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Community Food Security News Fall 96
To receive a hard copy, please e-mail <asfisher@aol.com>
Thanks,
Andy Fisher
Coordinator
CFS Coalition
Po Box 209
Venice CA 90294
First Round of Community Food Projects Grants Awarded
The first round of the Community Food Projects (Community Food Security Act) program has been a resounding success. During July and August, USDA program administrators were flooded with calls requesting applications, demonstraing the high level of interest in the program. About 130 applications were received by USDA, far exceeding the program administrators' expectations. Of the 121 eligible proposals totalling $21 million in requests , 13 grants summing $1 million were awarded (see page 7 for a list).
This response is especially impressive in light of the short time period applicants were given to prepare their proposals. The release of the Requests for Proposals (RFP) did not go out until late July due to a last minute change in the program's administrative venue from Food and Consumer Services to Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Services (CSREES), leaving grant writers only a month to write their proposals.
The proposals were wide ranging both in terms of geographical origin and character of the applicant organization. There was significant representation from all regions of the country, with the greatest number coming from the South and the Northeast. While roughly half of the proposals were submitted by anti-hunger and anti-poverty organizations, such as food banks, anti-hunger coalitions, and community action agencies, community gardening and agriculture related organizations also acted as lead agencies on a substantial portion.
Due to a ruling by USDA lawyers that moneys for years two and three of a multi-year grant be subtracted from the first year's allocation, projects with large budgets that would command a significant portion of the available funds did not receive awards, or their awards were substantially lower than requested. Grant size was modest, ranging from a low of $31,000 to a high of $163,000.
A peer review panel, comprised of "experts" from the academic, anti-hunger, food system, sustainable agriculture, and nutrition fields, provided input into the quality of the proposals, helping CSREES to select the best ones. Panelists and USDA administrators have agreed that the selection process was exemplary. According to one panelist, "I was really impressed by the commitment and professionalism of USDA staff and the whole process in general."
In addition, the program despite its small size has commanded substantial interest from the upper echelons of USDA. Site visits to the awardees by the Secretary and Undersecretaries are already being scheduled. Secretary Dan Glickman noted, "In the fight against hunger, there is not a one size fits all solution. These grants will enable 13 communities to implement their own ideas for helping their neighbors."
Next Year
The CFS Coalition has advocated for changes in the 1997 RFP to facilitate the application process. Possible changes include smaller grant maximums ($100,000/year or $250,000 for three years), and planning grant and technical assistance grant categories. USDA hopes to begin the process much earlier next year, possibly releasing RFPs during January. Applicants will probably be given two to three months to write their proposals, with decisions finalized during late spring/early summer.
Those persons that received 1996 RFPs will be mailed the 1997 version as soon as it is available. If you have not received one previously, please contact CSREES Proposal Services Branch at 202-401-5048 to get on their mailing list. Keep in touch with the Coalition office for updated information as to release dates.
Technical assistance
In order to strengthen groups' capacity to develop successful community food security projects, both in and outside the context of this grants program, the Coalition is in the process of creating a training and technical assistance program. Workshops will be held regionally and in conjunction with a variety of conferences beginning in January, 1997. For more information on hosting such a workshop or one near you, please contact our office.
WELFARE REFORM: 4 PERSPECTIVES
Kate Fitzgerald, Executive Director, Sustainable Food Center, Austin, TX
My friend Epi is not too worried about welfare reform." The programs are always changing. Sometimes the changes are supposed to make the program better, but they are never enough. I have arthritis. I try to aguantar, to support the pain and not to depend on medicine but sometimes in the winter I have to take a Tylenol. The illness will never go away. The medicine makes it a little easier but it does not cure the illness. The arthritis controls what I do, how much I can achieve."
Being on welfare is a lot like painkillers for arthritis. People have to take the medicine because they have no control over the disease. They are the victims of the economic malaise of America. This illness in our country prevents people from being able to get jobs that pay enough to support a family, it makes supermarkets move away from our neighborhoods and houses cost too much for a working person to afford. Food stamps and AFDC help soften the pain, but government assistance programs do not do anything to "cure the sickness." To really make life better, government programs would address the root causes of hunger and would help the local economies of our communities so that people need not live the half-life that is existence on welfare. That would be a real reforma.
Epifania Salazar is very close to my heart. She is fifty-two, has raised one family, was widowed, and now has a six year old daughter she is raising alone. Epi is intelligent, honorable and willing to work at anything she can, given her sometimes severe arthritis. She has always worked, but she is now caught in a conundrum. There are not any jobs she can get to in Austin without a car which pay enough to support her and her daughter. She has to rely on government assistance so that she and little Maria Guadalupe do not starve.
