January 1, 2012

Free lunch program enrollment rises with poverty, unemployment

By: Sarah Hofius Hall, staff writer

The effects of poverty and unemployment are being seen in school cafeterias throughout Northeast Pennsylvania.

Across the region, more students are relying on free or reduced-price lunches at school now more than ever. In the last decade, the number of students who are enrolled in the subsidized lunch program has increased 56 percent, from 36,119 to 56,304, in Lackawanna, Luzerne, Monroe, Pike, Susquehanna, Wayne and Wyoming counties.

Area school officials say they see the hunger every day in children who receive those lunches. For some, it’s their only meal of the day, educators believe.

In the Scranton School District, which has 60 percent of its students in the lunch program, all elementary students can receive a free breakfast. In the past decade the percentage of students in the lunch program has increased 42 percent.

Children whose families with incomes up to 130 percent of the poverty level are eligible for free lunches in the federal program. Children in families whose income is between 130 percent and 185 percent of the poverty level are eligible for reduced-price lunches. For this school year, a family of four with an annual income of less than $29,055 would qualify for free lunch. An income of $41,348 qualifies a family of four for reduced-price lunches.

Matt Sfarra, general manager for Aramark, Scranton’s food-service provider, said while the district saw its percentage go from 59 to only 60 in the past year, he is seeing more of those eligible students actually eat lunch.

This summer, more than 2,100 children received lunches each weekday through the district’s summer food-service program.

In some large urban areas across the country, schools are starting after-school dinner programs or weekend programs, in which students are given food on Fridays to eat throughout the weekend.

Aramark is in initial talks with the district about possibly piloting an evening meal program, Mr. Sfarra said.

“It’s something we’re very interested in,” he said.

After a weekend, Scranton cafeteria workers can see the hunger in students.

“When we come in Monday morning, the ladies may make a few extra items because students are really hungry,” Mr. Sfarra said.

Mr. Sfarra estimates another 10 percent of district students qualify but are not enrolled in the program, sometimes out of embarrassment or other times because of a lack of information or a language barrier. He encourages parents to contact their children’s school office for an application.

“There shouldn’t be any fear in doing it,” he said. “Really it’s a great way to make sure their child gets at least two good meals a day.”

In Lackawanna County, more than 11,340 households are living in poverty, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2008-2010 American Community Survey released this fall.

The effects of poverty are more than hunger, Scranton Superintendent William King said. Some students come to school without coats or hats, he said.

In the Blue Ridge School District, which has seen enrollment in the lunch program grow 70 percent in the last decade, free breakfast is offered to every student in grades kindergarten through eighth.

The district is also looking at grants to set up and maintain a food pantry, Superintendent Robert McTiernan said.

At Mid Valley, which has seen the number of students in the program grow 51 percent in the last decade, a breakfast program has been created and establishing a summer program has been discussed, Superintendent Randy Parry said.

“As the poverty level goes up, the school district needs to have some kind of responsibility to help out in those areas,” he said.

Contact the writer: shofius@timesshamrock.com

November 04, 2011

Christensen lives a week on food stamps

By: Aldeth Lewin

ST. THOMAS – To put herself in the shoes of those who live in poverty, V.I. Delegate to Congress Donna Christensen spent a week living only on the national average weekly food stamp allotment – $31.50.

The National Food Stamp Challenge, organized by Fighting Poverty with Faith, started Oct. 27 and ended Thursday.

“I was hungry most of the time. I’m hungry right now,” Christensen told The Daily News on Wednesday.

The lesson she learned from the experience?

“That it’s hard to live on food stamps,” she said.

The National Food Stamp Challenge was created four years ago by several faith organizations to bring national attention to poverty in America by encouraging people to share in the struggle for one week. Christensen was one of a number of Washington lawmakers who participated.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP, formerly known as the food stamp program, provides assistance to more than 45 million people nationwide.

In the Virgin Islands, 9,922 households – 23,684 individuals – participate in SNAP.

To be eligible for SNAP benefits, an applicant’s net monthly income must be no more than the federal poverty guidelines. In Fiscal Year 2011, a household of three could earn no more than $1,384 in net income per month.

