Farm Bill: cut the hungry, pad the well fed. . .

Mark Bittman's essay appearing recently in The New York Times demonstrates how about everything is increasingly "wired" to crush the weakest and lift even higher the strongest among us.

Cutting the Supplemental Nutrition Access Program (SNAP or more commonly Food Stamps) will hurt low-income working families, as well as the nation's food banks and organizations like CitySquare who work hard to assist in supplying the food and nutrition needs of our communities.

The other side of the farm bill relates to how it supports the interests of big agriculture at great cost to taxpayers, consumers and the environment.

Consider what Bittman says:

Welfare for the Wealthy

By MARK BITTMAN

Mark Bittman on food and all things related.

TAGS:

AGRICULTURE AND FARMING,FARM BILL (US), FINCHER, STEPHEN L, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SENATE

The critically important Farm Bill [1] is impenetrably arcane, yet as it worms its way through Congress, Americans who care about justice, health or the environment can parse enough of it to become outraged.

The legislation costs around $100 billion annually, determining policies on matters that are strikingly diverse. Because it affects foreign trade and aid, agricultural and nutritional research, and much more, it has global implications.

The Farm Bill finances food stamps (officially SNAP, or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) and the subsidies that allow industrial ag and monoculture — the “spray and pray” style of farming — to maintain their grip on the food “system.”

The bill is ostensibly revisited, refashioned and renewed every five years, but this round, scheduled to be re-enacted last year, has been in discussion since 2010, and a final bill is not in sight. Based on the current course of Congress it seems there will be an extension this fall, as there was in 2012. Extensions allow funding changes for individual “titles,” as programs are sometimes called; last year’s extensions didn’t do much damage, but this year’s threaten the well-being of tens of millions of Americans.

Read the entire piece here.  

Historic day: No foolin'! 20,000 pounds of groceries serve well over 400 shoppers!

Last Wednesday at the CitySquare Resource Center on Haskell Avenue in inner city East Dallas, our team distributed 20,000 pounds of very healthy grocery products to over 400 neighbors who came to shop. 

When I saw the crowds lined up down Haskell almost all the way to Elm Street, I knew we were experiencing the largest food distribution day in our history.  I just didn't know how big the day would be. 

Our staff worked until 8:00 p.m. to make sure all were served. 

Hunger in a city like Dallas, Texas?

From the air. . .

So, here's a "bird's eye view" of the goings on at CitySquare's new Opportunity Center at the corner of I-30 and Malcolm X Boulevard!

The blue trucks are drilling rigs brought in to drill 109 wells that extend 250 feet into the earth as a part of our very "green" geothermal H/VAC system.

Progress is fun to watch.

Want a piece of the action?

Lots of great naming opportunities at all fund levels.

Just give me a call or shoot me a note here!

Meeting the First Lady!

Last Friday, I had the amazing honor of meeting and greeting the First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama.

Mrs. Obama visited Dallas to celebrate the great progress of so many Texas schools in preparing and serving more healthy foods to public school students and to promote and extend her "Let's Move" initiative as a remedy for youth obesity. You may link to a video report about her visit by The Dallas Morning News below.

City Council Member, Pauline Medrano (actually my council member) took the photo of our brief chat about CitySquare's Food on the Move program that delivered thousands of meals to low-income children last summer in partnership with PepsiCo and our AmeriCorps team. 

No surprise, I found the First Lady to be down-to-earth, interested in our work and delightful! 

What a great moment. 

To watch the DMN video click here.

Could you make it on food stamps?

45.2 million know what it's like; Could you survive on food stamps?

Washington, October 5, 2011 - The director of the National Council of Churches Poverty Initiative is calling on Americans to feel a greater empathy for persons struggling to survive in the current economy.

"In everything do to others as you would have them do to you," said the Rev. Michael Livingston, quoting from Jesus' sermon on the mount, Matthew 7:12. "This golden rule has been cited or rephrased in nearly every religion known. It is the glue that binds us together as a human family, especially in times of common need."

Livingston noted that a member of Congress has challenged her colleagues to spend a week finding out what it is like to live on food stamps, and he challenged members of churches and religious groups to do the same.

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), co-chair of the Congressional Out of Poverty Caucus, issued the 2011 Food Stamp Challenge to last from October 27 to November 3.

"The USDA recently reported that 14.5 percent of Americans are food insecure," Lee reported to members of Congress. "In June of this year, a staggering 45.2 million Americans filed to get food stamps because they either are facing or living in poverty. More than half of food stamp recipients are children and 8 percent are individuals over the age of 60."

She challenged her colleagues to spend a week attempting to live on "what a person on food stamps survives on."

Persons on food stamps receive $133.79 per month, Lee said, which amounts to $31.50 a week, $4.50 a day, or $1.50 a meal.

Livingston said millions of Americans would be hard put to live on the food stamp program. "We often hear people express the belief that persons living in poverty are well cared-for in this country," Livingston said. "Anyone who accepts Representative Lee's challenge to step into the shoes of food stamp recipients will quickly realize how difficult their lives must be."

Livingston said he hoped the exercise will convince members of Congress "that there is also an urgent need to protect the budget of all government programs that support persons living in or facing poverty.