"The United States is a good country and a strong country, but sometimes it seems that everything is getting bigger and better, but not for us who live on the Eastside." Epi's right. Austin is growing by leaps and bounds. The area's population will double in the next twenty years and new subdivisions, supermarkets, and Walmarts are pushing back the bounds of Texas' Hill Country. But East Austin has lost resources in the last ten years. There used to be five strong supermarkets in the area and several good grocery stores. Now there are only two supermarkets and the last family-owned grocery store on the Eastside closed last winter. The old food stores have been replaced by convenience stores. There are 38: all of them sell tobacco and alcohol, but only 19 sell milk and only five have all the ingredients a family needs to make a balanced meal. And their prices are high.
"One of the best things that happened to us who live in Chalmers Courts in the last year was El Jardin Alegre. With the (community) garden we can grow our own food in our own neighborhood. It is ours. This summer there were more tomatoes and squash than we could eat. I made enough salsa for a year and still there was more left. We were rich. Next year we may sell some of the vegetables at the farmers' market. My friend Lourdes wants to start a nursery at the community garden. Do you know, the Eastside does not have a nursery. Everyone has a little jardincito, but they do not buy their seeds or plants here--- we have to go to the rich neighorhoods to buy everything."
It is time for real welfare reform. No more painkillers. Real treatment for one of the limitations of capitalism-- that rational behavior to maximize profit can take a heavy social toll. A legitimate role of government is to correct for these shortcomings which rob low-income neighborhoods of economic resources and leave their residents victims. Concentration of ownership in the food industry has wreaked havoc on low income consumers who have fallen back on government assistance programs which do nothing to rebuild the resources these communities have lost. Federal programs just dull the pain-- for awhile.
Welfare reform is an unparalleled opportunity for community food security. It is the opening for a new approach to fighting and ending hunger. We all know that the existing food programs have been inadequate, and low funding was not the only reason why. America is looking for solutions and we think we have the answer, at least in the arena of food. Now is our chance to show that a little money spent on increasing the capacity of communities to access, grow, and maybe process their own food can not only break the cycle of individual dependency, but also spark microenterprises.
It is not asking too much that public programs solve economic problems. In fact, if we are serious about ending hunger, addressing the fundamental economic problems in poor communities is what we are going to have to do.
Lynn Parker, Director of Child Nutrition Programs and Nutrition Policy, Food Research and Action Center ( FRAC)
Let's start with the facts. The welfare reform legislation that just passed the Congress and was signed into law by President Clinton will mean that the poorest people in this country will be more insecure than ever about how they will get enough food to feed themselves and their families. The possible ramifications of the welfare reform law are sad and scary. Among the most deleterious impacts is that adults from 18 to 50 years old WHO do not have children will be punished for not being able to find or keep jobs in an economy that, less and less, provides secure jobs for unskilled workers. In addition more poor women with children will find themselves with no way to buy enough food.
Is this a "sea change" in our country? Put a different way-- Do Americans no longer believe that the government has a responsibility to ensure that people are not hungry through no fault of their own? I find it very hard to believe that our nation's long-term bi-partisan support of federal food assistance is over. In fact, I strongly believe that some of these cuts will be restored, and that the child nutrition programs will continue to grow. However, many people will still suffer from hunger because of inadequate financial resources.
The response to this situation will have to be four-fold-- increased assistance from charitable institutions; united efforts to restore federal funding deductions; creative work with state legislatures to make up for the great losses in food resources; and community based food security efforts.
Yes-- soup kitchens and food pantries will have to expand as far as they can to meet the increased need, and they need our support. The people who operate emergency feeding sites in our communities could not have made it more clear to Congress and the President that they will not be able to meet the increased need that will result from the welfare reform bill as it passed, but they will stretch as far as they can to meet more people's needs.
In the final analysis, the federal government is the only entity in our society that has both the ability and the resources to provide the kind of comprehensive and equitable safety net we need for the most vulnerable in our midst. Many in Congress and around the country will be pushing in 1997 to restore the cutbacks made in the food assistance programs and change polices that will hurt people with low incomes. Their efforts will probably not be fully successful-- but they have the potential for making significant progress because many in our nation do not want their neighbors to be hungry. I also believe that as the changes go into effect people will begin to see and comprehend the terrible impacts that result.
