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Latest News on July 2008

July 31
Hunger Doesn't Take a Vacation: Summer Nutrition Status Report 2008

The Summer Nutrition Status Report 2008 is out, and it’s not very promising.

July 31, 2008
Jen Russell
Youth Today

Percentage of eligible students for free-and-reduced-price lunch that actually participated in 2007.UNITED STATES of America — When school lets out for summer, some 13.5 million children lose access to healthy meals, according to this report from FRAC (Food Research and Action Center) that finds the nation’s two federal Summer Nutrition Programs were feeding fewer than one in five eligible children in July 2007. Subsidized school lunches feed 16.3 million low-income children during the school year.

States are missing out as well - on federal funds available through the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP). FRAC researchers calculated that collectively, states could receive an additional $222 million in funding simply by boosting participation in those programs to just 40 percent of eligible low-income children - reaching an additional 3.7 million children. In 2007, the programs were feeding only 17.5 percent of eligible children.

Hungry children aren’t predicted to fare much better this year.

“This summer, we see that rising food and energy costs are playing havoc with budgets - both for families that were already struggling to make ends meet and for summer programs that are trying to serve hungry children,” said Jim Weill, president of FRAC, in a statement accompanying the report.

A nationwide expansion last year of the Simplified Summer Food Program, originally piloted in 13 states, significantly reduced administrative barriers for providers. From 2000 to 2007, the pilot states saw their summer food program participation climb by 54 percent while other states saw an average decline of 14.4 percent. The report provides 2007 summer feeding data for all states and discusses national trends.

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Did You Know?

July 6
Man-Made Hunger

The Group of 8 industrial nations must accept their share of responsibility for the food crisis and lay out clear plans to address it.

July 6, 2008
The New York Times

NEW YORK CITY, New York — Thirty countries have already seen food riots this year. The ever higher cost of food could push tens of millions of people into abject poverty and starvation.

To a large degree, this crisis is man-made — the result of misguided energy and farm policies. When President Bush and other heads of state of the Group of 8 leading industrial nations meet in Japan this week, they must accept their full share of responsibility and lay out clearly what they will do to address this crisis.

To start, they must live up to their 2005 commitment to vastly increase aid to the poorest countries. And they must push other wealthy countries, like those in the Middle East, to help too. That will not be enough. They must also commit to reduce, or even better, do away with their most egregious agricultural and energy subsidies, which contribute to the spread of hunger throughout the world.

In the last year, the price of corn has risen 70 percent; wheat 55 percent; rice 160 percent. The World Bank estimates that for a group of 41 poor countries the combined shock of rising prices of food, oil and other raw materials over the past 18 months will cost them between 3 and 10 percent of their annual economic output.

Some of the causes are out of governments’ control, including the rising cost of energy and fertilizer, and drought in food exporters like Australia. Higher consumption of animal protein in China and India has also driven demand for feed grains. Wrongheaded policies among rich and poor nations are also playing a big role.

Of those, perhaps the most wrongheaded are the tangle of subsidies, mandates and tariffs to encourage the production of biofuels from crops in the United States and the European Union. According to the World Bank, almost all of the growth in global corn production from 2004 to 2007 was devoted to American ethanol production — pushing up corn and animal feed prices and prompting farmers to switch from other crops to corn.

Long-standing farm subsidies in the rich world have also contributed to the crisis, ruining farmers in poor countries and depressing agricultural investment.

Rich countries are not the only culprits. At least 30 developing countries have imposed restrictions or bans on the export of foodstuffs. Importing countries are now stockpiling supplies, which takes more food from global markets. Export barriers also reduce farmers’ profits and discourage them from investing in more production.

So far there is no sign that the leaders of the developed countries are ready to do what is needed. The United States and Europe have refused to curtail their bio-fuel subsidies or their lavish farm subsidies. They are also falling far short of their aid commitments.

At the 2005 G8 summit meeting, leaders said that by 2010 wealthier nations would increase annual development aid to poor countries by $50 billion. Yet aid has increased by only $11 billion. And there is suspicion that the G8 nations, who were to provide the lion’s share of the increase, want to wiggle out of their commitment.

We welcome President Bush’s pledge to provide $5 billion this year and next to “fight global hunger,” but much more must be done. The United States remains the stingiest of rich nations when it come to foreign aid.

In a letter to heads of state of the G8, Robert Zoellick, the World Bank president, estimated that the bank needs $3.5 billion to provide immediate food aid and seed and fertilizer in poor countries. The International Monetary Fund and the World Food Program estimate they need $6.5 billion more in the short term to help feed vulnerable populations. This does not even count the need for essential longer-term investments to increase farm productivity in poor nations in Africa and elsewhere.

