Foundation Journal

A discussion about food stamp outreach at Harvesters taught me to remember the difficulty many working poor people face when making ends meet. The trend in the charitable food assistance world shows a steady pattern of people living in poverty and with food insecurity. Many individuals neglect to apply for SNAP benefits even though they are eligible for those benefits. An AmeriCorps worker performing SNAP outreach duties at Harvesters shared how Kansas City, Kansas residents have increasingly applied for food stamps because of the instructions provided to social service workers at El Centro . The outreach worker shared how even immigrants with permanent residency status neglect to apply for these government benefits over fears they could lose their path to citizenship, despite situations which allow non-citizens to receive benefits.

The Interdisciplinary Center for Food Security at the University of Missouri  released a booklet offering "tips and strategies for linking food pantries and community partners to get healthier food onto the shelves of pantries and into the homes of food pantry customers" in January 2015. Download the 24-page PDF document for information on healthy nutritious food options.

Missouri SNAP/food stamp applicants needlessly wait longer than expected when they apply for well-deserved food assistance because application are hand-written and submitted by mail. Anything that can be done to help workers fill a gap in stagnant wages helps Missouri communities. New Jersey has pending legislation that would provide information to SNAP applicants on when their application was received. “There is a hunger crisis in New Jersey that is being made worse by a mismanaged food assistance program that leave some families without food waiting up to six months for assistance,” said Sen. Ray Lesniak, D-Union in a January 26, 2015 NewJersey.com article . “It is unconscionable to make families and children go hungry that long.” In Misssouri applicants are required to mail or deliver in person hand-written applications to a Social Services office. Once applications are sent, people applying do not receive a notice that Missouri office received the applications. In fact, appli...

Organizers with Empower Missouri, formerly the Missouri Association of Social Welfare, and Catholic Charities of Central and Northern Missouri will hold a public forum titled "There’s No Plate Like Home: Health, Food &Power." The event will be Monday February 23, 2015 at 6:30 p.m. in Room 100 in the Inman E. Page library at Lincoln University, 712 Lee Drive, Jefferson City, Missouri. Here are details of the event from the organizers: This public forum will examine the connections among health, food, farming, and public policy with an aim to promoting local, sustainably-grown food, healthy food choices and availability, and the public policies surrounding these concerns. We will look at: the programs and projects that promote healthy, locally-grown food, its access, and its producers and growers in communities throughout Missouri.  how public policies and the actions of corporations affect our access to locally-grown, healthy food, and the sustainability of a...

As a followup to a post from last year on ways Missouri legislators and government officials drive low-income workers into poverty, I have collected another set of roadblocks unfairly placed on poor people. The list this time includes corporations that have developed products and services that target low-income or vulnerable populations. 1. Block Medicaid Expansion. FamiliesUSA infographic (click for full size view) Missouri legislators get the prize for going the extra mile on this. Even strongly Republican-led states like Indiana , Tennessee , Utah and Wyoming  are either considering expanding or have decided to expand Medicaid, a state-administered health program supporting very low-income workers and their families. Wyoming's plan to expand Medicaid will provide 17,600 people with access to health care, plus provide 800 jobs. States like Wyoming are realizing that expanding Medicaid relieves hospitals from uncompensated costs. “I will do everything I can to pre...

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released a report on cuts to SNAP - Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps) today: A CBPP report out today explains why roughly 1 million of the nation's poorest people will be cut off of SNAP (formerly food stamps), in 2016. This is because in many areas waivers of the three-month limits on SNAP benefits for unemployed adults ages 18-50 who aren't disabled or raising minor children are ending. These individuals will lose their food assistance benefits after three months regardless of how hard they are looking for work. In the past few years, the three-month limit hasn't been in effect in most states. The 1996 welfare law allows states to suspend the three-month limit in areas with high and sustained unemployment; many states qualified due to the Great Recession and its aftermath and waived the time limit throughout the state. But as unemployment rates fall, fewer and fewer areas will qualify for waivers. The l...

Food pantries and agencies pick up their holiday meats at  Harvesters food bank in Kansas City on December 19, 2014, one of the busiest days of the year. The problem of hunger and poverty is widespread in the U.S., and not going away. Some accounts show the number of people in poverty not decreasing despite the economic "recovery" with  one in six people at or below poverty wages . And it's not just during the holiday season that people go hungry despite the generosity of people and businesses to donate and deliver food. Work at food banks focuses on delivering large quantities of fresh, nutritious produce in addition to dry, canned goods, among many types of food throughout the year. The millions of pounds of food available to poor people, not only helps people make ends meet, but also reduces food waste as indicated in this video story about food rescue in New York City . A recipient of food assistance in New York City said "Sweet potatoes, co...

