Childhood Hunger
Latest News on July 2010
- July 30
Taste Of The Nation Miami -
TASTE OF THE NATION WILL BE HELD AT THE FAIRMONT RESORT.
Local 10 Morning News at 6
July 29, 2010Taste of the Nation will be held at the Fairmont Resort. Tickets are $95.00 each. All proceeds will go towards Share Our Strength’s fight to end childhood hunger. Laurie Jennings will be hosting the event.
Click here to go to the Local 10 Morning News at 6 website and then click on “Preview” to watch a video about the Taste of the Nation Miami event.
- July 26
How Cause Marketing Can Improve Business For Restaurants -
WEBINAR OFFERS 10 TIPS FOR GETTING INVOLVED IN ONLINE COMMUNITIES
Nation’s Restaurant News
Mark Brandau
July 23, 2010
Cause marketing not only affects a restaurant’s reputation in a positive way, but it also makes strong business sense as a way to focus a brand’s social-media strategy and to engage with staff and customers, according to a webinar promoting Share Our Strength’s Great American Dine Out.
Diana Hovey, senior vice president of marketing for Corner Bakery Cafe, and Amanda Hite, chief executive and founder of Talent Revolution, praised the power of charitable involvement — in their case, with the Great American Dine Out — in a panel discussion titled “Drive Sales with Social Media and Cause Marketing.”
Hovey, who also serves as chairwoman for the marketing advisory board for the Great American Dine Out, said getting involved in a cause, as Corner Bakery did last year with the event, benefits a brand’s reputation, its employee engagement and its guest engagement.
“The bottom line is that we need all three of these objectives to be met, and [cause marketing] does that and is good for business,” Hovey said. “One of the nicest surprises was the level of enthusiasm and pride of our involvement with Great American Dine Out among our staff. They loved that their efforts could contribute to a solution to ending hunger. Our customers did too, and [the cause] justified their decision to visit our restaurant more and to spend more money.”
During the Great American Dine Out, which will take place Sept. 19-25, chain and independent restaurants nationwide will raise funds for Share Our Strength, whose mission is to end child hunger. More than 3,500 restaurants participated in last year’s event, Share Our Strength said.
Corner Bakery got involved last year by offering a bounce-back coupon for a free Whoopie Pie to any customer making a $1 donation to Share Our Strength, Hovey said. The initiative raised $23,000 from Corner Bakery guests, who also redeemed 32 percent of the bounce-back coupons, generating incremental sales for the chain.
The brand will build upon that success this year by offering multiple bounce-backs for a $5 donation, Hovey said, adding that Corner Bakery’s goal is to raise $100,000 this year.
Cause-marketing events like the Great American Dine Out not only raise funds but also the profile of any restaurant making the effort to increase its social-media awareness, said Hite of Talent Revolution, a human resources consulting firm.
“You can use this Dine Out event as a model to learn how to use social media in your restaurants,” Hite said. “But, not one of these platforms will replace or give you a short cut to building trusting relationships with customers or going out of your way to show that you care. The power behind this is the relationship building.”
Pointing to several restaurants’ integration of the Great American Dine Out with their social-media initiatives as examples, Hite shared a 10-step plan for becoming active in online communities and using them to drive sales:
• Be there — While Twitter and Facebook have the furthest-reaching presence for restaurants, don’t forget about YouTube and the benefit of having a proprietary blog. “One of the easiest ways to get your restaurant on the first page of Google search results is to have great videos on YouTube,” Hite said. Starting a blog on any of the free publishing platforms like Blogger or Typepad gives restaurants “a voice beyond 140 characters or a status update,” she said, adding that all the different platforms should be linked back to a restaurant’s website.
• Listen to the conversations — Restaurants can easily search for what has been said about their brands through functions like following Twitter hash tags.
• Join the conversations — “Respond to the people talking about you, and be personal, authentic and conversational,” Hite said. Don’t just start pushing out slogans and advertising copy, because people tune that messaging out, she said. Talking about a cause to which the restaurant is dedicated makes a good subject to starting talking about.
• Host “meet-ups” or “tweet-ups” in the restaurant — Asking Twitter followers or Facebook fans to meet each other in real life is a popular draw, Hite said, especially when they can do it for charity. “The cause is the perfect reason [to get together], and the restaurant is the perfect place,” she said.
• Play Foursquare — The location-based social-media platform allows restaurants to offer plenty of deals and recognition to their most frequent customers, and it’s easy to provide incentives to check-in during the week of Great American Dine Out.
• Recruit and engage brand ambassadors — Hite recommends identifying social-media friends with the largest networks and asking them to spread the word about a restaurant and its involvement with a charitable cause.
• Leverage video to personalize invitations — Recording a video greeting to the most influential people in a restaurant’s social network is a popular way to personalize the call to action and increases the likelihood the message gets passed along.
• Participate in industry social-media events — In the case of the Great American Dine Out, a Tweet-a-thon scheduled for Sept. 20 is meant to involve all participating restaurants in order to promote the nationwide event. When all participants agree beforehand to tag social-media posts with the same key words, the event’s prominence increases.
• Distribute a special offer — Driving traffic to a restaurant, whether on a specific day for a fundraiser or during a random slow period, can be achieved quickly with a coupon or other offer sent to social-media fans and followers, Hite said.
• Run a contest — Hite suggested that restaurants run contests on Facebook or Twitter during the Great American Dine Out to increase participation. Customers could win gift cards for answering trivia questions on Facebook or retweeting a message about the event on Twitter.
Fishbowl Marketing hosted the webinar. Click here for more information about the Great American Dine Out.
- July 23
Child Hunger: Nutritious Food Tough To Afford (Recording - Interview with Bill Shore) -
NEARLY 17 MILLION CHILDREN, MORE THAN 20 PERCENT OF THE KIDS IN THIS COUNTRY, STRUGGLE WITH HUNGER. PRESIDENT OBAMA VOWED TO PUT AN END TO CHILDHOOD HUNGER BY 2015. SO FAR, THOUGH, THE PROBLEM IS GETTING WORSE, NOT BETTER.
National Public Radio: Talk Of The Nation
Neal Conan
July 21, 2010
The Obama administration has pledged to end childhood hunger in the U.S. by 2015. Millions of kids cannot get enough to eat at home, and that number is going up, not down. NPR’s Pam Fessler and Share our Strength founder Bill Shore talk about childhood hunger and the tug of war between nutrition and frugality.
Transcript
NEAL CONAN, host:
This is TALK OF THE NATION. I’m Neal Conan in Washington.
Nearly 17 million children, more than 20 percent of the kids in this country, struggle with hunger. President Obama vowed to put an end to childhood hunger by 2015. So far, though, the problem is getting worse, not better.
And as we learned this week in a series of reports on NPR News, the problem does not lie in a lack of food but in the inability of millions of families to pay for it or know what benefits they’re entitled to.
Later in this hour, kings, queens and bodice-rippers. Historian Alison Weir will join us. But first, do you have trouble feeding your children? Did you go hungry as a child? Tell us your story, 800-989-8255. Email us, talk@npr.org. You can also join the conversation on our website. That’s at npr.org. Click on TALK OF THE NATION.
And joining us here in Studio 3A is Pam Fessler, NPR’s national desk correspondent. Nice to have you on the program today.
PAM FESSLER: Thank you, Neal.
CONAN: And when the government says 16.7 million children live in households where they struggle to find enough to eat, what exactly are they talking about?
FESSLER: That’s a good place to start because we hear these figures about almost 17 million children struggling with hunger. Actually, those numbers refer to 17 million children who live in households where there is a struggle to get enough food.
That means that sometime during the course of the year, somebody in the household might have had to cut back on the food that they’re eating. They’re struggling to make ends meet.
It does not mean that those children are missing meals. In fact, in a lot of those households, if somebody does have to miss a meal, it’s almost always going to be the adult.
But within those numbers, the Agriculture Department believes that there are about half a million to a million children who in fact do during the course of the year have to miss meals and don’t get enough nutritious food.
CONAN: Don’t get enough nutritious food. But we’re not talking about, as you said in the piece, children with bloated bellies and that sort of thing.