According to Lydia Rhymer, director of support services at the V.I. Human Services Department, the income requirement was raised for FY 2012 to $1,545.

Rhymer said $4.2 million in SNAP benefits were paid out to Virgin Islands residents in FY 2011.

While Christensen had to live on $31.50 – the national average used in the challenge – V.I. residents with no income receive about $64.25 per week, Rhymer said.

Christensen bought most of her food in Washington, D.C., where food prices tend to be less expensive. When she traveled to St. Croix for Bull and Bread Day, the delegate brought food with her that she had made.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture establishes the monthly SNAP benefit amounts, which are higher for people who live in the territory than those who reside on the mainland because food prices here are higher.

Two of Christensen’s staffers, Shanna O’Reilly and Shelley Thomas, also participated in the challenge.

“Once I decided I was going to do it, I realized I really had to plan,” Christensen said. “It was very hard, and it took a lot of planning to be able to stay within that $31.50.”

She spent more time grocery shopping than usual, shopping around for the best prices and thinking about each purchase she made.

The first challenge was getting her daily coffee fix. She knew she could not afford to buy the $6.99 can of ground coffee she usually would, but she found a package of seven single serve packets for 99 cents.

She also began the week by buying a whole chicken, and she used every single part of it by the week’s end. Out of one chicken she made sandwiches, several dinners and soup. On the last day of the week, she used the gizzards and back to make chicken and rice.

A single potato was stretched out across three meals – french fries, mashed potatoes and a sauté with onions and leftover vegetables.

She was also humbled by the choices she had to make. Wanting to make a soup with bok choy, she stood in the supermarket knowing she could not afford the $1.99 for the whole head. She asked a store employee if she could take a few leaves off a head and pay for them, but the employee was not sure and Christensen did not want to bother the store manager – so she left without the vegetable.

She did end up using a few leaves left over from her daughter, but calculated the “purchase” at 60 cents on her food budget.

Read more: Christensen lives a week on food stamps

November 04, 2011

Growing poverty causes childhood hunger

By: Angela Cunningham

Food basket in a food bank.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WZZM) –Frightening new numbers out show the number of Americans living in extreme poverty has reached a new record. The US Census Bureau reports 20.5 million people, that’s one in 15, have fallen below 50% of the official US poverty level. That represents an annual income of about $11,000 year for a family of four.

“That is an enormous number. In West Michigan 1 in 4 children faces hunger every single day. These are huge poverty numbers,” said Bridget Clark Whitney, executive director for Kids’ Food Basket.

The agency provides balanced meals to some of the areas most vulnerable children at 32 local elementary schools.

Friday, employees picked up the keys to a brand new Toyota Tundra the agency won in the Toyota 100 Cars For Good contest. Clark Whitney says the truck will replace one recently lost in an accident and will save them about $30,000. That’s enough money to feed an entire school. She says that is really important right now considering the demand for services has never been greater.

“The bottom line is our number continue to go up. The need continues to go up and we really needed this vehicle,” she said. “We are serving, right now, 4,330 children each weekday throughout the school year and throughout the summer. Those numbers are huge. If you could imagine the quantities for a very nutritious sack dinner with five food groups. lots of fruits and vegetables .as much local food as we can possibly get, those quantities are huge and we need these vehicles to be able to transport food back and forth from Feeding America, other food banks, local growers and local vendors.”

She says they routinely have about 10 or 11 schools on their waiting list. At one point, that number has jumped up at one point to having 27 schools on the waiting list.

“Each one of these elementary schools we serve has well over 80 percent of their students living at or below poverty level,” she said. “We know that in Kent County, 37,000 kids are living below poverty level in ‘food-insure’ households, which is a home which simply doesn’t have enough food.”

“They are eating breakfast at school because there may not be food to eat at breakfast. They are eating what is served at school for the lunch program, and then to be a child, and think, ‘I might go home and there is not enough food to eat’, what child needs to worry about that? That is a hard thing on a kid,” said Catrina Harvey, program coordinator for the agency.

Harvey says when she goes into the schools, she is reminded of how important is that work they do.

