July is Disaster Relief Month
Helping the Hungry in Times of Severe Need
In response to severe flooding that has displaced thousands of Iowa, Indiana and Wisconsin residents, the America’s Second Harvest network of food banks has mobilized to deliver needed resources to the affected communities.
As the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization, America’s Second Harvest prepares throughout the year for disasters of all types. As soon has flooding was predicted, members mobilized quickly to provide food directly to families and other disaster relief organizations active in the area.
On Wednesday, food bank staff members from the Greater Chicago Food Depository, the Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana, and the America’s Second Harvest national office were dispatched to Iowa disaster locations to assist with on-site efforts.
“Our Food Bank’s role is to assist, through the Emergency Management office and other organizations, with product when it is needed,” said Barb Prather, executive director of the Northeast Iowa Food Bank. "We are providing snacks and food to areas affected, and will support the ongoing relief work in Northeast Iowa in the coming months."
“Disasters put yet another strain on working families who face hunger issues every day,” said Vicki Escarra, President and CEO of America’s Second Harvest. “Thanks to the immediate efforts of our Midwest food banks, local residents will have emergency food and supplies to help make it through these difficult days.”
Click here to find out how you can help the victims in Iowa.
July's Hunger Hero: Indiana Senator Dick Lugar
See How Senator Lugar Helped Revitalize the Summer Food Service Program
for Needy Children
Summer is a time when kids shouldn’t have to worry about anything. But for needy children who participate in school lunch programs, summer means worrying about where you’ll get your next hot meal. According to the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC), in the last year alone, food costs rose 5.1 percent. That means it’s only getting harder for families living in poverty to afford to eat. Thanks to Senator Dick Lugar, a Republican from Indiana, the government has a workable program in place to assist families with children in need while school is out.
In the first week of March 2008, Indiana Senator Richard Lugar’s office sent out a press release calling out for more Indiana sponsors to enroll in the Summer Food Service Program. At that moment, 41 of Indiana’s 92 counties had yet to join in the program that served two million free meals and snacks to children 18 and under in the state last year. Senator Lugar stated in the press release, “Hunger does not stop simply because the school year ends. The need to feed youth in the summer is a nationwide problem and it is clear we have a proven method. Additional sponsors are needed to increase the availability of nutritious meals to underprivileged children in Indiana this summer.”
The clear and proven method he referred is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Summer Food Service Program (SFSP). The SFSP was implemented in 1968 as a two-pronged program providing grants to states to aide children’s nutrition and well being. The first part of the grant allotted meals for underprivileged children during summer vacations, while the second part ensured they had safe places to play after eating these meals. The initial three year pilot program reached 99,000 children in 1,200 sites.
A separate part of the program was created in the mid-‘70s, bringing meals to summer camps and sites in neighborhoods where at least one-third of the children qualified for free or reduced price meals. Sponsors were given advanced payments to ease organizational strains and stimulate the creation of these sites.
The SFSP became a success, reaching 2.8 million children in 23,700 sites ten years after its inception. But changes to the legislation and abuses of the system would eventually create bureaucratic thresholds to deter many future sponsors. Laws requiring sponsors to provide meals year round, budget reports, and proof of fiscal and administrative aptitude were set in place. Participation dropped in the 80’s to around 1.4 million children after the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981 banned the participation of private organizations (except schools and camps) and redefined areas of “poor economic conditions” as those where at least 50 percent of the children qualified for free or reduced price meals. Private institutions were allowed to participate once again in 1989, and the program’s efforts settled at about 2 million children per year.
Despite the relative success of the federal program put into place when he was still mayor of Indianapolis, Senator Lugar noticed the apprehension of many potential sponsors to sign up as possible sites. Schools and other potential sites were discouraged by the extreme hassle reimbursements for meals had become to current donors, and many left the program as a result.
Senator Lugar, a former Indianapolis School Board member, was baffled to see the decline in Indiana’s sponsors due to all the frustrating legislation that had been put in place during the ‘80s, so in 2001 he created the Lugar Pilots Program. The point of the program was basic: simplify the reimbursement process for SFSP sponsors. Thirteen states (including Indiana) and Puerto Rico participated in the initial operation. A permanent version of the program was put into place in 2004, eventually called the Simplified Summer Food Program. By 2006, 13 more states had joined the roster, bringing the tally up to 26 and Puerto Rico. In December of 2007, Congress passed an omnibus appropriations bill setting the program into motion in all 50 states for the summer of 2008.
Since 2001, Indiana has seen its number of sites increase to 780 in 2007 from an initial starting point of 372 in 2001. According to Julie Sutton, the Assistant Director of the Division of School and Community Nutrition Programs with the Indiana Department of Education, the Simplified Summer Food Program holds a great deal of responsibility for the growth. “Ever since we’ve had the program we’ve seen increases in participation every year,” Sutton noted. “There was a 13 percent increase in the program from 2006 to 2007.”
A 2007 FRAC report published that summer participation rates of Simplified Summer Food Program states increased by 3.2 percent from July 2005 to July 2006. Those states not included in the program at the time only saw a cumulative growth of 0.5 percent. Perhaps the national expansion of the program will eventually ensure that one day each child has a hot lunch to look forward to every day, even when school is out.
Outstanding Food Banks Deliver Hope to
Hungry Americans
This Month’s Food Bank in the Spotlight: The Rhode Island Community Food Bank
Food banks everywhere struggle to cost-effectively provide their clients with fresh produce. For the Rhode Island Community Food Bank (RICFB), the answer is simple: Supplement donations with home-grown produce. Through its Community Farm Program, RICFB is doing just that: growing fresh produce and giving it straight to families in need. Bruce Zarembka, RICFB’s Director of Acquisition, says “It doesn't get much fresher—as soon as the product is brought in the door, it’s on its way out again to feed those in need.”
The Community Farm Program has grown to seven farms this year, including the RICFB’s partnership with the College of Environment and Life Sciences at the University of Rhode Island (URI), which is run by students. The program’s six community farms—two in Bristol, two in Cumberland, one in Smithfield and one in Foster—average 1 acre apiece. Together the seven farms produced 110,000 pounds of fresh produce last year, with about 85,000 pounds coming from the URI partnership’s 5-acre farm.
The RICFB distributes the produce to member agencies and recently launched a successful neighborhood pantry express, which enables smaller agencies that lack substantial refrigeration space to distribute fresh produce via vouchers at mobile farmers markets in Newport, Providence, and other high-need communities.
Beyond their bountiful harvests of nutritious food, the farms also provide many tangible community benefits. “A major benefit of this program is the community involvement,” said Zarembka. “It is our hope that some of the younger people involved will gain an increased awareness of the hunger issue facing their neighbors throughout the state, and stay involved with the hunger issue as they get older.”
“A distribution warehouse is not exactly conducive to young students and children, but the farms provide an opportunity for young people to volunteer,” said Cerio. “Whether it’s a mom and her two kids who come to pick green beans, or other kids who come during the summer to pick produce, the farms introduce a whole segment of people to what we do early in their lives.”