FESSLER: Right. Hunger in America is a little bit different than what some of us are used to seeing in maybe some Third World countries, of a child with a bloated stomach.
CONAN: To give us some idea of this, of how this worked, you profiled a family in Pennsylvania and followed them as the mother, as she went around trying to, well, make her food stamp money stretch for a whole month, $600 for a family of five, and going around to various food pantries and the various there was a lot about calculations.
FESSLER: Exactly, and that was the thing that really struck me, is that they were able to make ends meet. They were able to pull things together, but it was this constant need to focus on every detail, about how much everything cost, how to prepare foods to get the most out of them.
They knew exactly what hours the food pantry was open. They knew when the soup kitchen was open. They knew she knew what foods she could get where at the best prices. And it was, you know, an obsession that I think that a lot of people generally don’t have to have with what they eat.
CONAN: And going through the calculations, I remember the one, that the Kool-Aid, the two bags of Kool-Aid to make a gallon costs, what, 40 cents between the two of them, and plus you have to add the sugar. You could do much better, it was cheaper, to get tea bags, 100 for 99 cents, and one spoonful, one cupful of sugar, and so you drink a lot of iced tea.
FESSLER: Right. So she calculated that this was not only more economic, not economical, but it was also healthier because there was less sugar.
CONAN: So healthier is another aspect of this, and it is curious that in this country the people who sometimes struggle with having enough to eat can also be obese.
FESSLER: Exactly, and that’s one thing I was struck when I was reporting on this piece, that hunger, it’s a very complicated issue. It’s not just getting enough food, but you also it’s the issue of what food you do get and what choices you make with the food that you do get.
And a lot of people who are poor and who do struggle with food issues do tend to be overweight. And one reason is that some of the food that’s available to them is and costs less - happens to be higher calorie, more processed. They might have less access to fresh fruits and vegetables. And as a result, some of them do tend to be overweight or that they just aren’t educated to know what food is better for them.
CONAN: Again, going back to your piece, the mom talking about - well, I could buy leaner meats and fresh fruit and go through my budget within a week and a half.
FESSLER: Right, and also, you know, if somebody is hungry, you might be trying as a parent to fill up that child with extra calories so that they won’t complain about being hungry.
CONAN: We want to get listeners involved in this conversation. NPR’s Pam Fessler is our guest. You may have heard her series earlier in this week on hunger in America, focusing particularly on children, 800-989-8255. Email us, talk@npr.org. And we’ll start with Stephanie(ph), and Stephanie’s calling us from Cincinnati.
STEPHANIE (Caller): Hi, am I on the air?
CONAN: You are. Go ahead, please.
STEPHANIE: Great. My family was on food stamps when I was a child, and I had the same question for my mom: How can we be poor and my brother be fat? It didn’t make any sense to me.
But what is available to poor people is often the least healthy foods, the high-corn, high-soy foods that we’ve made cheap through monoculture. And also, we often didn’t have a car, and we would have to rely on the local convenience store, and they never have fresh vegetables or fresh fruit or anything like that. So cars can - transportation can be an issue, as well.
CONAN: I wonder, Stephanie, if there’s something you at a lot in your childhood that you decline every time you see it on the table as an adult.
STEPHANIE: Well, not that I actually have to keep myself away from dry cereal. My brother and I were both kind of dry cereal junkies because that was an easy, light thing that we could carry home from the store and eat a lot of and fill up on.
CONAN: Well, all right, a lot of Raisin Bran, perhaps, in your background. Stephanie, thanks very much for the phone call. We appreciate it.
STEPHANIE: Thank you.
CONAN: Bye-bye. Reinforcing some of the things that you said.
FESSLER: Yes, I think the caller makes a very interesting point. There are a lot of areas in this country which have been named food deserts, and there are areas, a lot of them are in inner-city areas where and poor areas where there are not a lot of grocery stores. There are not a lot of options.
And as this woman mentioned, somebody might have to go to a corner store, a convenience store, that has only processed, high-calorie foods. They really don’t have an option, especially if they don’t have transportation.
I also think that when you’re poor, a lot sometimes it’s very busy being poor. You have to it takes longer to get places. You might have to struggle to work longer hours. And you might not have time to prepare a healthy meal for your children. It might be easier to just come home late at night and, you know, put, do a box of mac and cheese, you know?
CONAN: Yeah, open a can or…
FESSLER: Right, right, or open a can.
CONAN: Tammy’s calling, Tammy from Dayton, Ohio.
TAMMY (Caller): Hello?
CONAN: Hi, Tammy, you’re on the air.
TAMMY: Yeah, I just really have agreed with everything I’ve heard so far. I’ve lost two jobs in two years here in Ohio, and I feel guilty just accepting the school lunch program for my kids because I don’t really like what they’re eating, and I don’t feel it’s healthy, but I need to do that to stretch the food stamps longer.
And I don’t want to complain because I know I have options I’m sure people in other countries don’t have, but I don’t I try not to use anything from the food pantry because I know there are people here in Ohio that have already run out of their food stamps and unemployment that need that more than I do.
CONAN: Nevertheless, those are benefits that you’re entitled to.
TAMMY: That’s true, but those food pantries run out, and you know, friends I have who have been out of work longer than me are the ones that I’d rather be able to get that.
I mean, we’re not nobody is hungry, but I sure don’t like having to get some of the food choices I do when I can drive by the farmers market that has fresh corn and vegetables that the food stamps don’t pay for. So we get the canned and frozen.
CONAN: Pam?
FESSLER: Yeah, it’s interesting. You know, obviously, food pantries and food banks around the country are seeing much, much longer lines, ever since the recession. A lot more people are coming there for services.
But it was interesting, in the series that I did, when I was speaking with the woman who runs the local food pantry in the town where the family lived, she was saying that, you know, they’re struggling. The food pantry is also struggling. They don’t have that many you know, they have much higher demand than they have products.
She said now she can during the course of the month can offer a family either milk or orange juice but not both, that they don’t have enough funds to do that.
TAMMY: That’s definitely true here in Ohio. I know the food pantries are always hurting.
CONAN: What’s your must difficult choice, Tammy?
TAMMY: The most difficult choice I think is I would much rather have my children pack a lunch during the school year than eat what they eat at school, always the gross pizza. And I’m just really disappointed in the food that they get at school. And so sometimes I let them pack, and you know, they’ll pack a nice peanut butter, or they’ll pack a little bit of ham and cheese, something that’s better than what they’re going to get at school.
CONAN: Okay, thank you very much, and Tammy, we wish you good luck getting a job.
TAMMY: Thank you.
CONAN: Bye. Here’s an email. This is from Dave: Poverty and hunger that results from poverty today drives my life goals. My mother once had a jar of change stolen when I was child, and without our small network of friends we would have gone without food entirely. It’s hard for me to recall, but I expect she went without food a few times.
And Pam, that has to raise the question - you say, well, you know, maybe a family, an adult has to skip a meal. This is 17 million that’s maybe missed one meal a year or something like that. This can have a pretty long-lasting psychological effect, you’d think.
FESSLER: Yes, I think, you know, even if the child themself does not miss the meal, just having to see their parents skip a meal - they might not notice it. You know, the parents might say, oh, well, I’m just not hungry today.
But I think, you know, the kids eventually might see just I think what I noticed, this family, the children, who are there’s two teenage girls and an eight-year-old boy, especially the teenagers, they noticed that their mother was stressed, that she was stressed by this issue.
So even if they didn’t notice that she was missing meals or skipping meals, they could see the stress that this was bringing upon the family, just having to worry about food.
CONAN: Email from Jessica in Portland: I grew up in a household that for a few years struggled to get food. I basically lived off cereal, milk, noodles, frozen vegetables and Country Crock.
I never talked about it others until much later in life. I never realized how much it hindered me. It affected my ability to eat for the years that followed. Good food would make me nauseous. To this day, 10 years later, though I joke about it, I cannot eat or smell Country Crock.
I think that the emphasis on food stamps should always be with nutrition, possibly some materials to help people deal with the psychological effects of not being able to afford food. Is there anything like that happening?
FESSLER: Well, that is one of the things that the administration, the Obama administration, as well as a lot of anti-hunger groups in the country are trying to do, and members of Congress.
