coming year.

In fact, even as New York City as a whole has stepped back from a crisis point at the height of the recession in 2008, when nearly half of New Yorkers were struggling to afford food, it is now college graduates and middle-income New Yorkers who are experiencing the biggest increases in difficulty affording food — and that should shock all of us.

We call this report “Sacrifice and Support” — why? Because those are the two main strategies New Yorkers are resorting to maintain their ability to afford food.

What's the “sacrifice”? Well, considerable numbers of New Yorkers are cutting back their food purchases — especially on the healthiest food.

What's the “support”? The safety net that's in place to prevent people from going hungry is capturing more and more people in their time of need.

If anything, however, this report helps show where our safety net is falling short — and where it can be strengthened.

Learn more…

Danielle Pagano McGunagle is the Director of Communications & Marketing at the Food Bank For New York City.

By Astrid Spota,

According a new study conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, the median wealth, or net worth of United States households decreased 28 percent from approximately $97,000 in 2005 to $70,000 in 2009. Minority households experienced the steepest declines in wealth, with the net worth of Latino/Hispanic and Black/African-American residents dropping by 66 percent and 53 percent respectively, compared to a modest 16 percent decrease in wealth among White/Caucasian residents. The study also finds that the median net worth of Caucasian residents is 18 times that of Hispanic and 20 times that of African-American residents, as evidenced in the chart below.

This wealth gap echoes disparities in poverty by race/ethnicity. As reported by the U.S. Census Bureau, although Black/African-American residents are 25 percent of the total New York City population, they represent 28 percent of all New York City residents living below the federal poverty level (approximately $18,500 annually for a family of three) in 2009. Likewise, Latino/Hispanic residents comprise 28 percent of the total New York City population, but represent 42 percent of all New York City residents living below the federal poverty level.

Like the trends in net worth and poverty, Hispanic and African-American residents are more likely to experience difficulty affording food and make sacrifices in food consumption. In NYC Hunger Experience 2010, the Food Bank found that 49 percent of African-American New Yorkers experienced difficulty affording needed food for themselves and their families throughout 2010, compared to 43 percent of Hispanics and 23 percent of Caucasians. Likewise, 37 percent of African-American residents reduced their food intake during the recession to get by financially, compared to 36 percent of Latino/Hispanic residents and 19 percent of Caucasian residents.

Median Wealth by Race/Ethnicity, 2005 and 2009

by Triada Stampas

The past month has been prime time for the major “State of…” addresses — the time of year when the heads of all levels of government report on the past year and lay out their priorities for the coming year.

3 million New Yorkers experience difficulty affording food, according to the Food Bank’s latest research report, NYC Hunger Experience 2010: Less Food on the Table.

Both Governor Cuomo and Mayor Bloomberg acknowledged in their addresses that the recession has left New York State and City, respectively, with high unemployment, and that the effects of the recession are far from over. Both have pledged that tax increases will not be part of the solution.

New York State faces a shortfall for the coming year estimated at $10 billion of its $135 billion budget, and the city has a multi-billion-dollar budget gap as well. Without tax increases to raise revenue, Gov. Cuomo and Mayor Bloomberg will be proposing budgets that will achieve some savings through efficiency improvements, but also make deep cuts. The state’s program for emergency food, the Hunger Prevention and Nutrition Assistance Program (HPNAP), has been through several rounds of incremental cuts as part of the state’s attempts to reduce the deficit over the past two years. Compounding the problem, New York City relies on billions of dollars in State funding to pay for many services.

With potential state budget cuts looming last year, Mayor Bloomberg created a contingency plan that drastically cut city services, including elimination of the city’s Emergency Food Assistance Program (EFAP), the second-largest single source of food for food pantries and soup kitchens across the city.

While this crisis was ultimately averted, the city is once again attempting to balance its budget with less state funding — and with tax increases off the table, emergency food resources may once again be at risk. With more than three million New Yorkers having difficulty affording food according to our latest research, and unemployment still almost twice what it was at the start of the recession, the timing could not be worse.

And the concern is not just about funding for emergency food:  record numbers of New Yorkers (now more than 1.8 million) are relying on food stamp (SNAP) benefits; with enrollment having grown dramatically since the start of the recession, having adequate funding to keep the program running smoothly is critical — and unlike SNAP benefits, which are wholly federally funded, SNAP administration and outreach require State and City funding.  In addition, our research shows that approximately one in four New York City residents is choosing between food and transportation, or food and housing costs (rent or mortgage) — so increases in rent and Metrocard prices could impact the ability of vulnerable New Yorkers to afford food, which could increase pressure on an emergency food network already struggling to meet demand.

