Ensuring that No One in Alaska Goes Hungry

Alaska is a grand and beautiful state, with mountain range after stunning mountain range!   Its land area is huge compared to the size of the Lower 48.  The population of Alaska is the 4th lowest of any state, at 710,231 people.  That’s only 1.2 people per square mile, compared to the US average of 87.4. 

Travel here is a challenge.  There are roads, as long as you want to arrive from the Alaska Highway and drive around Anchorage, Fairbanks, or a few other places.  About 80% of Alaskans live on the road system, or in Juneau, Kodiak Island, or other places served by ferries.  But the remaining 20% live in the rural west or north, where there is no interconnected road system.  The small villages provide conveniences such as schools, a store, a post office, a generator for electricity, and an airstrip.   

Both overall cost of living and food are pricey in Alaska.  A limited growing season and large areas of mountains and tundra mean that local agriculture is scarce.   Most food is transported here, and the harder it is to reach an area, the more expensive groceries are.  According to the University of Alaska Fairbanks 2010 food cost survey, food in all Alaska locations was more expensive than in Portland, OR, where it cost $106.66 per week to feed a family of four adequate nutrition at the lowest possible cost.  Of the communities listed in Alaska, food costs were lowest in Fairbanks at $129.87 per week and highest in Bethel (where everything is shipped in by air) at $272.77 per week.  Costs are even higher in the more remote villages.

Food insecurity rates in rural Alaska can rise as high as 30.4%.  But wait!  Aren’t Alaskans able to rely on subsistence hunting and fishing to meet their dietary needs?  No.  In 1999, rural Alaskans only acquired 35% of their food from subsistence hunting and fishing.  It’s very important to ensure that for the “western” portion of their diets, they have access to healthy foods instead of just the highly-processed and over-sweetened food that tends to be available in small stores. 

From left to right, Food Bank of Alaska's Mariko Churchill, Shipping Manager, Susannah Morgan, Executive Director,
Jim Mackenzie, Director of Development and Communication, and Robin Stilwell, Director of Advocacy

We were particularly interested in learning how supplemental food reaches people who need it in all parts of Alaska, so we visited the Food Bank of Alaska.  We talked with Susannah Morgan, Executive Director, Jim Mackenzie, Director of Development and Communication, Mariko Churchill, Shipping Manager, and Robin Stilwell, Director of Advocacy, to learn how they’ve solved the complex challenges they face.  

The Food Bank of Alaska is located in Anchorage, a logical placement since more than 60% of Alaska’s population lives nearby.  Smaller partner food banks serve areas around Juneau, Fairbanks, Soldotna, and Kodiak, so altogether about 80% of the population of Alaska is located relatively near a food bank that can be used by local food pantries, soup kitchens, and shelters to obtain and distribute food to those in need.

But getting food to the rural villages is more of a challenge.  In most cases, it needs to be delivered by air.  Luckily, there’s a system that was put in place specifically for Alaska, called Alaska Bypass Mail, (See  Chapter 8 in Intra-Alaska Mail Service by Air, USPS, 2000).  Shipments of over 1,000 pounds can be sent to rural post offices for about $0.40 per pound.  As Mariko explained, when a shipment is ready, she calls the post office, and the post office tells her which airline will take it and at what time.   She delivers the shipment directly to that air carrier, bypassing the post office completely.  Bypass shipping costs are much less than regular air freight rates or parcel post, but still much higher than the $0.07 that most food banks in the Lower 48 pay for truck shipping.  For shipments that cannot go by Bypass Mail, Mariko maintains a large spreadsheet to keep track of what carriers can deliver shelf-stable, chilled, or frozen food to each agency and village.

Another complication in rural shipping is that IRS rules require that only 501(c)(3) non-profit  or religious organizations can distribute donated food.  Why is that an issue?  Well, in rural Alaska, often the regional or village Alaska Native Corporation would be the most appropriate or only organization capable of managing food distribution.  But, these native corporations are for-profit corporations created as part of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act in 1971.  Therefore, instead of food donated or collected through food drives, all the supplemental food sent to most rural Alaskan villages is government-funded USDA food.