"Doing unto others must be a fundamental rule of government," Livingston said. "Experiencing how others live is a first step toward putting that rule into action."

Persons interested in participating in the food stamp challenge as well as other Mobilization related strategies should check out the fighting poverty with faith webpage.

To register to take the Food Stamp Challenge click here.

New USDA Food Chart

At USDA, a plate usurps the food pyramid

Washington Post
By Brian Vastag
Published: June 2

After devoting decades to designing a food pyramid, then refining that design with colored stripes and steps, the nation’s nutrition experts have finally settled on what they believe is the perfect geometry to represent what we should eat: a plate.

Circular, with four colorful divisions to represent the four main food groups, the new plate looks just like a pie chart — a description experts shun because, well, pie isn’t good for you.

Indeed, arriving in the midst of an obesity epidemic, this new at-a-glance guide to healthful eating is meant to remind consumers to limit heavy foods like pie and beef up instead on the greens.

“MyPlate” promotes fruits and vegetables, which cover half the circle. Grains occupy an additional quarter, as do proteins such as meat, fish and poultry. A separate circle (looking remarkably like an aerial view of a cup) represents “dairy” and rests to the side. Desserts appear to have been banished — like the pyramid — to the desert.

The message is clear: “Make half your plate fruits and vegetables,” said Robert Post, an official at USDA’s center for nutrition policy and promotion.

The Obama administration has high hopes for establishing the brightly colored image as a ubiquitous consumer icon. Post said the USDA is targeting food producers, health insurers, restaurants and schools as partners in promoting the image.

At a media-heavy rollout Thursday morning at USDA headquarters, the famously foodie first lady presided, focusing on the obesity problem in children.

“Kids can learn to use this tool now and use it for the rest of their lives,” Obama said. “It’s an image that can be reinforced at breakfast, lunch and dinner.”

USDA will bring the image to “essentially all” schools in the country via the agency’s breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack and other nutrition programs, Post said.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the new “food icon” was designed to help slim Americans’ expanding girths: Two-thirds of American adults and one-third of children are overweight or obese.

“The costs associated with obesity are enormous,” Vilsack said, adding that the image popped into his head at just the right moment during dinner recently. A steak arrived covering “three-quarters” of his plate. “I didn’t eat it all,” he said.

Read entire report here.

Overcoming the challenge of "food deserts"

Most urban areas suffer from a scarcity of food purchasing options. 

We see the problem of "food deserts" here in Dallas.  The Southern Sector, particularly South and West Dallas, offers limited options to customers concerned about eating healthy. 

To take a look at a recent report on the crisis and how to overcome it click  here.

Reactions? 

What to eat when funds are tight?

Here's more from NPR on poverty and hunger among U. S. families.

Alex Williamson, 8, doesn't look very hungry — in fact, he's a little chubby. But Alex, who lives in Carlisle, Pa., is one of 17 million children who live in U.S. households where getting enough food is a challenge.

The Obama administration has pledged to end childhood hunger in America by 2015. A key element of that challenge is to make sure the food hungry children eat is nutritious. They're lofty goals that will be difficult to achieve.

Alex's mom, Connie Williamson, says she tries to give her son healthy food but doesn't always succeed.

"When he gets up on his own, he'll go find what he wants," she says. "He'll get a hot dog bun, or get a piece of bread. He'll get an ice pop or something."

And that's exactly what he did early one morning, before his family headed out to the local food pantry. Alex ate a blue ice pop for breakfast.

To read the full report click here.

Or, to listen simply play here. 

Hunger and American Families

Here's a moving story that aired earlier this week on NPR. It's "part one" of a series of reports on American hunger. You'll hear from U. S. Department of Agriculture Undersecretary Kevin Concannon, who traveled to Dallas earlier this summer to swear in our AmeriCorps and VISTA teams.

Food

Food.

We all must have it to survive. 

Those of us who enjoy ready access to it don't give it a second thought most of the time.  Because of the richness of our blessing, we often miss the significance and power of food.

Food acts as an organizing force for social action. 

Families and friends gather around tables every day to share meals.  Along wtih meals come plans for and reports on the day, ideas, dreams, fears, confessions and actions. 

Food levels us.  Since every single one of us must have it, we must admit that our connection is communal, viseral, organic and universal. 

Evil people use food as a weapon. 

Loving people use it to create ordinary forums for celebration and discovery. 

Food determines health. 

Food affects learning.

Food is all about togetherness, hope and being human.

Food anchors us to the earth.

Food draws out celebration. . .it is the stuff of parties, wakes and home-goings, committee meetings, community organizing gatherings and late-nite, bedtime snacks.

Have you noticed?  Food facilitates conversation, connection and communion.

Consider the place of "the meal" in Christianity, Judaism and Islam--central, reoccurring and defining.

Food is about hard work, growth and the promise of another day.

Food seems to track right along with fellowship. 

Food makes children laugh and run and play. 

The lack of food makes the same children cry and sit and wonder.

Sharing, providing, distributing, manufacturing, growing, harvesting, selling, gathering and eating food nudges up against the Sacred. 

Think about it when you enjoy your next meal. 

Food--not something to take lightly or for granted.