“Nobody wants to see a child hungry. I don’t care if it is your own. I don’t care if it is your neighbors. Nobody wants to see a child hungry, because it is heartbreaking and this is our community and it is on Grand Rapids to take care of our Kent County community,” she said.

Harvey says she has the privilege of working with Kids’ Food Basket now, but just a short while ago she could have very well been on the receiving end.

“Honestly, as a parent of six kids and I’m a widow, I know what it is like to lose an income in my household and my kids know what it is like to be hungry,” she said. “I have walked that walk, so I understand from a parent’s perspective and my kids understand from a kid’s perspective. It is hard. It is difficult to think about not having food, and on top of that, you have to learn and everything. That’s hard. As a parent, it is hard because you have to decide, ‘do I pay bills or do I feed my children? Do I pay rent or get my car fixed or do I feed my children?’”

And she says it could happen to anyone at any time.

“It could take a loss of a parent. It could take a job loss. It could be anything that changes your circumstance and ultimately this could be you,” said Harvey.

She says it is a situation no parent or child should have to endure.

December 28, 2011

Teen’s ‘gift’ fights hunger

By: Helena Olviero

Peachtree City Christian Church volunteer Tess Peterson (left) and teenager Alexis Dillard check food lists as they prepare to fill backpacks with food for children in need of weekend meals. Photo: Hyosub Shin hshin@ajc.com

Every Wednesday night, Alexis Dillard loads up backpacks with spaghetti and tortillas, fruit cups and granola bars, rice and beans.

Before she heads home to finish her homework, Alexis, a 17-year-old high school senior in Peachtree City, makes sure the team of volunteers has filled 90 backpacks with a weekend’s worth of food for children.

Last year, Alexis, an AJC Holiday Hero, jumped at the chance to join forces with her mentor, Natalie Hynson, to start a backpack ministry after hearing about children in her community not having enough food over the weekends. They named their charity, Joshua’s Gift.

Each week, dozens of volunteers buy and collect food and meet at Peachtree City Christian Church in Peachtree City (where Alexis’ father is the head minister) to prepare the backpacks. Joshua’s Gift raises enough money to purchase about $800 worth of food every week. Volunteers also drop off the backpacks at three elementary schools in Fayette County. (They use backpacks so the children can take the food assistance home without drawing attention to the charity.)

Alexis and Hynson teamed up after Hynson observed a boy causing trouble at Oak Grove Elementary School in Fayette County, where Hynson volunteers and one of her children attends school.

A teacher asked the boy what was wrong. The child said he was hungry. The teacher explained snack time was in a few minutes.

“And then I heard the boy say, ‘No, I am hungry. Really hungry,’ and it just hit me. I came back to my office and cried,” said Hynson, who runs the preschool ministry at Peachtree City Christian Church. “The child in a classroom next to my daughter does not have enough to eat. I just thought this is crazy.”

At first, she let it go. But after a couple of months, she was struck by an overwhelming urge to do something. She immediately turned to Alexis.

Hynson knew Alexis was full of energy and shared her passion for helping children. Alexis often volunteered at the church preschool. She wanted to be a teacher for children with special needs.

The two researched childhood hunger together and discovered it’s not uncommon for children on free and reduced lunches in public schools to go hungry on the weekends. They stumbled upon troubling statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture — about 15 percent of U.S. households lack resources to provide enough food for everybody. The nonprofit Feeding America, a network of more than 200 food banks in the country, estimates one in five children is at risk for hunger.

Alexis and Hynson tapped into their church community for help. Alexis recently helped organize and run a “breakfast with Santa” fundraiser at the church to raise money.

Alexis said running the charity is a lot to juggle, but she’s never wavered in her commitment.

“We just felt like this was something we could do and make a difference,” Alexis said.

Alexis has always been concerned for children, according to her father, George Dillard.

In elementary school, she was always paired with an autistic boy. She connected with the child.

“In third grade, the child had this spell in which he would get very upset and crawl under his desk,” Dillard said. “Alexis would crawl under there with him and not say a word. She would just be with him until he calmed down.”