Orchard operation near Waverly, Mo On a recent trip to Columbia to visit my daughter attending the University of Missouri my wife and I took a scenic route through the historic town of Lexington, then went north on highway 65 out of Waverly. The hilly area is home to many fruit orchards, some of which line the roads. Fruit stands and orchard stores are common to the area. North out of Waverly across the Missouri River the landscape changes to flat bottomland containing expansive row crop farms covering thousands of acres. This abundant farmland stretches 65 miles east from Carrollton to Moberly on highway 63. Orchard near Waverly, Mo. From the look of the farm size and large quantities of orchards you would think this provides a satisfactory quality of life for people in the nation's breadbasket, but a story about a food assistance program in the Kansas City Star revealed a different side to this area. The two schools in Carrollton, county seat of Carroll County, ...

While in Tucson recently I heard Arizona Daily Star blogger Angela Pittenger's report on getting low-cost produce from Borderlands Food Bank. This innovative program provides 60 pounds of produce for $10. While the amount of food may be overwhelming for a family, it nonetheless serves as a low-cost option in a family's food budget from the Nogales (Arizona) food bank.   Borderlands' assumed control of the program -- not without controversy -- as described in this report , and renamed it to "Produce on Wheels".

Conferences usually provide a welcome break from the daily toil by getting practitioners, activists and experts together to think and talk about the topic at hand. This was the case at the Rural Life Day in 2013 hosted by Catholic Charities of Central and Northern Missouri, and promises to be the case this year with the conference theme "Soul and Soil In A Changing Climate." Join the conference on December 6, 2014 in Jefferson City, Missouri by registering for the day-long event . Here is the full conference statement: How we treat our farms, forests, mineral resources, and waters, how we structure our food systems, even what we eat day-to-day are all within our control and by these actions we are tied to the economic, political, and ecological order of our planet. At its core, the interlocking global environmental, climate, food, and natu-ral resource crises are a moral challenge that calls us to examine and change the way we use and share the earth’s finite res...

Many people today advocate for better nutrition options in our communities. Films, books , organizations, even a national Food Day , all describe the problem of obesity and diabetes caused by poor diets. The food bank where I work has a Nutrition Education department that teaches hundreds of adults and kids each year about affordable and healthy food. And advocates do not shy away from pointing out that food purveyors like McDonalds promote "bad food," so much that people are influenced by the message and don't pursue healthy diets. It's clear that "good food" advocates are fighting an uphill battle as fast food operators spend millions of dollars to market their food. The attraction to unhealthy food is especially acute among school-age children, so it's a good thing that an organization like Food Day is promoting a message to kids about good food and diets, even if for a single day. Food Day is "a nationwide celebration and a movement for heal...

Bringing up two girls and navigating the blanket marketing to kids -- especially movies -- meant we not only sat through countless Disney movies, but also bought a slew of knock-off toys. I'm sure we "invested" at least $200 in Beauty and the Beast -- toy tent castle, VHD videotape, books, and occasionally an unhealthy "Happy Meal" from McDonalds for the toy. And movie production companies like DreamWorks and Topps continue to market useless toys and food that increases obesity in kids. Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) is calling out the two companies for this practice.  If you agree with CSPI, then  take a minute to send a message to DreamWorks and Topps to ask them to stop marketing junk food to kids.   

Incredibly, a bi-partisan effort in the Missouri state house of representatives proposes a bill to block SNAP recipients from purchasing energy drinks in Missouri House Bill 1283. Missouri State Rep and bill sponsor Keith English went further when he accused poor people of reselling the energy drinks in a KCTV5 news report . Is there fraud in the food stamps business? Yes, people and small businesses are involved small-time abuse of food stamps, but fraud and corruption is much more costly in other government-regulated programs that favor large multi-national companies, like the $62 million settlement case against military contractor Northrup Grumman and $10.5 against Lockheed Martin  and post-Katrina by government officials and charities . Calls to control food items purchased with SNAP are widespread, like from Time's Christopher Matthews asks "Why would barring junk food be functionally different than barring alcohol?" Many people commenting on the KCTV5 r...