At the state level, as well, many state legislators, mayors, anti-hunger organizations and others will be working to make more food resources available to the poor living in their boundaries. Finally, I believe that community-based activities that are often described as "food security" efforts or "alternative strategies" can make a significant difference in people's ability to purchase or obtain sufficient food.
In the longer term, there are major economic and political changes that we must grapple with as communities and as a nation if we want to solve the problem of hunger and food insecurity. We need to address the larger issues raised by leaders in the community food security community, such as how decisions should be made about the production and processing of the nation's food supply; what can be done to sustain our farmland; how to ensure the quality and safety of the food supply; and how to provide fair wages for work.
However, my point is this-- let's not kid ourselves. The welfare reform law that just passed will further impoverish people. For the near future, "food security" activities are critical, but can't bring back sufficiently large amounts of dollars soon enough. In the short term, we must work hard to bring as much money back to people as we can and making federal nutrition programs available in more communities can help here. At the same time, we can work with others in our communities to rethink how food issues are handled at the local and national level. We can't afford to divide ourselves into camps-- the "anti-hunger groups," the "food security groups," the "food banks," etc. If I were poor and hungry I would want to work with others to get food for my family NOW, and plan and work together to prevent hunger for my family and others in the future.
Joyce Rothermel, Executive Director, Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, McKeesport, PA
We have the biggest wallet in the industrialized world, but a far smaller will to share it with our children.
--Marian Wright Edelman
In the face of any change, there are two predictable emotions inside all of us that may step forward: one is hope and the other fear. Organizational responses may be light years away from that of individuals directly affected by the change. Food banking efforts now span the nation with the hope of becoming the strongest private sector safety net possible supplying over 50,000 community based food pantries, soup kitchens, after school programs, and shelter programs. The holes in the federal government's policies have gotten bigger through cuts in funding and shifts in national priorities. The private sector efforts have not and are not able to keep up with the legitimate needs of the economically disadvantaged.
As a food banker, I am one player among many in the state of Pennsylvania where the vision for the future in the wake of the recent welfare changes is still fuzzy. Avenues for communication are open and all are being invited to surface our fears and work together for hope to emerge. This means concrete action plans need to be laid to work with each other in assisting those impacted by the policy changes on the federal and state levels to improve their quality of life.
Is the private sector ready for this responsibility shift from tax dollars and government initiatives to private funding, education, job training and job opportunities for those on the economically disadvantaged end of the spectrum in our communities? If the prevailing attitudes that brought about these changes in welfare policies are respectful of persons who are sometimes poor and cannot successfully economically compete to care for their own needs and that of their families, these same attitudes will move us as a society to accomplish in the private sector what sometimes failed with past policies. If, however, and this is my greatest fear, that prevailing attitudes that sparked these changes have little regard for the plight of people who are economically disadvantaged (who most often are children who cannot work), their plight will be even worse under the new policies. There is perhaps a window of opportunity before us to help shatter myths commonly believed about welfare recipients. As policy changes are implemented, the media should be invited to focus on the lives of people impacted by the changes. Putting faces on those who are economically disadvantaged help us relate to each other and real life situations more honestly and respond more positively.
Equipped with our food bank mission for the elimination of hunger and collaborative strategies that encourage self-reliance, we plan to work as cooperatively as possible with our local welfare department and other organizational players to provide a strong safety net with our network of food assistance providers. With the drastic cuts to the food stamp program, we anticipate that more people will be turning more often to food assistance providers in the network we supply. Identifying sufficient food supplies will be a challenge we face in partnership with the local community, the food industry and our national partner, Second Harvest. We will articulate to the public through the media and our own communication channels with our supporters and funders what we are doing in response to what we are seeing in terms of need. We hope to continue our farm, community gardens, farm stands, and nutrition education efforts that invite low income people to become more involved in the procurement and control of their daily nutritional needs.
Finally, we will continue to form and develop working relationships with our public policy makers to encourage public sector responsibility for the general welfare of U.S. residents including, the right to food. We believe without the government doing its fair share with responsible welfare policies, we will fall short in achieving our mission, the elimination of hunger. The fruit of the current experiment will be in the quality of life of our country's most vulnerable residents.
Michael Salinas, Hunger Task Force of Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI
President Clinton's support of the welfare reform bill seems like "politics as usual." One has to wonder whether his signing of Public Law 104-93 , for all its black holes, was more of a case of political expediency than a firm philosophical belief from the President. Although federal food and nutrition programs dodged a bullet by escaping the horror of block grants, troubling times are ahead. Our nation repeals, rather than reforms its 60 year old commitment to provide modest income support through the AFDC program and turns over to states in the form of block grants most policy making and all funding control. Equally devastating are the across the board reductions in food stamp benefits to over 23 million recipients and the termination of benefits to over a million legal immigrants and childless adults. Our nation has promised to take care of its children. Cuts in the Summer Food, School Breakfast and Child and Adult Care Food Programs, our nation's nutritional safety net, severely contradicts that promise.