Because the backpacks are dropped off at the schools, Alexis and Hynson rarely have any contact with the recipients.

But they recently received a letter from a mother who said her husband had been unemployed for months and the food helped her nourish her children during their recent hardship. Hynson drops off a few of the backpacks at homes receiving multiple backpacks and whose children can’t lug all of them on the bus.

Recently, Hynson was running a little late and Alexis went along. When they got to the family’s home, the children’s faces lit up.

“They said, ‘Oh, it’s the nice lady that brings us food,’ ” Alexis recalled. “They said, ‘We love you so much.’ It’s moments like that that make it all worth it.”

November 14, 2011

More than 30,000 Canadian students seek food bank support every month: Report

By: Briana Hill

A food bank provided by Best Buy. Photo by Best Buy Canada

OTTAWA (CUP) — HungerCount, an annual study of food banks and food programs in Canada, found that in 2011, an average of 851,000 individuals were assisted by food banks each month—and four per cent of them were post-secondary students.

“Four per cent means that there [are more than] 34,000 students every month that are going to a food bank for help,” said Food Banks Canada executive director Katharine Schmidt. “It’s a group of people in this country that is important to us. Educating our young people and preparing people for their futures is important, so to know that we’ve got about 34,000 Canadians who are walking into or getting help from a food bank each and every month, who are post-secondary students, I think is a large number.”

Since 2008, overall food bank use in Canada has increased by 26 per cent. “The reality is that someone using a food bank could be your neighbor, it could be a friend, it could be a family member, it could be somebody you sat next to on the bus on the way to school—really, it could be just about anyone,” suggested Schmidt.

“The reason people end up at food banks is because their income is not high enough to cover the cost of basic needs.”

Two per cent of those receiving assistance from food banks cite student loans or scholarships as their primary source of income.

The cost of housing, job quality and accessibility to employment insurance are all barriers students face, according to Schmidt.

Food bank use has increased on campuses as well. According to numbers from the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa, the number of people using their food bank has increased from 259 in 2007 to 3,534 in 2011.

“It’s amazing because ten to fifteen years ago, there weren’t campus food banks, and I think the majority of campuses now have food banks,” observed Schmidt. “It’s interesting how they’re helping to service those that need help with some really creative ways to do it so that there isn’t a stigma—and it allows students to get some help with a lot of dignity.” Beyond being a student, there is no set of eligibility criteria to access the SFUO food bank service.

“We ask that in order for students to have access to the food bank that they produce a student number—it’s really simple. We don’t ask for a lot of details or a lot of specifications, just that they can prove that they’re a student here, [or] that they’re an employee,” explained Chris Hynes, SFUO food bank employee.

Hynes and his coworkers are currently collecting information about who accesses the food bank service on their campus. They have found that students with dependents are more likely to be regular clients.

Fundamentally, food bank services exist to provide help to those in need. Both Schmidt and Hynes invited any students who need assistance to seek it out.

“If you’re struggling and you need it, make the phone call, send the email depending on your food bank, and just get some help, because it’s important—no one’s going to judge you and it will make a difference for you,” encouraged Schmidt.

“Students shouldn’t have to choose between paying tuition, paying rent, and buying food,” said Hynes.To find a food bank near you, visit:

www.foodbankscanada.ca

November 20, 2011

America’s new poor

(CBS News)

Family at the food bank.

While most of us are already looking forward to our Thanksgiving feast, one in six Americans isn’t sure where their next meal will come from. And as Mark Strassmann tells us . . . we’re finding the hungry in some unexpected places:

In Forsyth County’s rolling subdivisions near Atlanta, Easy Street seems to run forever. What recession? The average household here earns $88,000 – the highest in Georgia, 13th highest in America.

But for more families here, prosperity is a pretense. The job’s lost, the savings are gone, and the big house is either in foreclosure or on its way. And just keeping food on the table is a struggle.

So Forsyth’s newly-needy file into local food banks.

Yesterday’s GIVERS have become today’s TAKERS.

“People lost their jobs and went from great incomes to no incomes,” said Sandy Beaver, Sandy Beaver leads The Place, Forsyth County’s biggest non-profit center for social services. She calls those who visit The Place “the new poor.”