Just when you thought you heard all the ways Missouri legislators and the governor have made life worse for poor people they pull another one out of the hat. This last move spells trouble for housing projects for homeless people . The trend over time has caused more despair for low-income and working poor people in Missouri. Here is a list of six ways that have Missouri officials have found to increase poverty for people in the state. 1. Make it difficult to obtain food assistance. In a supposed effort to improve the food stamp (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP) and public welfare application process, the Department of Social Services (DSS) in Missouri plans to consolidate 114 family support offices throughout the state . The state also removed an online application, making it more difficult for individuals and agencies to apply on behalf of individuals. While state officials have noted a drop in unemployment and food stamp participation, anti-poverty ...

A report on Democracy Now! today aired portions of "State of Conflict: North Carolina," a Bill Moyers documentary, which focuses on the "Moral Monday" protests and actions in North Carolina. Moral Mondays have built a movement to oppose Republican-led policies, which have diminished a range of social programs for poor and working people in the state, including Medicaid expansion, cuts to food stamps (aka Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), education and unemployment benefits, changes to voting rights, as well as laws restricting abortion and support for the death penalty. These policies represent nothing short of an attack on poor people in that state. The Moral Monday movement is planning a massive march in Raleigh on February 8 to "fight back against these extreme policies."  While efforts in the Kansas City area and throughout Missouri don't match the impact of Moral Mondays, there is a groundswell led by Communities Creating Opportun...

In a possible good development in poverty relief, the Guardian reports that Republicans may c ompromise on cuts to the SNAP (food stamps) program. Republican negotiators have reined in funding for Wall Street regulators as part of agreeing a $1.1tn federal budget, but dropped demands for further reductions in federal food stamp programmes that would have hit America's poorest families.

A coordinator of the government-sponsored The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) at Harvesters food bank in Kansas City was pleased to learn that the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) will be distributing a large quantity of produce. The USDA announced the distribution of $126 million of produce , including tart cherries, blueberries, raisins, fresh tomatoes, among other items. She indicated getting this food in the emergency assistance channel is welcome news, given the "feast or famine" nature of getting quality food to the 50-plus area agencies in Missouri participating in TEFAP throughout the year. What follows is background on TEFAP as an important public poverty relief program. TEFAP is administered through states and benefits unemployed and low-income people. People that receive the food are eligible for TEFAP based on income standards set by the states. The food is distributed in Missouri and Kansas at food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters, predomi...

A warehouse worker at Harvesters was loading items for a semi-truckload delivery of food to Wetmore, Kansas, where 150 people are expected in this rural community west of Atchison, which initiated a conversation about rural poverty and hunger. Wetmore is located in Nemaha County, where per capita income is 10% less than the state average but poverty level is slightly better than state poverty. Hunger in the county as indicated by the 2012 Kansas Atlas  shows less food insecurity than the state average. Why would the town's people need emergency food assistance? Income levels have dropped in the county since the recession, the nearest food pantry is 14 miles away in Holton, and more people in rural areas receive SNAP benefits compared to poor people in urban areas  but the benefits only support so much of a family's needs. Gas prices in Kansas have doubled in 5 years , but the increases in health insurance and higher education may be the two most important factors in why...

I spoke with John Jones today about the food assistance programs at his organization. He’s the pastor of Faith in Christ Fellowship in Oak Grove, Missouri, which is a rural town of 8000 people just east of suburban Blue Springs near I-70. The organization started with a toiletry pantry, providing personal, household and cleaning supplies, but added food items in partnership with Harvesters food bank. He said they focused on toiletry items because he did not think the need for food was that great. Faith in Christ Fellowship serves 80 families each week, when they once only opened the pantry once a month. He’s noticed an increase in the number of visitors, especially low-income families whose income has not recovered with the end of the recession. He pointed out that people in the lower income levels have not seen their income return to pre-recession levels like many people in the top income brackets. According to US Census figures Oak Grove has a per capita income rate that is $6000 ...

Rural Life Day conference speakers and participants shared a large collection of books and films focused on food production and sustainability. These resources supported the presentations and topics discussed during the 2013 Rural Life Day in Jefferson City, Missouri . Books Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty by Mark Winne Beacon Press, 2009 The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan Penguin, 2007 The Good Food Revolution: Growing Healthy Food, People, and Communities by Will Allen Gotham, 2012 Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism and the Economics of Destruction by Barry C. Lynn Wiley, 2011 Slaughterhouse Blues: The Meat and Poultry Industry in North America by Donald D. Stull, Michael Broadway Cengage Learning, 2012 Foodopoly: The Battle Over the Future of Food and Farming in America by Wenonah Hauter The New Press, 2012 The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michae...