There is a child nutrition bill that’s working its way through Congress right now, and one of the things that it’s trying to do is to encourage healthier eating, to provide incentives for better school lunches, as one of the previous callers mentioned - healthier, higher nutrition standards, incentives for more fruit and vegetables, things like low-fat milk.
CONAN: Okay, we’re talking with NPR’s Pam Fessler this hour about her series on childhood hunger. Call and tell us if this is your story. Our phone number is 800-989-8255. Email us, talk @npr.org. Stay with us. I’m Neal Conan. It’s the TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.
(Soundbite of music)
CONAN: This is TALK OF THE NATION. I’m Neal Conan in Washington.
We’re talking about the problem of childhood hunger this hour. NPR’s Pam Fessler just concluded a series on food insecurity. We’re exploring what it might take to make sure the millions of children who struggle with hunger have enough to eat and how to balance the problems of nutrition and necessity.
If this is your story, if you have trouble feeding your children, if you went hungry as a child, give us a call, 800-989-8255. Email us, talk@npr.org. You can also join the conversation on our website. Go to npr.org. Just click on TALK OF THE NATION.
Joining us now here in Studio 3A in Washington is Bill Shore, founder and executive director of Share our Strength, an organization dedicated to ending childhood hunger in the United States. Nice to have you with us today.
Mr. BILL SHORE (Founder, Executive Director, Share our Strength): Thanks, thanks for having me.
CONAN: The Obama administration set that 2015 goal, and we noted earlier, it seems to be getting worse, not better. Is that a reflection of the recession?
Mr. SHORE: I think the recession has had a lot to do with it. We’ve seen record levels of hunger in this country. When you think that for the first time in history, more than 40 million Americans are on the - now the SNAP program, formerly food stamps, that one…
CONAN: A plastic card these days.
Mr. SHORE: Electronic Benefits Card. But that’s record levels of hunger. The key, though, and I think one of the reasons that Obama set this goal, is that most of the ingredients in place for ending hunger are already there.
CONAN: And those ingredients are?
Mr. SHORE: Programs like the school breakfast program, the school lunch program, summer feeding. They’re not being fully utilized. As I think Pam made the point, the issue is not lack of food. It’s not even lack of food and nutrition programs. It’s lack of access to those programs.
CONAN: And sometimes that is a lack of people understanding they are eligible for these programs.
Mr. SHORE: Sometimes it’s lack of understanding and lack of awareness. Often it’s lack of the cities or the states actually putting in place what they need to do so that people can be fed.
So for example, of the 18 million kids that get school lunch, all 18 million are eligible for summer feeding during the summer when the schools are closed. Only 16 percent of those kids are getting summer feeding because some communities have not looked for alternative sites, Boys and Girls Club, Department of Parks and Recreation, that you would need when the schools are closed. The irony is if you do, federal dollars flow into those communities.
CONAN: So just seems to need to get up - these systems up. Nevertheless, Pam was also talking about this big bill that’s going to be making its way through Congress. This is going to be expensive. There is already a lot of concern about federal spending right now. It’s not going to be a slam dunk to get this through Congress.
Mr. SHORE: No, it won’t be. You know, there, there you know, this is the amount of money at stake here is kind of a rounding error when you think of what we invested in, things like banks and auto companies. But nevertheless, there will be some deficit concerns.
The important thing to remember, though, is these are programs that work. They’ve had bipartisan support for more than 35 years. So I think there will be a child nutrition reauthorization. It may not be quite at the level at the level that the president’s been urging, but I hope that it will be.
CONAN: There are some people who have said that these given the programs that are available, given the food stamps that are available, given the places you can go to buy things cheaply, that when kids are having difficulties with hunger, it’s a function of poor parenting.
Mr. SHORE: Well, look, parents are always going to be the first line of defense for their children, and parents need to have their act together. They need to know what benefits they’re eligible for, and they need to parent well, and not all parents do.
I think the bigger problem, though - I think that’s a legitimate problem, the much bigger concern is communities that may not have put in place the programs that these kids are entitled to.
And you know, of all the suffering that’s taken place as a result of this session(ph), the least unnecessary aspect of that is hungry kids, because we have programs that work.
CONAN: Pam go ahead, I’m sorry.
FESSLER: No, I was just going to say, one point I think is important to make is that nobody really believes that just expanding these programs to the people who need them is going to end childhood hunger, that it’s a lot broader than that, that it also includes things like an improved economy, better education, that it’s much broader issue, that a lot of people who suffer or are at risk of hunger have many problems.
They might be health problems. They might be education problems. And a lot of it is getting access to jobs and income. So that actually is also part of the Obama administration’s plan to end childhood hunger, is to get jobs for people.
CONAN: Is this 2015 goal realistic, do you think?
Mr. SHORE: I think it is realistic. It’ll take a lot of work to get there, but we’re close, and if you look at some of the progress that’s been made, for example in Maryland, Governor O’Malley decided that he wanted to make a huge difference on this issue. He ordered state agencies to work with community groups. They increased their participation in a program like summer feeding by 17 percent, more than any other state except for one, except for West Virginia.
So Pam’s absolutely right. Hunger has always been a symptom of a deeper problem, which is poverty, but in terms of actually getting people the supports they need, governors and mayors and others have the ability to do that.
CONAN: And one big factor that might improve this is if the economy would improve and if people got more jobs.
Mr. SHORE: Absolutely. There is no alternative to economic growth, and not just economic growth because even during the Clinton years, when we had a lot of it, we left behind some 35 million Americans who stayed below the poverty line. So we need economic growth that brings those people into the economy.
CONAN: And just to go back to the series you did, Pam, with this one family -the father made, I think, $18,000 a year, some years better than others, in his job, way below the poverty line for a family of five. And at one point, when they were out of work, sleeping in a tent, living in a tent, eating cold food out of cans.
FESSLER: Right. This family actually has been in and out of homelessness several times, and the mother told me if she wasn’t getting all of this support from food stamps, the help from the food pantry, that she believes that they would be homeless again.
And when they were homeless, it’s this having to patch together all these different programs, and you’re just barely on the edge of surviving.
CONAN: And the odd thing is, you think of people who are getting government assistance. The stereotype is that they are, you know, they’re somehow well, I’ll use the word - laziness is involved, that they’re just receiving.
This woman lives a very busy life trying to make this, these few benefits stretch to cover everything she needs.
FESSLER: Exactly, and the husband is working a full-time job, maybe not making a lot of money, but he is working full-time. It’s not that they’re just sitting around waiting to get these benefits.
CONAN: Bill Shore, if there was one thing that you could snap your fingers and make happen that might do the most to eradicate childhood hunger, what would that be?
Mr. SHORE: I think at this moment I would get as many Americans as possible on the phone to their representatives to Congress and to senators, because this legislation has passed the House committee, it’s passed the Senate committee, it’s waiting to come to the floor, and it is at a tipping point, and this is a place where citizens and voters can make a huge difference on an issue that is solvable.
CONAN: Bill Shore, thanks very much for your time today. We appreciate it.
Mr. SHORE: Thanks.
CONAN: Bill Shore, founder and executive director of Share our Strength, and he was kind enough to join us here in Studio 3A. Let’s get some more callers in on the conversation. Amber(ph), Amber is calling us from Ann Arbor.
AMBER (Caller): Hi, how are you? I just wanted to make the comment - as a full-time college student, single mother of two, it was some of the most nutritious eating that my family did on food stamps, because I didn’t buy stuff that was bad for us, and I cooked everything from scratch.
I know that the time thing is huge, and I had a great background for it. My mom taught me how to cook. My grandmother taught me how to cook. And buying whole carrots and peeling them and chopping them up was not a big deal to me.
But it’s possible. You just with less meat and meatless meals and dried beans and fresh vegetables, it’s really possible to eat really well if you put the time into it.
CONAN: Well, time, as we suggested, in the family you’re profiling, Pam, was not the issue. They put a lot of time into it. But sometimes the choices aren’t available.
FESSLER: Yeah, and also it is just knowledge. A lot of food pantries and food banks now are starting to offer a lot more nutrition classes, cooking classes for their clients, so that they can take this food that they do have and make it the most, you know, the most nutritious meals that they can, to be a little more creative.
