Farm bill update

As you may already know, the U.S. "farm bill," or Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 is up for re-evaluation and renewal this month in Congress. This omnibus bill tends to be controversial for poverty and hunger activists and agriculture/business lobbyists alike, as it contains the allocations for SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps) and TEFAP (The Emergency Food Assistance Program) and determines agricultural subsidies. Provisions in the bill can influence international trade and the natural environment, drawing concern from even more interested parties and lobbyists.

The farm bill is up for renewal every five years. This year, the Senate began consideration on the bill passed by the Senate Agriculture Committee the week of June 4. This version of the bill contained $4.49 billion in cuts to SNAP. Several amendments are in the works. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) is working on an amendment that would restore the money lost to these cuts, but others would likely increase them. The House Agriculture Committee is expected to bring its version of the bill to a vote this week, and decreases in spending on food assistance are expected to be even sharper.

Feeding America's Hunger Action Center has information on the farm bill's food assistance provision, and action you can take. For more information about the farm bill, follow the news and stay up-to-date!

$500 grant for initiatives to help end childhood hunger

If you're younger than 25, live in the United States, and have an idea for an initiative that will help end childhood hunger, apply for this $500 grant!

http://www.ysa.org/grants/sodexoyouth

(Double post today, I just find so many cool things when I clean out my inbox!)

Circles Campaign

The Circles Campaign to break the cycle of poverty brings together those living in poverty and those in a middle or upper class lifestyle. Interesting idea!

Read more: http://gbgm-umc.org/global_news/full_article.cfm?articleid=5452

Hungry For Health: A Journey Through Cleveland's Food Desert

A moving video produced by an Oberlin student who graduated in 2010 and featuring Brad Masi, founder of the New Agrarian Center, a BCSL community partner.

Hungry For Health: A Journey Through Cleveland's Food Desert from Theresa Desautels on Vimeo.

This short documentary features a day in the life of Willa Sparks; a woman who overcomes the environmental obstacle of living in a food desert, an inner-city neighborhood without easy access to a grocery store. Determined to give her family the healthy food that every person deserves, Willa takes an hour long bus ride at the first of every month to get to the closest grocery store. If healthy food won’t come to her, as her neighborhood is infested with fast food restaurants and corner stores, then she will go to it.

Happy Fall Break

Happy Fall Break, everyone!  Bite-sized food for thought while you unwind from the semester:

• I have found a nifty interactive, nation-wide map showing the rates of poverty in America: Map Link!
• The BCSL Annual Report for the 2009/2010 school year (And once you're done, let us know of additional civic engagement going on!):

OberlinServesVol1FINAL

Who can use a food pantry?

On my trawling of teh internets for news articles about poverty further my education, I came across this New York Times article with alliteration: Proving Poverty Could be Problematic at Area Food Pantries
Some background:  Some pantries will give food to anyone who asks; at most you have to give a name and maybe some contact information so the pantry can keep track clients helped for reporting purposes  Kathy down at Oberlin Community Services was distraught that during the LEADS poverty simulation the fake Oberlin Community Services was only giving food to people from certain zip-codes.  She wanted to make it clear the real Oberlin Community Services gives food to anyone who asks, regardless of zip code and regardless of whether or not the food is perceived as being needed (though there are pantries with limited resources that do restrict who gets food based on zip code).  The thinking is based on the assumption of common human decency: only people who really need food will ask for it.  Plus, it's humbling and can be hard for many people to ask for free food.  Those who overcome those emotional barriers must be in need.

The gist of the article: Some local United Way leaders in San Francisco are concerned about fraud at the food pantries; they are worried people (mostly commercial grocers) who do not need food are coming by, getting food from the pantry for free, and then re-selling it at their stores.  These leaders want to institute a change to make people who come to the pantry prove they have low income to stop people with higher incomes (who theoretically would not need food because they can get their own) from getting food. 

Hot button issue, anyone?

My Opinion: Though I understand the concern of food pantry fraud, I have several issues with the proposed change.  For one, it is hard to tell based on income level who needs food and who doesn't.  Just because someone is above the federal poverty line does not mean they are easily meeting all of their bill payments.  For two, being in poverty and enrolled in the Federal bureaucratic benefits programs is hard enough; there shouldn't be more hoops to jump through.  It's hard to keep track of all the paperwork to "prove" poverty, and any illegal immigrants would have an especially hard time.  

Plus, there's just this idea floating around in my head that we have enough money and food that we should have enough to provide for everyone....but we're not.  The federal budget for food stamps--which feeds a lot of people as it stands now--- is minuscule compared to the budget for national defense.  Not only that, but America has a lot of food that is not used.  Part of what Second Harvest Food Bank of North Central Ohio stocks their food pantries with is edible food bought from farmers that can't be sold at market for whatever reason and would get plowed back into the ground if Second Harvest hadn't come along.  The Second Harvest tagline is MORE FOOD; LESS HUNGER.  The more I meditate on that line, the more I like it.