With these changes, anti-hunger advocates on the front line of the fight against hunger are bracing for the unexpected. Although the impact of welfare reform on our already over-burdened emergency food distribution system is yet unknown, anti-hunger advocates fear the worst. Clearly, if we are going to advocate for families and children, food pantry and meal program providers will need to work together to develop consistent measurements of impact and prepare strategies to handle the load.
While these are important questions to be addressed, there is one deeper fundamental question: How much longer can our dedicated volunteers and advocates keep operating in crisis mode? An aging volunteer force, combined with a limited capacity to handle an increased demand for assistance, could very well break this fragile system. As a result, communities will be asked to dig deeper into their pockets. And our current predicament will cause us to temporarily retreat into a more defensive stance.
Anti-hunger advocates need to maintain the offensive by building and promoting community food security. Community food security can be reached through a collaborative effort to attack food insecurity by attacking its primary cause-- poverty. Food insecurity is a symptom of a community disease, and its effects go far beyond the food system and into housing, education, environment, agriculture, nutrition, and the economy. To find a cure for this disease means to attain food security by attacking its primary cause and involving the various sectors of the community in its solution. Only then can we reduce the burden on our emergency food system, a system that is not the cure but the aspirin to relieve the pain.
An efficient emergency food distribution system is only one important piece in building hunger-free communities. Advocates must now increase resources and efforts which develop and promote community food security initiatives. These initiatives will reduce dependency on the emergency food system, promote self-reliance, and most importantly assist in restoring hope to millions of Americans who are forced to sacrifice their pride and dignity to relieve their hunger.
My challenge to everyone reading this article is to increase efforts to attain community food security. Create additional community gardens and farmers markets in those areas which are lacking. Transform food pantries into holistic programs to encourage self-reliance, and provide nutrition education and job employment assistance. Combine food and nutrition programs with job training and youth employment. Create low income centered community supported agriculture farms. Develop a micro-credit lending program for food-related microbusinesses. Encourage supermarket development in the inner city and foster livable wage job opportunities in food manufacturing. Recognize that to do all this means we must understand the food system as it relates to low income people and create unique business-philanthropic-university- government-nonprofit partnerships to attack those root conditions which cause and perpetuate hunger. These types of strategies can help bring us closer to community food security.
Conferences:
Michael Fields Sixth Annual Rural-Urban Conference, East Troy, WI. Nov 8-10, 1996. Contact: Gail Kahovic, 414-642-3303.
Just Food Alliance annual meeting, New York City Dec. 7-8, 1996. Contact: Kathy Lawrence, 212-666-2138.
California Sustainable Ag Working Group annual meeting Dec. 7-8, Santa Cruz, CA Contact: Kai Siedenburg, 408-457-2815.
Southern Sustainable Ag Working Group Conference. January, 16-18, 1997. Gainesville, FL. Contact: Jean Mills, 205-333-8504 or FL Organic Growers, 352-377-6345.
California Farm Conference, Riverside, CA February 23-25, 1997. Contact: Mary Lou Weiss, 310-618-2930.
Northeast Regional Partnership for Food Security conference. March 13-14 , 1997. Hartford, CT Contact: Mark Winne, 860-296-9325.
Resources
Farmers' Market Outlook
An attractively designed and intelligent bi-monthly dedicated to local and seasonal food, direct marketing issues, recipes, and farming issues in California. $20/year. Contact: Mark Thompson, 310-673-8366.
Gardening Curriculum
Food Works is an non-profit educational consulting firm that works with elementary schools to focus their curriculum on food security, stewardship of the environment and community service. For more information call (802) 223-1515 or e-mail at RootsNet@Plainfied.bypass.com.
Youth Gardening
The National Gardening Association is offering grants of tools, seeds, and garden products valued at $500 to youth gardening projects. Applications are due by Nov. 15, 1996. Contact: NGA, 802-863-1308
Food System
A comprehensive guide to developing a food policy organization is available from the Local Food System Project. Contact Jan O'Donnell, 612-644-2038
Holiday Basket
Food for All is offering a holiday basket of food items produced by community non-profit enterprises, such as Food from the Hood and San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners. Order by Nov. 15. $35 + shipping. Contact: Food for All, 800-786-6638.
