Texas Food Banks Call for Changes to Child Nutrition Programs

During the 2008 campaign, Barack Obama announced a goal of ending childhood hunger in America by the year 2015. Since then, recession, health care and other issues have taken the national stage, but this goal is still achievable!

Texas has the highest rate of children facing hunger in the nation – 22%. This year, Congress is scheduled to rewrite some of the key programs affecting the nutrition of Texas children. The Texas Food Bank Network has agreed on a set of detailed policy changes to achieve this goal:

National School Lunch Program (NSLP)
After SNAP (formerly Food Stamps), school lunch is the largest anti-hunger program in the country, and a potent lever for changing the way children learn about food and healthy habits. Unfortunately, school lunch in Texas doesn’t reach all the children who need it due to stigma and difficulty enrolling eligible families. Food quality also suffers due to low reimbursement rates, competitive junk foods outside the cafeteria, a thicket of conflicting nutrition rules and a general feeling that school lunch is “welfare food.” Congress can improve the NSLP by:

• Forcing competitive foods to meet the same science-based standards as cafeteria food (S.934 / H.R.1324)
• Eliminating the "reduced price" lunch category to cut red tape and feed more children
• Making the successful Philadelphia "Universal Free" model a national option (S. 1226 / H.R. 2803)
• Improving direct certification through other programs to save paperwork & enroll more eligible families (S. 1343)
• Simplifying nutrition standards to allow for local food sourcing & more commonsense rules

School Breakfast
School breakfast provides nutrition early in the day, when it is needed most for learning, and contributes to better behavior in the classroom. Unfortunately, participation in school breakfast in Texas is low due to stigma, and the difficulty in getting to school early before buses run. Congress can improve school breakfast participation by:

• Encouraging the adoption of universal breakfast, as Texas has done (H.R. 3277 / S. 1480)
• Promoting the use of in-class breakfast programs (H.R. 3277 / S. 1480)

Supplemental Program for Women, Infants & Children (WIC)
WIC provides new & expectant mothers with nutritionist-approved food vital for early childhood development. Unfortunately, WIC is a discretionary program, and so annual funding routinely falls behind rising food prices and expanding caseloads in tough economic times. This makes it difficult for caseworkers to advertise slots that may not exist in the next fiscal year. Congress can improve WIC by:

• Appropriating enough funding in the FY 2010 budget to meet the growing need
• Excluding combat pay from income for the purposes of determining eligibility (S.581)

Child and Adult Care Feeding Program (CACFP)
CACFP reimburses community organizations like food banks for providing after-school meals in settings that include tutoring, physical activity & nutrition education. Unfortunately, smaller organizations have difficulty meeting the program requirements using the small “snack” reimbursement, which is the highest reimbursement available in 44 states. Congress can improve CACFP by:

• Bringing the higher "supper" reimbursement option nationwide (S.990/H.R. 3321)
• Encouraging data-sharing between CACFP sponsors and local school districts

Summer Nutrition Programs
The summer nutrition programs recognize that hunger doesn’t take a vacation, and hungry children are missing school meals when school is out. Unfortunately, participation is very low in Texas, due to inconsistent outreach and a lack of organizations willing to sponsor sites. Congress can help more organizations sponsor sites by:

• Increasing reimbursement levels and and assisting in rural transportation costs
• Reducing sponsor paperwork where possible
• Decreasing area eligibility from 50% of the poverty line to 40% (H.R. 540)

These programs are the front-line in the fight against child hunger in Texas, and changing them will be vital to its elimination. Sign up now to find out how you can help!

Need For Summer Meals Soaring in East Texas

Video - Summer Meals sites funded by the USDA and provided by the East Texas Food Bank have had to expand to accomodate all the children in families hit hard by the recession.

Three New Reports Focus Attention on Child Hunger

Three national organizations released reports focused on child hunger today, detailing the extent, economic costs, and potential solutions to the problem. Texas has the highest rate of child hunger of all states, according to Census data, with one in five children facing food insecurity.

Feeding America, the national network of food banks, released a report detailing the costs of child hunger to the economy. Arguing that the direct and indirect effect of child hunger in the U.S. is a contributing factor to the nation’s economic woes and puts America at a competitive disadvantage, the paper articulates the lifelong consequences child food insecurity has on individuals and families.

“While one in five Texas children remain at risk of hunger, a significant portion of Texans will face lowered academic achievement, reduced productivity, and escalating health care costs for years to come,” said Texas Food Bank Network State Director Barbara Anderson. “This will hinder economic growth and affect all Texans, not just the neediest.”

Two other reports were also released today. One, from the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) contained a blueprint for achieving President Obama’s campaign goal of ending domestic child hunger by 2015. The other, a report by the California Food Policy Advocates, details that state’s experience with the federal Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), which also provides meals in Texas, as a well as a national perspective on the importance of SFSP.