The Food Bank of Alaska runs three USDA commodity programs and two USDA child feeding programs for the state of Alaska:

• The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) for low-income Americans.  Commodity foods come to the Food Bank and are given out to agencies in quantities dependent on the number of people in poverty that they serve.
• Commodities Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) for seniors, post-partum women and children to age 6.  The food bank assembles 1600 boxes per month containing cereal, juice, canned vegetables, canned fruits, peanut butter or dried beans, canned meat, pasta or rice, evaporated milk, and powdered milk.  These boxes are only sent out to agencies where they can be trucked, and to Kodiak and Wrangell, where they have negotiated free shipping.
• Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR).   Even though Native Alaskans don’t live on reservations, they may be eligible to choose between SNAP (food stamps) and this program designed for Native Americans who live great distances from a store.  FDPIR is seen as a larger component of the family’s diet and includes larger quantities and more variety (perhaps 60 items) than the other commodity programs.  Nevertheless, FDPIR is the smallest of the government programs because, as Susannah explained, in small villages that do have access to a reasonable store, SNAP provides a much better option – not only does it allow the client choice of foods to purchase, but it also supports the store and helps the local economy.
• Child and Adult Care Feeding Program (CACFP). This program reimburses day care, after school, and recreational programs for food they provide to people in need. CACFP will also be growing, since the US Child Nutrition Act authorized payment for dinners at child care sites, and the increased reimbursement rate makes it financially feasible to ship food to rural Alaska locations. 

• Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), which reimburses programs for either lunch or dinner and breakfast or snack for eligible children or sites during the summer.  According to Robin, SFSP is a proud recent addition and the fastest growing program run by the Food Bank of Alaska.  The food bank is currently supplying summer lunches to 70 sites.  For local sites, they contract with various vendors to supply freshly made lunches.  For rural sites, they provide shelf-stable, bag lunches from JA Food Systems that meet all USDA requirements and can simply be handed out to each child. 

Before an agency can receive food from any of the above programs, it must agree to follow the USDA guidelines for record-keeping.  This isn’t a problem in the more populated areas, since the agencies tend to have stable staff who can take on this task.  However, in the more rural areas where the agencies are very small and often run by one dedicated volunteer who may not be stay very long, the paperwork becomes more of a burden.  Therefore, the Food Bank of Alaska does almost all the administrative work itself and only requires the sites to keep track of how many meals they serve or how many commodities they hand out. 

In all, last year the Food Bank of Alaska provided about 6 million pounds of food to food-insecure Alaskans.  This year, according to Jim, they’re on track to provide 6.5 million.  That sounds like a lot, but according to Susannah, that’s only about half the amount required to provide adequate supplemental food for those in need in Alaska. 

Beyond acquiring and distributing enough supplemental food, perhaps the biggest challenge is supplying fresh produce.  The Food Bank of Alaska has tackled this issue for neighborhoods in Anchorage with their Mobile Food Pantry.  Five days a week, the pantry takes produce out to low income communities.  Produce that would go bad if held in the warehouse for another day can be on the table of a hungry person instead. 

Susannah’s dream is to have a mobile food pantry with wings so some of that produce could reach sites off the road system. 

Anybody got an extra airplane?

PEAS

Approach Missoula, Montana, from the east and you experience the thrill of watching the mountains emerge in the west as you cross the high, open plains.  This thriving city of about 67,000 on the banks of the Clark Fork River is the home of the University of Montana.  From their campus, travel 2.5 miles or so north into the beautiful Rattlesnake Valley.  See lovely level fields ringed by even lovelier mountains. 

Notice the small “PEAS Farm" sign.  Enter the parking lot beside the little straw-bale barn and see the rich fields, two to the north and two to the south, filled with lettuce, greens, strawberries, and radishes ready to harvest, and with all manner of other plants (squash, pumpkin, corn, etc.) lustily growing in preparation for a later harvest.  If it were the morning that we were there, you might notice us working alongside a dozen or more young men and women, weeding these 10 acres of organically-farmed fields.  You would feel their enthusiasm, their sense of community, and their vision for a healthier way to feed America and the world.  PEAS stands for “Program in Ecological Agriculture and Society,” a program of study within the University’s Environmental Studies Department. 

Josh Slotnick and Jason Mandala

We spoke with Josh Slotnick, Lecturer for Program in Ecological Agriculture and Society, and PEAS Farm founder and Director. Josh told us that the idea for the PEAS Farm (and the other farms under the umbrella of Garden City Harvest) came in 1996, when a coalition of far-thinking Missoulians came together to address a broad set of intersecting needs:

• Some were anticipating the effects of the Republican Contract with America, specifically the changes in the welfare laws that limited who could receive government assistance and for how long.  This would vastly increase the number of people in need of emergency food assistance.  Could that food be healthy and include adequate fresh seasonal produce?
• Simultaneously, others were seeing a need to teach students at all levels, from pre-school through graduate school, about gardening and healthy eating.  Do we know where our food comes from, what's healthy, and how to produce it?
• And still others were alarmed by statistics showing that local farming could not currently feed the community.   More than 85% of the food dollars spent in the state of Montana go for food produced and trucked from elsewhere, and the average age of farmers is increasing (as of 2007, the average age of a farmer in Montana is 58).  Could these trends be reversed and local farming again be seen as a community resource, bringing food security and better health to everyone? 