A lot of food pantries, like the one that I profiled, are starting to have fresh farm stands, where they are getting produce that’s gleaned from area farms to give to people who are poor.
CONAN: And there are also farmers markets that do accept these plastic cards, where you can use them.
FESSLER: Exactly, the SNAP benefits, or formerly food stamps. And I think there’s just so much more knowledge. Even as a country, we’re so much more health-conscious, and that is also permeating this whole world of trying to help people who are poor and struggling with food.
CONAN: Amber, thanks very much.
AMBER: Thank you.
CONAN: Bye-bye. Let’s see if we can go next to this is Kay(ph), Kay with us from Scottsdale.
KAY (Caller): Hi, (unintelligible) my call. I grew up in a family, single parent, we were on food stamps, and there were a lot of times we were so over-involved in the public school systems, just because they were opportunities for, you know, lunches or after-school eats and stuff like that on top of all the activity.
At home, I really hardly ever ate anything. It was really, really meager. A lot of it wasn’t really the best stuff in the world - you know, sugary cereal and whatnot. But it got to be where I’m so busy all the time, and I’m a grad student now - I have to keep myself on a regimen of food because I don’t have an appetite for food anymore.
(Unintelligible) like, I wouldn’t eat hardly at all when I was younger, and now I don’t want to eat, and so it’s like I don’t feel a sensation of hunger. And so it’s really hard for me to want to eat and eat healthy and take the time to cook, and I do.
But it’s it really affected because I never had an eating schedule as much when I wasn’t in school. Summers were always really hard. And so I can see how that’s affected me as an adult, where it’s like I can work and work and work and not go out and eat or just grab something really quick at Taco Bell or something, and it’s not healthy.
CONAN: It’s not healthy. I wonder if you’ve spoken to somebody about this.
KATE: Yeah, and it’s - it adds, in fact - my doctor has just made sure - he’s like, well, just basically, you know, I have to eat, like, at least four times a day, because I just - I cannot even think about it now because food really wasn’t ever a big part my life when I was little. Like, we - I was hungry and I was always so involved, I didn’t realize that. It wasn’t ever something, oh, my family is poor and we don’t, like, the amount of food other people have. It was never a realization to me.
So now, it’s like I have to - my life is like Planters and fruit now, and living right do it, like - it’s a big thing being in the desert, too. I mean, I have to be well nourished or I get, you know, you can get heat stroke. And I have had that happened before (unintelligible)…
CONAN: And this does not sound like a classic case of anorexia, but nevertheless this can be a real problem and you do need to keep in touch with your doctor on this.
KATE: Oh, yes.
CONAN: All right. Kate, good luck to you.
KATE: Mm-hmm.
CONAN: Bye-bye. Here’s an email that comes in anonymously. Thought you might appreciate the irony of this. I work as a teacher in low-income schools. Having been raised on welfare, I had to relearn good nutritional habits in college and I try to model that behavior in my classroom. However, on a teacher’s salary, I can only afford to bring in low-quality snacks to feed my students that come to school hungry, but what I bring in is better than what they get in the cafeteria.
So the emphasis on the school lunch programs. And, as we said, the caller in Ohio was complaining about the grotesque pizza that they sometimes have there.
FESSLER: Exactly. And I think one of the things that’s driving this need to end or this desire to end childhood hunger besides the moral issues, there are a lot of people who feel that - or have seen that hungry children don’t learn as well, and that is hurting them in the long run. It’s hurting the country in the long run. They’re - have difficulty. Teachers report that hungry children come into their classes and they’re - they just don’t pay attention.
We also have health care costs. There’s concern about long-term health care costs with children who, not only are not eating, but maybe not eating the right foods. We have about a third of the children in this country now are considered to be overweight or obese.
CONAN: Email, this from Kate(ph) in Harrisonburg, Virginia: At our local farmers market, they recently began accepting food stamps. So the first $10 you put on your SNAP card each visit, they will double it thus stretching the food budget. I will gladly have my money go to the local community for healthier food for myself and my boys. That sounds like a good idea.
Here, this is Gayle(ph) from Ann Arbor. Here in Ann Arbor, a major Michigan-based food retailer has a website that creates meals for a family’s week that includes what the store has on sale and sometimes manufacturers’ coupons. This method helps family’s meals that average about $2 per person, and that’s a good thing.
We’re talking about hunger in America, particularly with children. Pam Fessler is our guest. You’re listening to TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.
Let’s go next to Sonny(ph), Sonny with us from Holland in Michigan.
SONNY (Caller): Thank you for taking my call. I had a recent experience with an extended family gathering, where we were going to the store to get supplies for ice cream sundaes. And all of us were reaching in our wallets to chip in a little bit. My brother-in-law spoke up and said, oh, I’ve got a bunch left on my food stamps card, why don’t you take this? So off to the store, we went and got ice cream and hot fudge and syrup and all kinds of other things and came home.
And the whole time I was thinking about the irony of the fact that we had just bought all of this totally unnutritious(ph) food for people who didn’t need it. And I know that’s an anomaly, but I don’t think that any food should be able to be purchased with food stamps. And if we require that only healthy foods or the healthier type of foods be purchased, then we will have cost savings on the other side, which is Medicaid and Medicare, where many of the same people are receiving benefits there for diabetes and high cholesterol and all of these things that come from eating unhealthily.
CONAN: Well, Pam?
FESSLER: Some people actually have made that suggestion. You know, why can’t the government restrict what you buy with your food stamps and as the caller mentioned only allow healthy food to be purchased? And it’s - at least the administration’s response has been, administratively, it would be absolutely impossible to administer that and to monitor in each grocery store what people are buying with their food stamps and that they think a better approach is to just have this better education.
CONAN: Well, they’re not allowed to buy beer or tobacco.
FESSLER: Right. There are certain - actually, there are certain things that they can’t, but as far as what kind of combination of food that they buy.
CONAN: And, Sonny…
SONNY: Can I add one thing to that?
CONAN: Go ahead.
SONNY: Well, I think that that’s maybe an easy out by the administration if they’re saying that because, I mean, obviously, you can’t buy beer and other things. But also, you know, for those on WIC, they can very easily restrict the parents to buying certain types of cereals and milk and eggs and not allow them to use that money for other things.
So I think the process and the infrastructure is already in place, it just needs to be put in. And I’m sure that food lobby has a lot to say about that as well. But…
CONAN: As a, though, recipient of the SNAP - the food stamp money, I mean, might you wait a minute, the government is telling me what I can buy and what I can’t buy. Please. I can make those choices for my family and I don’t need a bureaucrat in Washington, D.C., to tell me I can buy this of that and not that of this.
SONNY: Yeah, they certainly can, but they need to use their money to do that, not that public money.
CONAN: All right. Sonny, thanks very much for the call. Appreciate it.
SONNY: Thank you.
CONAN: Here’s an email. This is from Jason(ph) in Rock Hill. I grew up in a relatively rural area. We hunted deer and grew our own veggies. However, years when neither I nor my father killed a deer were much tougher economically. I wonder, are they major differences between rural and urban areas in terms of food shortages? Do you know, Pam?
FESSLER: I’m afraid I don’t know…
(Soundbite of laughter)
FESSLER: …if there’s much of a difference. But, you know, obviously, the food desert issue of people having access to grocery stores that is both in rural areas and urban areas, there is not much difference in that.
CONAN: And this from Rica(ph) in Grand Rapids. I work for the masons at Michigan. Many lodges throughout the state have made donations to local food pantries. It amazes me that despite the importance of access to quality food and nutrition education, so little attention is paid to it by the average American. It’s almost as though unless people experience hunger personally, they lack a frame of reference that allows them to empathize with those in need.
Given that, I wonder what kind of response have you gotten since these pieces aired.
FESSLER: Well, it was interesting, we got a - quite a - on our - especially on our website, we got a lot of negative comments about the family that I profiled. There were a lot of people who said they couldn’t believe that a family of five would have trouble living on $600 in food stamps a month, that they felt like, you know, that if they were frugal, that they would be able to survive on that. And there were also complaints and, you know, lack of understanding of how somebody…
CONAN: Mm-hmm.