The Place’s main mission: Feed the hungry.

“Who are the new poor in this county?” asked Strassmann.

“The new poor could be you, me, your neighbor, your church member, somebody who has been affected by the economy,” she said. “Many of our people who have come for assistance used to be our donors. And they’ll say, ‘I never thought I’d have to do this, never in my wildest dreams.’”

“People who two, three four years ago, the hunger would have been unimaginable?” asked Strassmann.

People like these married retirees in their 70s, too embarrassed to appear on camera. They said they could not feed themselves snow without help.

They retired comfortably in their early 50s. But now, after bad investments, a ruined portfolio, and costly medical issues, they qualify for food stamps – and could lose the house.

“Taking the food was really tough,” the woman said. “The hard part was, we used to give it, and now I’m taking it back, you know?” she said, crying.

Nearly 15 percent of Americans are now receiving food stamps, a record level, and a jump of about two-thirds since 2007.

One in SIX Americans – 49 million people – say they have trouble putting food on the table.

At Forsyth County’s Lambert High, eight percent of kids now get free lunch, double the number three years ago.

Gladys Sasso-Alvarez directs the district’s help for needy students: “Sometimes they feel embarrassed that they are getting free breakfast and lunch. They think no one will know about it. But it was something deep inside of them, you know – they feel it is an embarrassment to eat for free.”

Read more: America’s new poor

November 30, 2011

Food bank usage increasing locally and across Canada

By: Rachel Punch

A report released this week showing a 26% increase in food bank usage across Canada since 2008 comes as no surprise to the Sault Ste. Marie Community Soup Kitchen executive director.

“It’s the same thing here,” said Calna McGoldrick.

The soup kitchen fed 18,414 meals to adults in 2008. Last year, that number was up to 20,753.

The HungerCount 2011 survey — released on Tuesday by Food Banks Canada, a national charitable organization — shows an increase in food bank usage of 26% between 2008 and 2011. It shows that in a typical month, Canada’s food banks are providing food to about 851,000 people and more than 322,000 of those helped are children. The study involved more than 4,100 food assistance programs.

In addition to the adult meal program, the Sault soup kitchen acts as a food bank for other agencies that need help. For example, the kitchen has provided food to the Children’s Aid Society for their clients as well as to food banks in Garden River and on St. Joseph Island.

“At one point, we used to just let people (from the agencies) go downstairs and take what they needed. We had to stop doing that and just give them a bag of food and say ‘this is what we have,’ ” McGoldrick said.

The soup kitchen provides a healthy snack program for children. Those numbers have been fairly stable over the last few years, she said.

The Salvation Army Community & Family Services operates a food bank for individuals in the community.

“We’ve seen an increase … I don’t know what the percentage would be, but the usage has definitely gone up,” said Mildred Brodie, family services worker at the Salvation Army.

“Last month was very, very busy. We are already starting off this month very busy, too,” Brodie said. “We haven’t even got the cold weather yet.”

The HungerCount provides recommendations to federal and provincial governments to reduce the number of people who need help from food banks. They include:

* Investing in affordable housing so low-income Canadians don’t have to decide between paying the rent and feeding their families;

* Improving employment insurance to better support older workers who have lost jobs;

* Jump-start innovative partnerships and government-led programs that help ensure Canadian jobs are well-paying jobs.

The lack of affordable housing is one of the biggest issues McGoldrick said her clients face.

“There are people paying $400 a month living in a room above different pubs in town. It’s terrible,” McGoldrick said.

“I heard of one situation that people are living in where the toilet broke and the landlord gave them a garbage can to pee in.

“People are paying way too much and living in really substandard places.”

Brodie agreed that higher housing costs are one of the biggest issues among users of the Salvation Army food bank.

“The rent is higher,” she said. “If you have PUC and you have to pay that on top, that’s a lot of money for some of them.”

The Soup Kitchen Community Centre is holding its third Great Soup Kitchen Sleepover on Nov. 11. So far, close to 200 people have signed up to spend a night sleeping in a cardboard box outside the James Street facility.

rpunch@saultstar.com