The FRAC report boldly calls on the nation to end childhood hunger through a mix of economic growth focused on lower-income workers, strengthening proven anti-hunger programs, and making sure all families have convenient access to reasonably priced, healthy food. The Federal Child Nutrition Programs central to this strategy will be reauthorized by Congress this year.

The Texas Food Bank Network, whose members serve every Texas county, estimated serving over 900,000 hungry children in the last year.

“As long as there are hungry children in Texas, our state will not be able to achieve its full potential,” said Texas Food Bank Network Policy Coordinator JC Dwyer. “These reports show us the terrible consequences of continuing to allow this problem to exist, but also provide us a way to stop it. With the help of Congress and state and local leaders, we can end child hunger in Texas.”

Hunger Doesn't Take a Vacation: Summer Programs Strain to Feed Newly Hungry Texas Kids

Last week, USA Today reported on the skyrocketing number of children who have become eligible for free school lunches as a result of the recession.

While these children are on summer break, advocates wonder whether Summer Meals, a federally-funded program available in Texas, will be able to take up the slack.

The program, which can be offered to hungry children by school districts, municipalities, or nonprofits, is reimbursed by USDA and may be offered in a variety of formats. Food banks in Houston, Tyler, Dallas, Ft. Worth and Odessa have all launched innovative efforts designed to address hunger when school is out.

Summer Meal's biggest booster may be Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples, who traveled the state last week to drum up attention for the program (1, 2, 3, 4) while personally issuing a challenge to all Texas mayors on his blog.

"The mayors of Texas are in a position to improve the lives of children in their cities by generating awareness and working with organizations to help feed hungry children," said Staples. "I hope today spurs a change."

San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro agreed.

"In the richest nation in the world, no child should go hungry," he said. "We need to make sure the kids are not victims of a bad economy."

TX Lege OKs New Program for Hungry Kids

Yesterday, by unanimous vote, the Texas Senate approved HB 1622 for passage. The bill, which creates a program to distribute healthy foods to children at-risk of hunger and obesity, was also passed by a nearly unanimous House and is likely to be signed by Governor Perry. 

"I am feeling wonderful," said Rep. Helen Giddings, D-Dallas, one of the bill's authors. "We are going to be able to help so many children who are food insecure. This is just marvelous."

The new program still faces obstacles. Funding must be found in the state budget before June 1st to support the $20 million request. This decision will test the commitment of the legislature to childhood nutrition. 

"We're struggling to keep up with the demand and I expect that it's going to continue," commented David Weaver, Director of the South Plains Food Bank in Lubbock. "We need all the help we can get."

You can help make this bill a reality! Please call your state legislators today and ask them to outwardly support full funding for the food bank bill, HB 1622!

Texas #1 in Child Hunger - Legislature Reacts

Yesterday the national group Feeding America released newly calculated Census data revealing that 22.1% of Texas children live in households facing hunger, the highest rate in the nation.

In response, State Senator Judith Zaffirini and Representative Helen Giddings have introduced a bill that would help food banks provide healthy foods to at-risk children. The bill passed the Senate Health and Human Services Committee this week.

“This legislation can help us combat the growing crisis of hunger among Texas youth by providing access to food choices that are vital for nutrition education and behavioral change," said Zaffirini in a statement. "What’s more, it would support and extend existing efforts by nonprofit agencies.”

The Texas bill, HB 1622 would address the problem by distributing healthy staples among existing networks maintained by food banks statewide.

“The passage of House Bill 1622 would go a long way to help get healthy food to children who are food-insecure, the children who linger in the school cafeteria and look for leftovers, those that return to school on Monday tired and weak from a weekend of undernourishment,” Eric Cooper, director of the San Antonio Food Bank told the Express News.

Legislators are meeting this week to decide the fate of the bill. You can tell your state legislator to support the bill here!

More coverage: Houston, Wichita Falls, Tyler (1,2), Austin

New Funds, Public & Private, Feed Growing Hungry

As the economy falters and the number of hungry Texans rises, funding from both the public and private sectors is rushing to fill the gaps.

Private giving for food banks is up nationwide, according to USA Today. In Tyler, the number of donors to the East Texas Food Bank is up 115%, and their average gift increased from $49.66 to $56.37.  

Anonymous giving is also up, a trend exemplified by a recent $1 million anonymous donation to the North Texas Food Bank. “[The donor] said she would not have been able to look herself in the mirror over the holidays had she not made the gift,” said Jan Pruitt, the food bank’s CEO.

Government programs are following suit by making new investments in programs proven to feed children and the elderly. 

Texas TDA Commissioner Todd Staples recently announced the use of $11 million in federal stimulus money to retrofit school kitchens, making it easier to deliver healthy meals to children through the free and reduced-price lunch program. 

Soon thereafter, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack announced $124,000 in federal grants to encourage the use of farmers' markets by low-income seniors in Texas this summer. 

Even judges are getting into the act, allowing probationers to donate food rather than perform community service. "What better way to help the community than by feeding people?" asked corrections officer Bob Hughes.