FESSLER: …could be overweight and be struggling with food, which I think we’ve talked about that issue before, that it’s, obviously, sometimes it’s the options that are available to them.
I think one of the more interesting things I encountered when I was reporting this story is that the woman who ran the food bank, the local food bank, said that as the country becomes healthier, she’s actually getting some less nutritious things being donated, some of our castaways, like more sugar cereal.
CONAN: Huh.
FESSLER: …that she was getting donated than - she used to get high-fiber cereals.
CONAN: Pam Fessler, great series. Thank you very much for it.
FESSLER: Thank you.
CONAN: NPR’s Pam Fessler, who works for our national desk. Coming up, off with their heads, in some cases, their bodices. We’ll talk with Alison Weir. Stay with us. It’s the TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News
- July 23
Walmart Donates $1.5 Million To Help Share Our Strength® Expand Family Nutrition Education Programs In The U.S. -
HEALTHY LOW-COST COOKING PROGRAMS MAKE NUTRITION MORE ACCESIBLE
Fox Business
July 22, 2010
WASHINGTON - Share Our Strength® Founder and Executive Director Bill Shore today announced that the organization received a $1.5 million grant from the Walmart Foundation to support and expand their nutrition education programs for low-income families in the United States.
The grant will expand the number of markets that offer Share Our Strength’s nutrition-based cooking classes that help families help themselves by teaching them how to prepare healthy, low-cost meals. Walmart’s investment will allow Share Our Strength to reach 11,000 families annually, by expanding these courses to three to five additional markets within the year. The program’s culinary and nutrition volunteers currently teach hundreds of nutrition education courses in 26 markets nationwide. In the coming weeks, Share Our Strength will be distributing nearly $400,000 of the Walmart funds to these local markets to support their new outreach and education efforts.
The grant is part of Walmart’s recently announced $2 billion commitment to help end hunger in America through its “Fighting Hunger Together” initiative, which includes giving $250 million in grants to hunger relief organizations and donating more than 1.1 billion pounds of food from Walmart stores, distribution centers and Sam’s Club locations, valued at $1.75 billion.
“Providing daily healthy meals is the best way to end the hunger crisis that affect millions of children in America,” said Shore. “Walmart’s generous grant will make a positive difference for thousands of families and children across our country.”
Walmart’s support will also make possible the launch of Supermarket Smarts, Share Our Strength’s first nationwide program that will teach families budget-wise ways to select and purchase healthy foods. Walmart’s grant will enable Share Our Strength to reach thousands of children under the age of five who are in childcare centers through Eating Smart from the Start, a program dedicated to helping kids develop healthy eating habits at an early age.
“We’re committed to fighting childhood hunger—it’s a key part to our work to help end hunger in America,” said Margaret McKenna, president of the Walmart Foundation. “Our partnership with Share Our Strength provides families, especially children, with access to healthy, affordable food. This innovative program will help thousands of families make smart eating decisions, regardless of income level.”
Share Our Strength, the leading organization working to ensure that no child goes hungry in America, has been teaching low-income families how to cook better for less since 1993. For nearly seventeen years, professional chefs and nutritionists have been volunteering their time and expertise to lead hands-on courses that teach adults, teens and kids how to get the most nutrition out of a limited budget.
More information on Walmart’s Fighting Hunger initiative can be found at www.walmart.com/fightinghunger.
About Share Our Strength
Share Our Strength, a national nonprofit, is ending childhood hunger in America by connecting children with the nutritious food they need to lead healthy, active lives. Through its No Kid Hungry™ campaign—a national effort to end childhood hunger in America by 2015—Share Our Strength ensures children in need are enrolled in effective federal nutrition programs, invests in community organizations fighting hunger, teaches families how to cook healthy meals on a budget, and builds public-private partnerships to end hunger, both nationally and at the state level. Working closely with the culinary industry and relying on the strength of its volunteers, Share Our Strength hosts innovative culinary fundraising events and develops pioneering cause marketing campaigns that support No Kid Hungry. Visit Strength.org to get involved in the No Kid Hungry campaign.
About Philanthropy at Walmart
Walmart and the Walmart Foundation are proud to support the charitable causes that are important to customers and associates in their own neighborhoods. The Walmart Foundation funds initiatives focused on education, workforce development, economic opportunity, environmental sustainability, and health and wellness. From Feb. 1, 2009 through Jan. 31, 2010, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation gave more than $512 million in cash and in-kind gifts globally, $467 million of which was donated in the U.S. To learn more, visit www.walmartfoundation.org.
CONTACT: Theresa Burton, (202) 478-6522 office, tburton@strength.org
SOURCE Share Our Strength
Copyright© 2010 PR Newswire. All rights reserved
- July 23
Live Your Best Life Walk -
READ ARTICLE ABOUT OPRAH’S “LIVE YOUR BEST LIFE WALK” IN THE AUGUST ISSUE OF OPRAH MAGAZINE.
Oprah Magazine
Diane Rehm
August, 2010
- July 23
Childhood Hunger In The United States -
RECORDING INTERVIEW WITH BILLY SHORE
National Public Radio: The Diane Rehm Show
Diane Rehm
July 22, 2010
Click here to hear a recording interview with Bill Shore.
- July 21
Bake Sale To Support Share Our Strength To End Childhood Hunger In America -
NEARLY 1 IN 4 CHILDREN IN AMERICA STRUGGLE WITH HUNGER - THAT’S JUST ABOUT 17 MILLION KIDS …
Examiner
by Jessica Lemmo
July 21, 2010
Nearly 1 in 4 children in America struggle with hunger- thats just about 17 million kids…
Employees of the Domino Sugar Baltimore plant will host a bake sale on Wednesday, July 21st at the Inner Harbor from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., as part of Share Our Strength’s Great American Bake Sale campaign to end childhood hunger in America by 2015.
The event will be held on the corner of Light St. and E. Pratt St. on McKeldin Square, where Domino Sugar employees will offer a variety of donated baked goods to raise funds.
As a major sponsor of Share Our Strength, Domino Sugar has agreed to match contributions raised at the Baltimore bake sale dollar for dollar. Success of this event will be measured not only by the dollar amount of funds raised, but also by the number of people who become aware of the seriousness of our nation’s hunger epidemic among children.
Since 2003, more than 1.7 million people have participated in Share Our Strength’s Great American Bake Sale, raising $6 million to make sure no child in America grows up hungry. To learn more go to www.strength.org.
- July 19
Good Food For A Good Cause -
THE TASTE OF THE NATION BENEFIT GOING ON SUNDAY IN DENVER WILL DEFEAT HUNGER ON SEVERAL LEVELS.
Denver Daily News
by Gene Davis
July 16, 2010
The Taste of the Nation benefit going on Sunday in Denver will defeat hunger on several levels.
For one, people who pay the $75 to get in will be treated to food from more than 25 of Denver’s top restaurants. Also, all of the proceeds from the event will go towards taking a bite out of childhood hunger in Colorado.
“There’s not a better deal in town,” said Chuck Sullivan, co-chair of Taste of the Nation Denver.
Taste of the Nation started in Denver 22 years ago as a way to fight childhood hunger. Proceeds from the event this year will stay in the community by going towards its beneficiaries, Operation Frontline and The Campaign to End Childhood Hunger in Colorado.
The initial goal for the program is to increase enrollment in school breakfast programs and summer food programs. According to Sullivan, Colorado ranks poorly for the number of kids who are eligible but not enrolled in those school food programs.
The Taste of the Nation organizers are able to combat childhood hunger thanks in part to the top Denver chefs and restaurants that are donating their time and resources to the event. From D Bar Desserts to Steve’s Snappin Dogs, just about every taste bud can be satisfied by the culinary fare being offered.
And along with the great food, Taste of the Nation boasts a mixology competition. Some of the biggest Colorado spirits, wine and beer companies will be on hand, including Leopld Bros., Two Rivers Winery and Great Divide.
“For $75, you get a great night out of food, drinks and music and all proceeds are going to fight childhood hunger,” said Sullivan. “What’s not to like?”
Where: Mile High Station, 2027 W. Colfax Ave.
When: Sunday, 5-8 p.m.