MORE FOOD; LESS HUNGER

Windswept

Wednesday's post had a list of Things of Note at the BCSL!
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It has been a whirlwind of activity, both for the BCSL staff and for me.  But mostly I am talking about me today.  I am sooooo excited because next week, I've calculated that I will be in the office for at least 75% of each workday.  HOORAY!!  I can actually get projects done and do my job!  Astonishing, I know.

Last week I had lunch with a friend.  He said "For once, I'd just like to turn in an annual report that said This year I did nothing new, but worked on perfecting all I am currently doing."  As I sprint through my VISTA year, trying to keep up and doing the best I can even though I feel like all I do is fall flat sometimes......I can't help but feel it's rather idealistic to do a VISTA project in a year.  Yeah, a lot can happen in a year.  One person putting in 20,000 hours of work is going to accomplish something. 

Maybe it's just my learning style of needing to do things repeatedly, but I would love to be able to do two taxes seasons because I know the second one would be better than the first one.  If I could stay on for a year, I'd totally Get It and be able to prepare appropriately when Donna says "Oh, man.  When Andy comes back, it just all starts to get crazy."  I'd totally Get It that we have to start preparing for tax season now, whereas today I'll go along with the idea because people who are wiser than me emphasize we need to start early.  I'm getting a bit frustrated because it feels like I'm out of the office half the time; though the trainings and conferences I go to are valuable and my brain is vibrating with learning, the emails pile up and my projects get dusty.  But if I were here for another year?  I'd already be trained!  I could spend more time in the office perfecting what I do based on what I'd already done--it would already be in my head.  There's something slightly ironic about VISTA being a program centered around building infrastructure, but the way it's set up inherently prevents the infrastructure that is only present when a person does the same thing twice.

Of course, this is a rather useless rant because I know I won't be in the area next year.  I took the VISTA position, expecting it to be a one-year placeholder; most VISTAs do.  Life will be taking me other places; I won't have the luxury of considering a second VISTA year at the BCSL.  For one, my student loans are due--I'll need a larger paycheck.  I know I'm not the only VISTA who loves the job, but can't stay on because of the need of a paycheck instead of a stipend.

There's a VISTA tagline contest going on (or it might have already ended).  One person laughingly suggested "PAY US MORE MONEY AND WE WILL SAVE THE WORLD"  I think I'd like to edit that to: "PAY US MORE MONEY AND GIVE US MORE TIME...AND WE WILL SAVE THE WORLD."
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In Other News:
The US Census Bureau released the stats on poverty for the nation in 2009 yesterday.  Here are some good summary news articles:

Nationwide:

• Tampa Bay WTSP (the shortest article of the bunch)
• New York Times
• The Huffington Post
• The Daily Caller 

Ohio:

• Dayton Daily News
• The Washington Post
• The Columbus Dispatch
• Cleveland.com

If you are interested in the knitty-gritty details, a PDF of the report can be found at:  http://www.census.gov/prod/2010pubs/p60-238.pdf

Also of interest: A Commerce.com article on the alternative poverty measure coming out next year (because the current measure misses a lot of things)

Swimming in statistics

Incoming Freshman: It's not too late to sign up for the 14th annual Day of Service! (you may also fill out page 57 of the Big Book of Forms).
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Welcome, LEADS students!  :)
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This weekend I sifted through all the wonderful research and articles Claudine left behind for me on poverty in Ohio, Lorain County, and Oberlin.  I'm trying to put together some informational sheets to hand out this week at LEADS.   What I'm discovering is poverty is such a complicated issue with so many aspects that it is hard to boil it down to simple statistics. 
 
The argument over how to measure the number of people in poverty is the best example to begin the conversation.  Currently the U.S. government looks at how  much it costs to eat cheaply and nutritiously for a year (as determined by the USDA standards).  This number is then multiplied by three to calculate the income below which people are considered to be in poverty.  The total number has been readjusted each year to account ONLY for inflation.

Cost of food in the 1960's      x    3    =    Federal poverty level

When this measure was established in the 1960s, it was estimated a family spent 1/3 of its income on food.  Do you spend 1/3 of your income on food?  I don't.   I spend more on rent and my cell phone and my car insurance.  There are many costs we pay today that I doubt were as significant in the 60s.  If I can get people to think deeply about how poverty is calculated, I think I can make them understand how many things poverty affects and hopefully get a glimpse of how many facets poverty has.  The more an issue is understood, the better and more nuanced the solutions are...in summary:

This logo belongs to NBC

Google Alerts

To educate myself, I've recently signed myself up for Google Alerts set to receive notifications of articles and blogs including the keywords "poverty" and "ohio poverty."  I've just finished reading my alerts for this past weekend, and here are my favorites from the lot:

Principal's War on Poverty Helping Test Scores
An uplifting tale of a town pulling together to help those who need it

Measuring Poverty (10): Multidimensional Poverty
An article describing a proposed solution to the debate of how to best measure poverty with statistics and numbers

They're known as 'the 99ers,' and their numbers are growing in Ohio and nationwide
Stories of elderly people and their social security payments

Roots of World Poverty Misunderstood
An investigation of poverty worldwide