Stay tuned next week when Governor Cuomo releases his Executive Budget proposal.

by Astrid Spota

According to an alternate poverty measure released by the U.S. Census Bureau last week, 16 percent of U.S. residents — or 48 million people — are living in poverty. That’s 9 percent higher than the official poverty rate currently used by the federal government.

Because the government uses the official poverty rate to determine eligibility for various benefits, like food stamps, this difference between two mathematical calculations can have a real impact on the lives of low-income Americans.

Under the official measure, 14 percent of U.S. residents, or 44 million people, are living in poverty. That leaves the 4 million Americans who are living right above the official poverty level without the last-resort benefits that help families keep food on the table.

The official poverty rate has long been criticized for being an outdated and inadequate calculation that understates the extent of poverty in the U.S. Developed in 1955, it doesn’t account for increases in the cost of basic necessities like food and housing, and it doesn’t measure the impact of tax credits and government benefits like food stamps.

The new alternate measure is a much more dynamic calculation. It includes non-cash transfers like food stamps and housing subsidies in the calculation of household income, and accounts for household expenses like out-of-pocket medical costs and taxes owed. And, so important for an expensive city like New York, it considers geographical variability in the cost of living.

These sophisticated calculations lead to some interesting findings. Among them:

• Under the alternative measure, the percentage of senior citizens living in poverty is almost double that of the official rate, increasing from 9 to 16 percent. This drastic increase is primarily attributed to rising medical expenses.
   
• After adjusting for geographical variations in the cost of living, the new estimate found that one in five residents living in central cities is living in poverty, compared to one in six living in non metro areas and one in seven living in the suburbs.
   
• Without food stamps, the poverty rate would increase from 16 to 17 percent, and without the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) it would increase to 18 percent.

Findings like these have serious implications for government policies and programs designed to meet the needs of the most vulnerable Americans. Acting on the knowledge that the number of people in need is actually far higher than previously estimated is a choice that will take a lot of political will — so don’t be surprised if there is no hurry to make the transition to a more accurate poverty measure.

by Astrid Spota

In 2010, three million New York City residents — or 37 percent — experienced difficulty affording food, slightly down from 40 percent in 2009, according to a Food Bank report released today.

New Yorkers waiting on line at a soup kitchen. The Food Bank’s new NYC Hunger Experience 2010 report investigates what it means for low-income New Yorkers to experience a jobless recovery and the lengths to which families must go to keep food on the table.  See the full report here and an overview here.

But this seemingly optimistic finding masks a grim reality: New Yorkers are only maintaining their ability to afford food by making bitter sacrifices, including reducing food intake, choosing between food and other basic necessities and digging into savings.

NYC Hunger Experience 2010: Less Food on the Table — the 2010 edition of the Food Bank's annual NYC Hunger Experience opinion poll conducted in collaboration with Marist College Institute for Public Opinion —  investigates what it means for low-income New Yorkers to experience a jobless recovery and the lengths to which families must go to keep food on the table.

The results are bleak. The impact of the recession has forced approximately one in three New York City residents to reduce either their food intake or the quality of their food. A quarter of all residents were forced to choose between paying for food and transportation, or between paying for food and rent or mortgage.

And despite resorting to these extreme measures, a growing percentage of New Yorkers is also relying on their savings to get by and runs the risk of using up their resources entirely.

This is particularly true for the lowest income New Yorkers. Throughout 2010, almost two thirds of residents with annual household incomes less than $25,000 experienced difficulty affording food, up 3 percent from 2009 — the only group to report an increase from the previous year. A record 68 percent would not be able to afford food for themselves and their families within three months of losing their household income, up 24 percent from 2009.

These findings are poignant reminders that even though the recession has ended, hardship for our most vulnerable residents continues to rise. To reverse this trend and create long-term solutions, we must address the underlying causes of food poverty, including lack of access to affordable and nutritious food, the high cost of housing, transportation and healthcare, and the lack of a living wage. In the near-term, increasing support for soup kitchens and food pantries to provide emergency food is an essential stop-gap to ensure that individuals and families receive the assistance they need to get by.

You can be part of the solution. Visit our How You Can Help page to get involved.

by Justin Crum

Recently the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University released a report outlining the extent to which fast food companies market their products to kids. Some of their findings may come as no surprise, such as the appeal of toys in kids’ meals and branded characters. But other findings bring new details to light.