Cost: $75
Information: DenverTaste.org - July 19
Michelle Obama Backs Child Nutrition Bill -
FIRST LADY MICHELLE OBAMA DOESN’T USUALLY WEIGH IN ON PENDING LEGISLATION BUT SHE HAS JUST ISSUED A STATEMENT ABOUT A BILL THAT COULD IMPACT HER SIGNATURE ISSUE: CHILDHOOD OBESITY.
USA Today
by Mimi Hall
July 15, 2010
Obama is praising passage in a House committee of a massive new Child Nutrition Reauthorization Bill. Here’s her statement:
“I congratulate Chairman Miller and the House Education and Labor Committee on the successful bipartisan passage of a child nutrition reauthorization bill out of the Committee today. This important legislation will combat hunger and provide millions of schoolchildren with access to healthier meals, a critical step in the battle against childhood obesity. I urge both the House and Senate to take their child nutrition bills to the floor and pass them without delay. The President looks forward to signing a final bill this year, so that we can make significant progress in improving the nutrition and health of children across our nation.”
This marks the first time the first lady has issued a formal statement responding to, and urging further, legislative action, says her spokeswoman, Katie McCormick-Lelyveld. Such statements are common from her husband and other West Wing officials.
- July 19
Michelle Obama Backs Child Nutrition Bill -
FIRST LADY MICHELLE OBAMA DOESN’T USUALLY WEIGH IN ON PENDING LEGISLATION BUT SHE HAS JUST ISSUED A STATEMENT ABOUT A BILL THAT COULD IMPACT HER SIGNATURE ISSUE: CHILDHOOD OBESITY.
USA Today
by Mimi Hall
July 15, 2010
Obama is praising passage in a House committee of a massive new Child Nutrition Reauthorization Bill. Here’s her statement:
“I congratulate Chairman Miller and the House Education and Labor Committee on the successful bipartisan passage of a child nutrition reauthorization bill out of the Committee today. This important legislation will combat hunger and provide millions of schoolchildren with access to healthier meals, a critical step in the battle against childhood obesity. I urge both the House and Senate to take their child nutrition bills to the floor and pass them without delay. The President looks forward to signing a final bill this year, so that we can make significant progress in improving the nutrition and health of children across our nation.”
This marks the first time the first lady has issued a formal statement responding to, and urging further, legislative action, says her spokeswoman, Katie McCormick-Lelyveld. Such statements are common from her husband and other West Wing officials.
- July 15
No Kid Hungry Innovation Awards -
SN PARTNER SHARE OUR STRENGTH IS A LEADER IN THE BATTLE AGAINST HUNGER, AND ONE OF THE REASONS SOS DOES SUCH GREAT WORK IS THAT IT IS ALWAYS LOOKING FOR NEW IDEAS.
Service Nation
July 13, 2010
The best way to attack deeply ingrained social problems is with creativity and energy. SN partner Share Our Strength is a leader in the battle against hunger, and one of the reasons SOS does such great work is that it is always looking for new ideas. To get them, SOS created the No Kid Hungry Innovation Awards to seek out organizations that that are employing smart stategies that achieve an outsized impact.
Here’s how Share Our Strength describes what it is up to:
-
There is an abundance of food and nutrition programs for children, but there are gaps, and too many kids are slipping through. Sometimes children don’t have a safe way to get to the programs, sometimes they don’t want to participate because it’s “not cool” to receive free lunch and all too often families just don’t know that programs exist.
-
Share Our Strength created the No Kid Hungry Innovation Awards to honor innovative organizations that are overcoming barriers and connecting hungry kids with food.
More than 18,000 votes were cast in the search for the best hunger-fight innovators, and here are the winners.
First up is an organization that excels at gettig food to kids after school:
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Greater Berks Food Bank, No Kid Hungry Innovator and winner of $25,000
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The Greater Berks Food Bank (Reading, PA) started a new program this year called “Produce for Kids.” This innovative program delivers a bag filled with fresh produce to elementary school children on a weekday afternoon immediately after school to help stock their fridges with healthy ingredients.
Then we have two organization that are reaching hungry kids wherever they are:
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Homefront, No Kid Hungry Innovator and winner of $12,500
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HomeFront (Lawrenceville, NJ) provides transportation, education and recreational programs for homeless children, while providing comprehensive services designed to help homeless families meet the unique challenges they face in qualifying for programs like school lunch and food stamps.
And—
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Portland Parks Foundation, No Kid Hungry Innovator and winner of $12,500
-
Portland Parks Foundation (Portland, OR) is taking its popular mobile Rock Climbing Wall to high need communities to attract kids and serve them healthy meals.
Finally, we have an organization that is doing a great job getting more meals to more kids:
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PlusTime New Hampshire, No Kid Hungry Innovator and winner of $25,000
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PlusTime New Hampshire (Concord, NH) will expand after school meals and snack sites in New Hampshire with a focus on replication and expansion of effective programs.
It’s always inspiring to see how innovation translates into real impact, and it’s obvious that when it comes to hunger, poverty, and so many of the social challenges the United States is facing that creativity will be key. So keep innovating. Here’s why it matters.
- July 13
Congress Can Ensure Nutrition Act's Success -
THE CHILD NUTRITION ACT GIVES CONGRESS THE OPPORTUNITY TO AFFECT THE HEALTH OF MILLIONS OF AMERICANS
Roll Call
by Steve Katz
July 12, 2010
The Child Nutrition Act must be reauthorized by Sept. 30. It is an all-important kitchen table of government programs that address the nutritional deficits, access to school meals and the need to combat hunger among our children — a number that has spiked because of the recession.
The Child Nutrition Act gives Congress the opportunity to affect the health of millions of Americans, and if any Senator or Representative doubts this, I urge you to share a meal with a student in your local schools. Their next spoonful depends on your vote.
According to Pat Nicklin, managing director for the nonprofit organization Share Our Strength, “Hunger is at record-levels: Nearly one in four kids in America face hunger. In fact, we recently reported that 62 percent of teachers see children who regularly come to school hungry because they don’t get enough to eat at home. Reauthorizing the Child Nutrition Act will increase the number of kids eligible for school meals; expand after school and summer meals programs; and pilot innovative state projects to improve the way we feed children at risk of hunger.”
Sociologist Janet Poppendieck writes in the book “Free for All: Fixing School Food in America,” “All children in American schools are ‘eligible’ to participate in the school lunch and breakfast programs, but not all students have access to them.”
Megan Lott, associate policy director for the Community Food Security Coalition, sees significant legislative progress today precisely because “the Senate bill secured a focus on improving the nutritional quality of school meals, while the House bill, entitled Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act, strikes a better balance by also focusing on access to meals available in schools.”
The most visible evidence of the need for access to meals with nutritional value comes from the irony that there is too much access to food lacking in nutritional value. What has been termed the obesity-hunger paradox are the myriad health problems and dietary life cycles resulting directly from the overavailability and overconsumption of unhealthy quantities of fatty fast food and sugary soft drinks. The McDonald’s Big Mac and the 7-Eleven Super Big Gulp have their own Facebook pages!
In a recent article describing the “Bronx Paradox,” the New York Times reported that “a recent survey found that the most severe hunger-related problems in the nation are in the South Bronx, long one of the country’s capitals of obesity. Experts say these are not parallel problems persisting in side-by-side neighborhoods, but plagues often seen in the same households, even the same person: the hungriest people in America today, statistically speaking, may well be not sickly skinny, but excessively fat.”
First lady Michelle Obama, who has launched the Let’s Move campaign to help end childhood obesity in a generation, recently convened more than 500 chefs on the South Lawn of the White House to help work with schools and improve the nutrition, desirability and consumption of school meals.
In attendance and helping the first lady and schoolchildren pick vegetables from the White House garden was José Andrés, the Washington, D.C.-based Spanish chef known for his “Made in Spain” PBS television program. Chef Andrés has placed a message urging support of the Child Nutrition Act on the menus at his restaurants, and the tapas or small-plate theme of his restaurant Jaleo belies a bigger concern that Andrés recognizes because he began his career as a cook in the Spanish navy.
“Child nutrition and obesity are national security problems for the United States,” he says. “Do people realize how many Army recruits are being turned away because they are overweight?”