As Mr. Zoellick wrote, the food crisis is a test of the world’s willingness to help the most vulnerable. The leaders gathered in Japan must rise to the challenge.

What You Can Do

July 3
A Gourmet Family Meal for $10?

Cooking a a gourmet family meal for $10.

July 3, 2008
Joel Stein
Time

HOLLYWOOD, California — Tom Colicchio hasn’t looked at food prices in a long time. “Wow, pasta is more expensive than I thought it was,” he says, scanning the shelves of the Ralph’s supermarket on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Colicchio, the head judge on Bravo’s Top Chef, hires people to buy food for his Craft, CraftSteak and ‘wichcraft restaurants across the country. Plus, he’s rich.

Colicchio and Stein serve up homemade fennel pork loin and pasta vegetarienne.So he’s a little freaked out trying to come up with—at my editor’s request—a recession-gourmet meal for four people for around $10. And Colicchio is not mistaken: the average retail price of a 5-lb. (2.3 kg) bag of flour has jumped 34% from last July, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation. The costs of other staples like eggs and cheddar cheese have also gone way up. And since Americans have been spending about 10% of their income on food for the past 25 years or so, rising prices do not mean people are eating less—they’re just buying cheaper stuff. “We’re seeing less meat and more pizza, sandwiches, Italian pasta and casserole-type dishes,” says Harry Balzer, who tracks food trends for the NPD Group, a market-research firm. “The real change that occurred in the last bout of inflation was that one of the cheapest meats became more popular: chicken.”

Colicchio has the same instincts as most consumers. In fact, when I asked a bunch of famous chefs to come up with a family meal for around $10, almost all of them gave me recipes for chicken or pasta. I had expected them to load up on organ meats or weird cuts people only eat in other countries. But Colicchio is in deep contemplation over a London broil steak for $6.75. Ham is too expensive, as are asparagus, fresh fish and even (when I bring them to him giggling) cow’s feet. Instead, Colicchio considers first a beef stew and then some chicken drumsticks, which he’d stuff with bread crumbs. “This is where people make mistakes,” he says, looking at the poultry section. “People are going to grab chicken breasts because it’s easy. A breast and a half is $8. This whole chicken is $6.50. You can use the bones for soup.” He also rejects any packaged items. “The key is staying away from all processed foods. Even beans. A bag of dry beans is cheaper than a can of beans.” Because Colicchio volunteers with Share Our Strength, a charity that fights childhood hunger, he knows how hard it is for families to get by on a low food budget. “You can do this, but it’s tough,” he says. “Look how much time we’re spending. If you’re a working mom, you don’t have time to look around like this. And you have to know how to cook and grow your own herbs.”

After half an hour, he chooses a pork loin that he’ll cook along with spaghetti in a sauce of fennel, eggplant, zucchini, onion and a small store-brand can of peeled whole tomatoes. “I’d rather have a nice Italian Cento brand, but it’s going in a sauce, so I don’t think it needs to be great,” he says of the tomatoes. This pasta is something he’d make at home, where he often combines spaghetti with broccoli, garlic, olive oil and Parmesan cheese or, more often, with bacon, cabbage and cannellini beans. I ask him why he didn’t consider a rice dish, and he looks at me like I’ve never met an Italian. “I don’t like rice,” he says.

Though Colicchio has quickly become an expert at using Ralph’s vegetable scale, when we go to the register, the tab is more than $12. We put back one of the zucchini, but that cuts off only 50¢. Eric, our register guy, lets us scan a Ralph’s Club card, and we’re down to $11.88. Eric is a man who can feel the pain of a superstar chef on a magazine’s expense account trying to pull off an arbitrary economic experiment.

We head to my house, since Colicchio figures he’ll be too tempted to cheat at Craft by stealing from the pantry. He snips some basil from my garden, takes some Parmesan from my fridge and spends half an hour doing what he calls cooking and what I call making me realize how lame I am. I didn’t know I am supposed to sharpen my knives every time I use them. Or that I should use so much oil. Or clean as I go along. He made fun of me for wanting to time things and for buying prepeeled garlic. (I also had whole bulbs, which he used.) He washed his hands after he sneezed, which I suppose I should start to do too.

The food turns out great, and it actually feeds five for lunch: Colicchio, me, my wife, the photographer and his assistant. And we down it with a $2 bottle of Charles Shaw, which is actually just fine. I’m going to make it through these tough economic times. Because my job leaves me more than enough time for shopping and growing herbs.

  • PASTA: $1.34
  • FENNEL: $1.47
  • ONIONS: $0.51
  • OTHER VEGGIES: $4.07
  • PORK LOIN: $4.49
  • MEAL: $11.88

What You Can Do

July 1
Combining food and fun

Summer programs step in to help combat hunger.