All these needs are addressed at the PEAS Farm. 

Interns operate the farm throughout the year, learning to farm organically, and taking that knowledge with them when they leave the University.   Of the interns we worked with, at least one was actively looking to begin his own farm, one was hoping to take over his father’s farm, others mentioned careers in soil science or international sustainable agriculture, and all were at least destined to be acutely aware of what they eat and where it comes from. 

In addition, interns learn the value of working together on humble tasks, solving problems as a team, and serving their community.  Some of the produce is sold as shares in the farm’s Community-Supported Agriculture program or mobile farmer’s markets.  Some is used each day by two interns who prepare a hearty lunch for the crew.  The remainder is donated directly to the Missoula Food Bank) and the Poverello Center, which distribute it free of charge to those in need.

It’s not just the interns who demonstrate the priority that the PEAS Farm gives to education.   The Farm also operates an extensive education program for kids in preschool through high school.  Jason Mandala, Community Education Director, said that last year the Farm brought over 2500 children here for field trips.  Many children are amazed to find out where their food comes from before it gets to the grocery stores.   Jason lets the kids pick and taste whatever is ripe; he excites them about healthy eating and says he’s more successful than most parents are at getting their kids to eat vegetables.  He told us one story about a kid coming back to the Farm for a second trip and asking hopefully, “Are we going to eat kale today?”  Parents tell him, “We’re now eating this [fresh produce item] because our child said she wanted it.”  And Josh said that he overheard a girl at the farmer’s market telling her mother, “If you have a bad day, eat kale.”

Will the PEAS farm help end hunger in America?  Josh thinks it’s a piece of the puzzle, but that much more is needed.  We need communities in which everyone can earn a living.   And we need education and cultural change.  "You can eat well on little money.  But you can’t do it on highly processed, cheap food." 

South Dakota Feeds Kids in the Summer

During the school year, most children have a reliable source of lunch through the National School Lunch Program.  In fiscal year 2010 over 20 million children received those lunches free of charge or at reduced rates because their family’s income is low.  That’s over 65% of all meals served under the National School Lunch Program.

But what do those 20 million children do during the summer when school is out?  Many are at risk of hunger.  Families struggle to stretch their food dollars and food pantries often report increased demand during the summer months.  One program meant to fill the summer gap is the Summer Food Service Program, established by congress in 1975.

Julie McCord, South Dakota
Child and Adult Nutrition Services

How does it work? 

To find out, we interviewed Julie McCord, who manages all of the state's summer feeding programs through Child and Adult Nutrition Services, South Dakota Department of Education.  Here are the highlights of this national program:

• A site may qualify for the Summer Food Service Program (or related programs such as the National School Lunch Program’s Seamless Summer Option) if at least half the children they expect to serve are eligible for free or reduced-price school meals (family income below 185% of the poverty line).  This means that “closed” programs, such as day camps or school programs for which children register, qualify based on the eligibility of the individual children.  “Open” programs, in which any child ages 1-18 can come to eat, qualify based on the eligibility statistics in their geographic area.
• Once the site is eligible, all of the children can eat for free.  This greatly simplifies the bookkeeping for program directors and allows children who might just miss the eligibility criterion to eat for free.
• Sites can choose to serve breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, or dinner (but not both lunch and dinner, for which the reimbursement rates are higher).
• The USDA regulations for staff training, food quality and safety, meal plan options, and rules such as the meal components that all children must be served are very similar to those in place for the National School Lunch Program.

Pearl Haux prepares lunch

The Summer Food Service Program we visited is located at the Mobridge-Pollock School in Mobridge SD (population 3465).  This beautiful new facility educates students from upper elementary through high school, all approximately 700 of whom are fed during the school year by Food Supervisor Pearl Haux and her staff.  During the summer, Pearl continues to feed breakfast and lunch, to all children in the community who come.  Adults can also eat here by paying the approximate cost of the meal.