Since I work with adolescents in our CookShop nutrition education program, I was especially unnerved to read about the sophistication of the fast food marketing strategies directed toward the teen market. These strategies include using popular teen celebrities, humor and interactive websites to promote foods that are rarely nutritious: a mere 17 percent of menu items at the restaurants included in the study qualified as healthy. (Visit the study’s Fast Food Facts in Brief for more details.)

Learning how to make informed food choices is a central goal of CookShop for Teens (EATWISE), and developing an understanding of media messages about food is part of that process. Participants learn about healthy food choices and consider the nutritional differences between these foods and the ones they see advertised on TV. Then they reach out to their peers, helping them understand the basics of good nutrition and encouraging them to choose healthier items including fresh fruits and vegetables.

“The kids in my school listen,” said Mishka Jean-Baptise, a student who participated in EATWISE at Brooklyn International High School last year. “They get really surprised when we tell them the consequences of eating badly.”

by Roxanne Henry

For the Food Bank, fighting food poverty isn’t just about emergency food, income support, and nutrition education. It’s also about staying on top of the policy issues and current events that affect communities we serve.  This year, critical programs including New York City’s Emergency Food Assistance Program (EFAP) and the State’s Hunger Prevention and Nutrition Assistance Program (HPNAP) came under threat amid tense budget negotiations. Voting for people who are committed to serving vulnerable New Yorkers – and ensuring that these votes count – is a good way to help struggling individuals and families.

The City Board of Elections has announced that New York City will switch from using traditional lever voting machines to a new paper ballot voting system, starting with Tuesday’s primary elections. Rather than pulling a lever, voters will now mark their choices on a paper ballot and insert it into a scanner that will tally all the votes at the close of Election Day.

The goal of the new voting system is to provide a verifiable paper record and allow all voters, including those with disabilities, to vote privately and independently. However, many voters will be unfamiliar with the system. Make sure your vote counts this Election Day. To cast your ballot correctly, follow these instructions:

1.  Go to your poll site, sign in, and get a paper ballot from the poll worker.
2.  Use a pen or a ballot marking device to mark your choices on the ballot.
3. Insert the marked ballot into a scanner to cast your vote.
 
Remember: To mark the ballot, simply darken the oval next to your choice. Voters should not use X’s, check marks, or circle the name of the candidate. Any propositions will appear on the back of the ballot, so be sure to complete both sides.

Public demonstrations of the new system are being held throughout the city, giving voters the opportunity to practice voting on a paper ballot before Election Day. The Board of Elections’ Community Outreach Tool Kit provides flyers that can be downloaded for distribution. To find a demonstration in your neighborhood and instructions on the new way to vote, visit the Board of Education’s website or call 866-VOTE-NYC (866-868-3692) or TTY 212-487-5496.

And don’t forget to spread the word – share this blog post with friends to ensure that their votes count, too!

For more information, please contact Roxanne Henry, Community Outreach Manager by email or 212.566.7855 x 8364.

by Astrid Spota

New York City’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped to 9.4 percent in July, the State Department of Labor has reported. This decrease from last year’s peak of 10.5 percent marks the seventh straight month of declining unemployment in the city, with job gains in financial services, professional and business fields and leisure and hospitality.

But unfortunately, these figures don’t tell the whole story. As a recent study by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University illustrates, lower-income households are more likely to experience unemployment than higher-income households. This study found that the unemployment rate for households earning $12,499 or less was 30.8 percent, almost 10 times that of households earning $150,000 or more (3.2 percent).

Furthermore, unemployment calculations don’t include job-seekers who have stopped looking for a job because they can’t find work, or underemployed individuals who accepted a part-time position to make ends meet. So the economic situation may actually be worse than reported.

And while the gradual uptick in employment has caused some economists to be cautiously optimistic, the unemployment rate doubled from 4.7 to 9.4 percent between the start of the recession in December 2007 and July 2010 (see chart below).

In these tough economic times, the Food Bank is working to strengthen the safety net that is so essential for New Yorkers affected by the recession. Our network of food pantries and soup kitchens provides food for low-income people of all ages in all five boroughs; our Tax Assistance Program helps secure millions of dollars in refunds to stretch budgets and boost the local economy; and our food stamp programs help enroll New Yorkers in this important federal benefit.

There is a long road ahead before the jobless rate returns to pre-recession levels. And with your support, the Food Bank will be there to help New Yorkers make it through.

by Ashley Baughman

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.