Food Access Report
The California Food Access Report is a very informative monthly publication on nutrition policy, food security, and other food and health related issues. N/C. Contact: Sharon Eghigian, Cal-Neva CAA, 916-443-1721.
Position Available
SEEDS, a community gardening organization in Durham, NC has an opening for its Executive Director. Contact: Brenda Brodie for more information, 919-493-2447
The following projects received funding from the Community Food Projects program (Community Food Security Act) for fiscal year 1996-1997.
Community Alliance with Family Farm Foundation, Davis, CA. $45,000
¥ CSA partnership between family farmers and two low-income Latino community development groups to provide marketing outlets for small-scale farmers.
Southland Farmers' Market Association, Los Angeles, CA. $64,000
¥ Trains community gardeners in production techniques, small business management, and produce-marketing, as well as generates economic development opportunities.
Denver Urban Gardens, Denver, CO. $163,000
¥ Expands community gardens, establishes a community food council, develops a livestock center, initiates a CSA program, and begins an entrepreneurial program for low-income youths and homeless citizens.
Kauai Food Bank, Lihue, HI. $79,000
¥Expands the food bank's farming capacity, marketing produce to hotels and tourist resorts.
The Community Kitchen of Monroe County, Bloomington, IN. $40,000
¥ Trains tenants of public housing to produce food and to increase income by selling produce and value-added products at local stores and restaurants.
Loyola University, New Orleans, LA. $148,000
¥ Establishes a partnership between rural growers and inner city dwellers to cultivate small businesses from a thriving farmers market.
Coastal Enterprises, Inc., Wiscasset, ME. $113,000
¥ Develops an urban and rural food policy council and creates several new projects including farmers markets, community gardens, and educational projects.
Nuestras Raices, Inc., Holyoke, MA. $89,000
¥ Combines a greenhouse classroom, children's garden projects, food farm awareness, micro-enterprise development with kitchens, and micro-processing to create value-added products for retail sale.
The Food Project, Inc., Lincoln, MA. $120,000
¥ Creates a youth-run food system including farms and farmers' market.
Missoula Nutrition Resources, Missoula, MT. $99,000
¥ Develops a community farm and neighborhood and backyard gardens using sustainable agriculture methods.
Knoxville-Knox County Community Action Committee, Knoxville, TN. $31,000
¥ Creates a green market, provides"veggie vouchers" for WIC recipients, establishes community gardens, and encourages restaurants to purchase local produce, increases summer food program sites, and develops a data base to monitor performance of the food system.
Institute for Washington's Future, Seattle, WA. $69,000
¥ Creates opportunities for low-income area residents to gain organic farming and business skills and subsequent access to farmable land.
Lightstone Foundation, Moyers, WV $50,000
¥ Improve access to locally grown food, increases economic opportunities for low-income households, and supports local diversified farms.
Community Community Food Security Coalition
Food
Security
News Fall 1996
Editor: Andy Fisher
CFS News is a quarterly publication of the CFS Coalition. The CFS Coalition's mission is to promote comprehensive systems-oriented solutions to the nation's food and farming problems. It conducts policy advocacy ; provides technical assistance to organizations iplementing food security related programs; organizes regional coalitions; maintains a clearinghouse and database; conducts research and publishes reports; educates the public and professionals through the media , conferences, and newsletters.
Community food security (CFS) is defined as "all persons obtaining at all times a culturally acceptable nutritionally adequate diet through local non-emergency sources." A CFS approach emphasizes the need to build community institutions to ensure access and availability for community residents. Thus, food security must be seen as a question of community development and empowerment which complements and extends the traditional view of addressing hunger issues at the individual level.
Steering committee:
Andy Fisher, Los Angeles; Kate Fitzgerald, Sustainable Food Center Austin, TX; Robert Gottlieb, UCLA Dept. of Urban Planning, Los Angeles; Hugh Joseph, Boston, MA; Kathy Ozer, National Family Farm Coalition, Washington; Duane Perry, Reading Terminal Farmers' Market, Philadelphia, PA; Lorette Picciano, Rural Coalition, Washington; Michael Salinas, Hunger Task Force of Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI; Kai Siedenburg, CA SAWG, Santa Cruz, CA; Zy Weinberg, Public Voice, Washington; Mark Winne, Hartford Food System, Hartford, CT;
PO Box 209, Venice, CA 90294. 310-822-5410. E-mail: asfisher@aol.com
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Thanks to Jeremy Nave for newsletter design.