October is National Farm to School Month

October is National Farm to School Month! Join us as we celebrate the connections happening all over the country between children and local food. From taste tests in the cafeteria and nutrition education activities in the classroom, to farm visits and school garden harvest parties, schools, preschools, communities and organizations in all 50 states and D.C. will be celebrating this October. 

The National Farm to School Network advocated for the creation of National Farm to School Month and now organizes the annual celebration in partnership with hundreds of partner organizations. National Farm to School Month was designated by Congress in 2010 to demonstrate the growing importance of farm to school programs as a means to improve child nutrition, support local economies and educate children about the origins of food. 

Everyone can celebrate Farm to School Month! Follow the National Farm to School Network on Twitter and Facebook, and read our Farm to School Monthblogs. And, don’t forget to check in with your local school or State Lead to learn how Farm to School Month is being celebrated in your area.

For information about funding opportunities for Farm to School, as recently announced by Governor Cuomo, go here.  

Food waste and gleaning

After Monday evening's showing of "Just Eat It," there was some conversation about why we are not doing more gleaning in St. Lawrence County.  The term gleaning refers to harvesting the surplus that might be left in the fields after a farmer has completed his harvest.  This is usually done by volunteers and the produce is given to local food pantries or community meal programs.  (See an article about a successful gleaning program in the capital region here.)

Asked why GardenShare doesn't set up an online platform to allow farmers to list crops that could be harvested and volunteers to sign up to do it, I had to agree that part sounded easy and simple.

But, while setting up that online platform would be easy, establishing a full-scale gleaning program would not.  Here are just some of the challenges to address:

• Who will provide the boxes or other containers to put the produce in?
• Who will transport the produce to the food pantry or community meal program?
• Will the pantry or meal program even be open when the volunteers are working?  Will they have refrigerator space to store the produce?
• Who will supervise the volunteers at the farm and make sure they only pick in the right areas, park in the right areas, etc.?
• What happens when a volunteer does something s/he was not supposed to at a farm and the farmer is unhappy?

I'm sure more challenges or questions would come up.  And I also know that successful gleaning programs can be operated.  Capital Roots is doing it in the Albany area.  And Foodshare, where I was the CEO for thirty years, is doing it in the Hartford, Connecticut area.

At Foodshare, we had funds for supplies, refrigerated trucks to move the food around, and staff and experienced volunteers to supervise the whole process.  GardenShare currently has none of these things!

However, if there are volunteers and farmers who would like to explore setting up a farm gleaning program in St. Lawrence County, I would surely be happy to help you do that!  Get in toucch!

Gloria

Conservative think thank suggests tying SNAP benefits to work requirements

A new issue brief from the conservative American Enterprise Institute contends that SNAP should be reformed to encourage recipients to work while receiving benefits. The brief calls for states to reinstate work requirements and tighten eligibility for SNAP benefits to ensure that government resources are dedicated to the truly needy. The Institute finds that SNAP participation has increased even as the economy has improved since the recession and now exceeds Congressional Budget Office projections by about 10%. SNAP benefits are now more likely to go to recipients who earn more than 130% of the poverty line, the brief says.

Source: American Enterprise Institute, 9/8/15, SNAP Work Requirements

What would a government shutdown mean to farmers?

We've written about what a government shutdown means for SNAP recipients.  Go here to learn more about what it means for farmers.

SNAP and nutrition

SNAP participants on average ate about the same number of calories as both higher-income Americans and low-income people eligible but not enrolled in the program, but they consumed fewer fruits and vegetables and whole grains and more added sugars, according to a new review of 25 studies published between 2003 and 2014. "SNAP is working to reduce food insecurity. That's the good news," Tatiana Andreyeva, the study’s lead author stated. "The bad news is that the quality of diet is lower." In the studies Andreyeva reviewed, the average American scored just 58 out of 100 – a failing grade – on a measure of how well diets meet the federal dietary guidelines. But the average food stamp recipient scored even worse: 47 out of 100 in one study, and 51 out 100 in another. Their scores were even lower than what low-income people not in the program got on average: 51 out of 100 in one study and 57 out 100 in the other.

Source: KPBS, 9/18/15, SNAP Diets

Food waste and hunger

Did you go to see the movie "Just Eat It" earlier this evening?

If you did, I'm sure you were startled by some of what the movie's producers found!  But, sadly, I was not surprised at all.  After thrty years of running a Feeding America food bank in Connecticut, I have seen both the scope of the problem of food waste and the scope of the problem of hunger.

Foodshare, where I was the CEO, distributed 14 million pounds of food last year - that's more than a tractor-trailer load of food every single day!  And most of this food is product that would otherwise have been wasted due to sell-by dates, manufacturing errors, shipping errors, crop surpluses, or cosmetic issues.

While I'm proud of what we accomplished there, especially that we had transitioned from the old style food bank that gave out primarily  non-perishable items to a food bank that distributed 50% fresh fruits and vegetables and another 20% other perishables, including meat, I also have serious questions about the model.

Distributing that food certainly wasn't solving hunger.  Every single year of my thirty years, both the number of people needing food and the amount of food distributed grew.  And by 2014, the unmet need was about twice the 14 million pounds we were distributing!

I found myself very troubled by the idea that these food "seconds" were good enough for poor people.   This was brought home loud and clear by the food pantry in one wealthy Hartford suburb where they sorted out the out-of-code and dented items and gave them to the inner city pantries.  That food was not good enough for their town, but was okay to give to city residents!  Why are low-income people not entitled to the same fresh, healthy food as the rest of us.

And really, anyone I ever met standing in a food line or eating at a soup kitchen would have much preferred to be going to the grocery store and the farmers market and getting their food the same way as anyone else!

I'm not advocating that we throw good food away, but I don't believe recovering and distributing it is a solution to the problem of hunger.  Hunger is only a symptom of poverty.  We need to work on economic, education, and other social solutions to bring people out of poverty.  Even while we work on improving our system of food production and distribution so we don't waste so much.

Read more on this topic as written by one of my mentors, Mark Winne, here.

Gloria

POSSIBLE GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN THREATENS SNAP

Food stamp recipients could soon be early victims of Washington's looming budget crisis. USDA has instructed states to not dispense any October benefits to food stamp recipients "until further notice." The USDA cites the threat of a federal government shutdown on Oct. 1 as the reason for holding up the benefits. Unlike the 2013 shutdown when cash reserves allowed SNAP benefits to be disbursed as normal, USDA will not have the funding necessary for SNAP benefits in October.

Source: Think Progress, 9/23/15, SNAP Shutdown II