July 1, 2008
Susan Allen
Times Argus

BARRE, Vermont — More than 29,000 Vermont children rely on free or reduced meals at school during the academic year, sometimes the only food they receive in a day, prompting anti-hunger advocates to scramble to ensure kids don’t go hungry when the school year ends.

“Food is the most flexible item in the budget,” said Sarah Kunz, Summer Nutrition Outreach and Policy Specialist with the Vermont Campaign to End Childhood Hunger. She said costs such as transportation and housing are fixed, making food one area where families can cut back when times are tough.

Kids eating while having fun.“That flexible piece of the budget is getting stretched more and more. Families rely on low-cost, high-calorie, low-nutrition cheap foods,” she said. Kids might be eating, but they are consuming low-cost, low-nutrition calories rather than a balanced diet.

“The face of hunger is not the extended bellies and wasted limbs that people often think about when they hear the words childhood hunger,” she added. “It’s a different face, something you might not recognize if you passed the child on the street.”

Today at noon, Kunz and Barre summertime lunch providers (folks from all eight city sites that provide summer food programs to children) will hold a free barbeque for kids under 18 at the Barre City Pool. Families are welcome, too, but only the kids eat free.

Kunz said the event is designed to let people know that the pool is the newest site for a summer food program, and to get the word out that many places where kids gather in the summertime – such as the Aldrich Library – will also offer meals and snacks in some cases this summer.

“We hear stories from our partners across the state about what’s happening” when school closes, Kunz said. One Brattleboro teacher said she asked students if they were excited school was finally over, and one responded, ‘Summer is no lunch and nothing to do,’ Kunz said.

During the school year, breakfast and lunch is free to children of families of four earning less than $26,000 annually. Vermont lawmakers this year passed a law ensuring children in families earning between $26,000 and $37,000 pay only 40 cents per meal.

Those children receive breakfasts and lunches that include milk, protein, fruits and vegetables, and a carbohydrate. But come summertime, that quality nutrition – and the programs that might otherwise provide food to hungry children, such as camp — often ends, Kunz said.

“So a lot of kids are home alone, home with older siblings, home in the care of relatives,” Kunz said. “Summertime as a time for kids to be going to camp or involved in sports is not the reality for low-income families.”

The average cost of a day camp in New England is $193 a week per child, and $780 for a week at a residential camp, she said, citing statistics from the American Camping Association

“For families having a hard time already buying fruits and vegetables, $75 a week (for camp) on scholarship is just not on the family budget,” she added.

“When the doors to school close in the spring there is a lack of statewide programming for kids that is age appropriate, cheap or free — it just doesn’t exist for a lot of kids,” Kunz said. “Libraries, Parks and Recreation (departments) and churches are picking up the pieces.”

She said the Campaign to End Childhood Hunger works with communities “to ensure wherever there’s a concentration of low-income kids, there’s access to balanced nutrition. From Richford to Barre to Burlington … it can be done.”

She said Burlington has implemented a program in conjunction with the city’s Intervale farm to allow children to help grow the foods they will eat during the summertime. The Children’s Library at Aldrich in Barre pairs nutritional food with reading and craft activities. And kids at Highgate Housing in Barre enjoy meals along with gardening, free book giveaways and more.

“There are wonderful examples of all different summer programs,” she said.

Adding those activities to a meal program also reduces the stigma children feel about participating in low-income programs.

“Stigma is an issue. It’s an issue with every nutrition assistance program,” Kunz said. “But a lot of kids just view summer food as one more element of a fun day. It’s going to the pool and oh, you get lunch, too.”

She said the number of children participating in summer food programs is expected to increase significantly this summer for two reasons. First, the economy is tight, with the rising price of gasoline and other expenses putting unusual pressure on family budgets. In addition, the number of programs offering summertime meals to low-income children has also increased, expanding access to good food.

Some statistics Kunz cites include:

  • Vermont ranks 9th in the nation for participation in summer food programs;
  • This year there will be 13 summer food sites throughout Washington County, up from 9 last summer;
  • This year, meal sites are located in Barre, Montpelier, Berlin, Northfield and Williamstown.
  • And Barre is the only community in Washington County with drop-in summer food sites, allowing kids to stop by for a meal and activities without being enrolled in a particular camp or program.

Starting today, add the Barre City Pool to the list of sites that combine food and fun.

The ultimate goal of summertime meal programs, Kunz said, is to “nourish their bellies and nourish their minds.”

“In my job, there’s nothing more satisfying than going to a food site in July on a hot day and see a child who has been running around and having a great time sit down and have a balanced meal,” she said. “It’s always really rewarding.”

What You Can Do