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FRAC WEEKLY NEWS DIGEST

Issue #, MONTH DAY, 201

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Child Nutrition Reauthorization

United Fresh calls for House redo of child nutrition bill – The Packer, May 19, 2016
The House child nutrition reauthorization “would dilute nutrition standards for school meals and increase the administrative burdens on schools and families,” said FRAC President Jim Weill in a statement. Weill also noted in the statement that 750 national, state and local organizations oppose the bill. The United Fresh Produce Association also opposed the proposal and urged House leaders to work on a bill “that might best serve children in the years ahead.”

Free lunches possibly on chopping block in some schools – WJHG, May 26, 2016
The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) allows schools to provide free schools meals to all students if at least 40 percent of students qualify for free lunch, but legislation in Washington proposes to increase that threshold to 60 percent of students. CEP increases school meal participation because “[t]here’s no stigma because everybody is eating for free,” said Jessie Hewins, senior child nutrition policy analyst at FRAC. “We are pleased that there has been a lot of pushback against this proposal because it is a program that’s working.”

Editorial: Congress should maintain school lunch programs – Herald-Dispatch, May 24, 2016
Although titled “Improving Child Nutrition and Education Act of 2016,” the House child nutrition reauthorization bill rolls back nutrition standards for school meals and increases the eligibility standard for the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), notes this editorial. Raising the CEP eligibility from 40 to 60 percent would affect more than 400 West Virginia schools and more than 100,000 students. These schools would have to once again collect applications for free and reduced-price school meals.

Editorial: Keep feeding our youth – The Recorder, May 20, 2016
“Plenty of education, child advocacy and nutritional organizations around the country are unhappy with [the House child nutrition bill],” notes this editorial. The proposal, from the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, would mean fewer schools could serve free meals to all students through CEP, which also reduces administrative burdens for schools. CEP “has allowed governors to increase students’ access to healthy meals, thereby improving learning in schools,” reads a statement from the National Governors Association. The savings the bill provides would keep school meals from an estimated 3.4 million students. “That’s a lousy way to save what is essentially a thin slice of federal spending,” notes the editorial.

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)

Report cites local retirement income crisis – Philadelphia Tribune, May 23, 2016
A report from Philadelphia’s city controller, Alan Butkovitz, found that more than half of the city’s senior households are forced to make difficult choices among their basic needs like food and medicine. Currently, 21 percent of Philadelphia’s seniors receive SNAP benefits, and only 44 percent of the city’s elderly households receive income other than Social Security. These households may be living below the subsistence poverty level of $28,750 a year.

School Meals, Child Wellness, Welfare

‘This is a crisis’: Suburban poverty growing, school lunch data shows – Cincinnati Enquirer, May 21, 2016
The number of children participating in the National School Lunch Program has risen dramatically in Cincinnati, Ohio’s suburbs, a result of the recession, low wages and uneven economic recovery. “During the recession, we saw a huge increase in the number of kids who were living in food insecurity,” said Crystal FitzSimons, director of school programs at FRAC. “(Food insecurity) has gone down a little, but it is still not below pre-recession levels. It’s a huge problem that there are so many children living in poverty.”

Fewer kids in Colorado food-assistance program are overweight – The Denver Post, May 17, 2016
Between 2012 and 2015, the percentage of Colorado’s obese children in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and ages two to four, decreased from 8.4 percent to 7.3 percent, while the percentage of overweight children dropped from 14.5 percent to 13.9 percent. Nearly one in five Colorado children ages two to four participate in WIC, and the program provides nutrition assistance and services to 89,000 low-income women and young children at 100 clinics in the state.

Political Rifts Over Bill Clinton’s Welfare Law Resurface as Aid Shrinks – The New York Times, May 21, 2016
Last year, Arizona became the only state to impose a one-year time limit on cash assistance through Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), and welfare recipients in the state are beginning to learn their benefits will be cut off. It’s estimated that about 15 percent of Arizona families receiving cash (1,200 to 1,600 families) will be affected. During the recession, TANF caseloads did not increase at the same rate as SNAP caseloads; the program did not respond to the economic crisis. The 1996 welfare reform law requires states to set time limits for TANF and places a cap on assistance to five years.

About Us: The Food Research and Action Center (www.frac.org) is the leading national organization working for more effective public and private policies to eradicate domestic hunger and undernutrition. Visit our Web site (www.frac.org) to learn more. Click here to unsubscribe from this e-mail.