The 2010 report “Too Fat to Fight: Retired Military Leaders Want Junk Food Out of America’s Schools,” issued by the nonprofit organization Mission: Readiness, details these concerns. In the report, retired Gen. John Shalikashvili, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, states: “Every month hundreds of otherwise excellent candidates for military service are turned away by recruiters because of weight problems. Since 1995, the proportion of recruits who failed their physical exams because they were overweight has risen by nearly 70 percent. We need to reverse this trend, and an excellent place to start is by improving the quality of food served in our schools.”
As critical mass builds for support of the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act, the awareness of the need is coupled with the realization that the success of the act is increasingly dependent on effective collaboration between nonprofit organizations and federal, state and local government and school systems.
President Barack Obama has included $400 million in the fiscal 2011 budget to bring better food to impoverished urban communities, but his funding is modeled on proven approaches in Pennsylvania and other states in which the efforts must be grounded at the local level, often creating and coordinating a farm-to-table network where no other supply chain exists.
Congress should recognize these realities and consider the contrast between the governmental centricity of legislation and the highly distributed way it will be implemented. Like other recent legislation triggering large funding requirements, Congress has achieved greater control, and more importantly greater confidence and accountability for how a statute and its programs are working, when it creates affirmative monitoring and reporting requirements in legislation.
In the Child Nutrition Act, Congress should consider giving the Government Accountability Office the affirmative and proactive responsibility to monitor and report on what happens after the bill is reauthorized and the challenging work across government and society begins. The GAO’s institutional knowledge and expertise has been demonstrated in more than a dozen recent reports about the very federal programs and problems across society that are the focus of the Child Nutrition Act reauthorization, and if asked, it can keep its trained eye on the act in ways that Congress itself cannot.
Steven L. Katz writes about food and public policy. He served as counsel to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and was senior adviser to David Walker, the former comptroller general of the United States.
- July 12
Raising Awareness of Childhood Hunger in Colorado -
WE HAVE SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASED THE NUMBER OF SUMMER MEAL SITES SO THAT LOW-INCOME CHILDREN CAN NOW OBTAIN A NUTRITIOUS LUNCH AT ONE OF MORE THAN 300 LOCATIONS STATEWIDE.
Denver Post Online
by Joe Crea
July 8, 2010
Re: “Feeding needy kids,” July 6 news story.
Thank you for your article raising awareness of the problem of childhood hunger in Colorado and the existence of the Summer Food Service Program.
Last November, I joined with Hunger Free Colorado and Share Our Strength to launch the Colorado Campaign to End Childhood Hunger by 2015. Coalition partners include businesses, the faith community, nonprofits and state agencies, and we are making tremendous progress.
We have significantly increased the number of summer meal sites so that low-income children can now obtain a nutritious lunch at one of more than 300 locations statewide.
The campaign also is engaged in an unprecedented outreach effort to inform Coloradans that free meals for children under 18 are now available. We have created a new toll-free number, 877-93-HUNGER, and website, summerfoodcolorado.org, to help families find the nearest summer food site. No forms, no paperwork, no bureaucracy. Just nutritious meals for hungry children. Later this month, our campaign partners, Education Commissioner Dwight Jones and I will announce the School Breakfast Challenge. We will challenge every principal in Colorado to increase the number of students receiving school breakfast. Research — along with common sense — clearly shows that hungry kids cannot learn or grow into healthy, thriving adults.
By working together, we can end childhood hunger.
While I’m not campaigning for re-election, I am campaigning to end childhood hunger. Please join me in ensuring that all Colorado children get the opportunity they deserve to fulfill their God-given potential.
Gov. Bill Ritter Jr.
- July 12
Michael Symon Fundraiser Food for Life to Welcome Nation's Finest Chefs -
MICHAEL SYMON HOSTS “FOOD FOR LIFE” ON SUNDAY, AUGUST 1, 2010 AT THE STATE THEATRE IN PLAYHOUSE SQUARE (OHIO)
Cleveland Plain Dealer Online
by Joe Crea
July 6, 2010
Much as I’d love to fly into New York City for dinner at Jonathan Waxman’s remarkable restaurant Barbuto, then out to Santa Monica, Calif., for a bite at Mary Sue Milliken’s sublime Border Grill, then head up to San Francisco to sample the succulence of Traci Des Jardin’s acclaimed Jardiniere before swinging through Chicago for meals at Koren Grieveson’s Avec and Michael Sheerin’s Blackbird — well, funds are tight.
But you and I will each have the rare opportunity to dig into all their creations, and those of at least 10 other chefs from restaurants across the nation, several of them here in Northeast Ohio. They’ll be in town for a culinary spectacular planned for Sunday, Aug. 1, at the State Theatre in PlayhouseSquare when Michael Symon hosts "Food for Life."
For years, Symon has hosted dinners to benefit Share Our Strength, an organization that fights hunger. This year, Cleveland’s "Iron Chef" has broadened his mission with the goal of generating funds for two other nonprofit organizations he supports: Autism Speaks and Urban Community Schools.
Cleveland chefs represented include Rocco Whalen (Fahrenheit), Jonathon Sawyer (Greenhouse Tavern), Paul Minnillo (the former Baricelli Inn), Scot Jones (Vegiterranean) and Eric Williams (Momocho), as well as Symon (Lola).. Other notable chefs from New York City, Miami, Philadephia and Los Angeles also will take part in the event.
A fresh take on Irish …
Breaking cultural perceptions can be a big hurdle. Perfect example: What do you think of when someone mentions Irish cuisine? OK, OK, sure, wiseacre answers include "oxymoron" or "a pot of potatoes" — but even if you’re thinking corned beef and cabbage, you’re way off the mark.
"For me it’s all about freshness and good quality and ‘clean’ food," says Karen Murphy, the new co-executive chef for Claddagh Irish Pubs. She has been working out of the chain’s Cleveland area location in Legacy Villagein Lyndhurst. Cary Erway shares co-exec duties.
Murphy, 36, knows a lot about Irish fare beyond her corporate perspective. She hails from Schull, a tiny fishing village on the southern tip of Ireland. Murphy says she grew up in her parents’ pub. "The pub floor was our own living room and we played there until they sent us upstairs to bed," she says. "I went with my parents to the dock each day to look over the catch to decide what to buy for the day’s meals. It’s where I got my appreciation for preparing restaurant food that tastes like it could be a home meal."
After coming to the United States and spending 13 years working in Boston, she went back to Ireland to study at Ballymaloe Cookery School, her homeland’s most famous cooking school, in Shanagarry, County Cork. Now back in the States, she oversees the 15 restaurants in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota that make up the Claddagh chain.
Currently, Murphy is supervising the rollout of an updated menu. A decidedly light, summer-friendly tone has overtaken the stereotypical "heavy" fare of time-worn tradition. Global influences — Latin, Asian, Mediterranean — have made marks on the new bill of fare. If you order the meatloaf, you’re served a wonderfully moist and subtly seasoned chicken meatloaf coated with coarse-grained Dijon-style mustard.
Yes, Bass Ale-battered fish and chips remain a staple, but the chefs have added a virtuous yet delicious alternative: cod baked with a light walnut-and-cilantro pesto over a refreshingly tangy portion of fresh ratatouille. The traditional soda bread is coarse, chewy and fragrantly wheaty, and the mashed potatoes are wonderfully earthy.
By the way: Yes, I’m a big fan of independent restaurants. If you’re grumbling about the spotlight on a chain, note that Claddagh is based in Solon.
- July 7
Q&A Tom Colicchio Talks Childhood Hunger -
TOM COLICCHIO IS A BUSY MAN. IN ADDITION TO HIS RECENT FACT-FINDING GULF SEAFOOD MISSION, THE CHEF, RESTAURATEUR AND TOP CHEF HEAD JUDGE TESTIFIED BEFORE THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, ADVOCATING FOR H.R.5504, THE IMPROVING NUTRITION FOR AMERICA’S CHILDREN ACT.
CNN Eatocracy
July 6, 2010
Tom Colicchio is a busy man. In addition to his recent fact-finding Gulf Seafood mission, the chef, restaurateur and Top Chef head judge testified before the House of Representatives, advocating for H.R.5504, the Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act.
He spoke with Eatocracy about his family’s fight against childhood hunger, the curse of cheap calories and the sheer terror of appearing before our nation’s elected officials.
(Stay tuned for part two of the interview tomorrow on the topic of Gulf Coast seafood and the power of social media to carry a message.)
Eatocracy: What is your personal connection with school lunch reform?
Tom Colicchio: My mother managed a school cafeteria. A couple of years back, my brothers and I were trying to get her to retire. Sitting down with her, we said “Mom, you’re always complaining that you’re tired. You’re fine. You don’t have to work anymore.”
She said, “I work because I know the kids coming into my lunchroom and the kids coming for breakfast - this is probably the only thing they’re going to eat all day.”
I grew up in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Seventy percent of the kids there qualified for free or reduced lunch, and there were thousands of kids in school. She said that she knew it was the only thing they were going to eat and she was fighting to get fresh vegetables and fruits in the lunchroom. That stuck with me.
This was about six years ago. Prior to that, I thought it was a job that when we were a little older, she decided she wanted to work. Then it became clear that it was part of her social life. But it was never put in terms where she actually realized she was affecting people’s lives.
That really resonated with me. It really brought home all the work we’ve been doing with groups like Share Our Strength, Feeding America and groups like that. It really put a face to it.
Eatocracy: Is there any connection in your day-to-day life now?
Tom Colicchio: More recently, my wife [filmmaker Lori Silverbush] started mentoring a young girl from Brooklyn and she would come to the house and she would eat and then she’d say “Oh, I’m full. Can I bring this home?” And we realized what she was doing; she was bringing it home for her siblings.
When food stamps run out halfway through the month, these kids are hungry. And they’re fed sweetened juice water, just to put something in their stomach; it’s not nice. There’s this old adage that you can’t make the food better at lunch because they don’t want it, they don’t like it. I don’t buy that.
When we bring her to our house, she wants a salad. She ate asparagus for the first time and she couldn’t believe how good it was. We bring her strawberry picking and she had no idea that strawberries came out of the ground and didn’t realize how good they were - how delicious it was.
Two episodes ago on Top Chef, we were in a school lunchroom in Washington, and these kids wanted seconds and thirds because the food was delicious.
Eatocracy: In your ideal world, what would be on every kid’s plate?
Tom Colicchio: In an ideal world for me, school lunch would be free for everybody. There’s a great case made for that. There’s a woman named Jane Poppendieck who wrote a book called ‘Free For All: Fixing School Food in America’ - a great read that outlines school lunch from the very beginning, from what Harry Truman started. It was in response to recruits showing up for the Second World War, who were malnourished and couldn’t fight.
Now we have the opposite. We had a Major General who testified that forty percent of new recruits going into the service fail out because they’re obese. It’s not from overfeeding. This is what people don’t understand: obesity is a symptom of poverty. It’s not a lifestyle choice where people are just eating and not exercising. It’s because kids - and this is the problem with school lunch right now - are getting sugar, fat, empty calories - lots of calories - but no nutrition.
Eatocracy: Cheap calories.
Tom Colicchio: Exactly - cheap calories. And they’re hungry, they’re eating more cheap food. Ideally, you want to see whole grains, fruits, vegetables, lean protein. It shouldn’t be pizza…for me it’s not even about how good it is - if it’s good, then kids will eat more of it. You need something more than chicken nuggets and pizza.
There’s a school of thought, this was about fifteen years ago, where kids are the clients coming into the school lunchroom, so let’s make this look like a fast food line. That’s what they tried to mimic and that’s what the kids get. My feeling is yeah, the kids want that, but my seventeen year old will sit in front of the X-Box and not take a shower if I let him.
We’re adults. We’re the ones who should teach the kids what’s good to eat. I don’t think the government should ever regulate what we eat at home, but we’re feeding them in school with tax dollars. Quite frankly, if my tax dollars are being spent to feed kids, I’d rather feed them better food.
Eatocracy: Did you have any inkling you’d be a person with a big platform to explore these issues?
Tom Colicchio: No, I didn’t. I’ve been involved almost as long as I’ve been a chef, trying to give back - especially when it comes to hunger. Fundraisers for Share Our Strength, Food Bank of New York - I’m on the board of Children of Bellevue in New York and Health Watch International.
When I started doing the show, I didn’t realize it was going to be as successful as it is. My feeling is, if you’re going to be called a celebrity, you might as well use it for some good. It’s better to testify for school lunches in front of Congress than get drunk in a bar somewhere and misbehave.
Eatocracy: What does it feel like to get hauled before the House? Did you feel like you were in trouble?
Tom Colicchio: I spent some time in the principal’s office when I was a kid, so I know the feeling. It’s very intimidating.
My wife and I are working on a documentary about domestic hunger; this is how the whole thing came about. We were working with a group called FRAC [Food and Research Coalition] in D.C. They asked me to do this.
I said okay, but I got nervous, because you don’t know what kind of questions they’re going to ask and you don’t want to completely blow it. So we had a written testimony - and I was nervous! I’ve been in front of a TV camera, but I was nervous.
Eatocracy: I read that you said it was surreal.
Tom Colicchio: Totally. I went in the offices first and there were some photo ops. Then they said we’re going to get ready and go and then all of a sudden - you’re there. You open up a door and you’re there. Wow!
Eatocracy: So it’s not your eighth grade class trip.
Tom Colicchio: Noooooo. But, you know, it was great. There was a good hour that went by - Secretary Vilsack gave his testimony and there was some Q and A and then there were four panelists who went on after him. So after seeing the back and forth, you kind of get the lay of the land.
But I was the first to testify and I started and I was like, “Um um um um…” Deep breath! Okay, good.
Eatocracy: So what’s scarier - going before the House, or anything you’ve ever done on Top Chef?
Tom Colicchio: Top Chef is not scary because it’s edited, number one, and I got a pretty good idea they want me to be the voice of reason, so they edit out all the bad stuff.
But no - I was nervous because you sit there and you realize…they say there are two things you never want to see made - sausage and law. And I know how to make sausage, so now I’m just making law. It was pretty cool.
Eatocracy: Did you ever think you’d be considered the voice of reason?
Tom Colicchio: There were three of us who were the voice of reason. And one person from The Heritage Foundation said that if children are getting obese, then maybe we should stop feeding them. I was like [sarcastically] “okay.” He became my adversary right away and I managed to get a few digs in afterward.
It is intimidating. You have Representatives up there and you don’t know what questions are going to come - if it’s going to be a friendly question or a hostile question. ow, this is a bipartisan bill - one of the few pieces of law that is going to be bipartisan and it has support. It’s eight billion dollars over ten years, and they have to find the offsets. So the bill is up for vote and they’ll find the offsets afterward, so there was a lot of discussion about where the money is going to come from - which was way above my pay grade,
It was one of those things - you check it off, been there done that. Great. Next?
Eatocracy: What is the thing that’s standing in the way? Who can possibly argue that feeding kids more and better and getting them to exercise is a bad thing?
Tom Colicchio: Well, here’s the thing. There are two bills right now. There’s a bill in the Senate that Blanche Lincoln from Arkansas is sponsoring and her bill asks for four and a half billion dollars over ten years. Representative George Miller from California is in the House and his bill is asking for eight billion. So that’s the big question - which bill is going to pass. Obama asked for ten billion over ten years, so they scaled that back a little.
The question I have, and I didn’t get a chance to ask is - if we were deficit neutral or if we had a surplus right now, what would they be asking for? Probably a lot more. You need even more to push the needle here.
My understanding is that there hasn’t been additional funding to this bill because it’s been up for votes for several years - they let it go by and they just reissue it with the same amount of money. I don’t think there’s been any additional funding since 1973.
It’s misleading because the schools turn in the numbers they get reimbursed and now there are more kids going into the system, so there’s more money going into the system. This is money on top of that. This is money for more after school feeding, more breakfast feedings, summer feeding programs - things like that. Kids - just because school is out - there’s still need.
The one argument that was made is that there’s so much money going into social programs - this is just more money going to the same group of people. But it’s needed.
- July 6
Taste of the Nation Napa -
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San Fransisco Chronicle
June 29, 2010
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