Pearl said that it’s very hard to predict the number who will come – this year lunch has been served to between about 90 and 160.  The day we were there, lunch was served to 127 children and 12 adults (including us!)  Pearl estimated that she sees about 400 different children over the course of the summer.

We really liked this program, and here are some of the reasons:

• This is a community program.  The school superintendent believes that the community was generous in building this beautiful school, so the school should give back to the community.  In addition to breakfast and lunch, the school hosts open gym for kids and various camps such as a wrestling camp.  Kids from those programs and the nearby town pool and practice fields also eat here.
• The school is located in a pedestrian-friendly neighborhood, so most kids appeared to walk over for lunch.  We talked with one set of 6 kids, older ones babysitting younger ones, who told us they ate here most days and were walking over to Grandma’s house after lunch.  Parents or daycare providers came with some of the younger kids. 
• Pearl knows the children she feeds, knows what they like, and truly loves feeding them well.  The day we were there, the menu was soft tacos filled with beef and a variety of toppings that the kids could add themselves, corn, watermelon, and skim milk.  We thought it was delicious, and so did the kids, though they told us that their favorite meal was what Pearl calls “super nachos.”  Pearl had attended training the previous week on the new USDA nutrition guidelines so she could begin implementing them before they're required in 2012.
• This program runs for the entire summer, unlike many that do not, due to financial or staffing limitations.  In SD, only 46% of the summer food service programs this year plan to operate for the entire summer.
• The availability of the program and the menus are well-advertised in town.  Kids told us they checked the menus on the local cable TV station or in the newspaper.

Probably the biggest problem with summer food service programs is that there are not nearly enough to meet the need.  Julie said that when school is in session, more than 56,000 South Dakota children receive free or reduced-price meals through the National School Lunch Program.  During the summer of 2010, only about 10,000 children were fed. 

This summer, there are 115 locations for summer feeding in South Dakota, operated by 66 sponsors – 35 sponsors operating Summer Food Service Programs are schools, Boys and Girls Clubs, YMCAs, and other local agencies; 31 sponsors are schools that are using the Seamless Summer option to continue their regular National School Lunch Program for some or all of the summer. 

In each of the last few years, Julie has succeeded in increasing the number of Summer Food Service Programs operating in South Dakota.  Each winter, she identifies areas that would qualify and contacts schools and other organizations to try to recruit them to sponsor summer food service programs. Sponsors may be most any school or governmental or non-profit organization.  She asks food pantries to help identify local organizations that might be suitable sponsors.  And she helps all applicants through the lengthy application and program planning process, including offering training in the details of the program for any applicant.

Nevertheless, more sites are needed if all hungry kids are to be fed during the summer. What are the obstacles? 

• Cost.  Many organizations and schools that would be eligible can’t afford to offer summer food.  USDA does reimburse at a congressionally-set rate per meal, but that reimbursement rarely covers the entire cost of the program.  Even if the reimbursement covers food and labor costs, it may not be sufficient to cover additional costs, such as utilities, facilities rental, or transporting children to the meal or meals to the children.
• Staff.  Sometimes qualified food service workers are difficult to find.  Regular staff may not want to continue working through the summer, and other potential staff may lack the training or readiness to follow USDA rules.
• Facilities.  Meals don’t have to be hot or prepared in professional kitchens, but even so, sometimes appropriate, food-safe facilities are not available in a community.  For example, in some small communities, there is no school; the children attend boarding schools or are bused to school during the school year, but are home during the summer.  If a school kitchen is not an option, Julie looks for another site that meets the requirements.  It might be a church, a community center, a Boys and Girls Club, or a tribal building.  But often these facilities in poor communities are in disrepair, have water or sewer issues, or are otherwise unsafe for preparing and serving food to children.  Julie told us about one program sponsor that is busing kids to another facility until it can bring its own facility up to code. 
  
  There’s no federal money available to help with expenses such as facility repair.  But we have heard that other hunger relief organizations, such as Share Our Strength and ConAgra Foundation, may be trying to help in this area.

It’s disappointing that more children aren’t being reached with the Summer Food Service Program.  Apparently, the USDA agrees.  In addition to encouraging more use of the program, they’re considering another idea, adding additional money to a family’s SNAP or WIC benefits in the summer to cover their increased expenses for school children’s meals.

We think that the Summer Food Service Program offers a very good program for feeding kids.  Pearl agrees.  She said she’d actually like to see the National School Lunch Program run more like Summer Food Service Program.  “Many of the middle class families in Mobridge are really hurting, but they make too much money to qualify for free or reduced price lunches (or other benefits like SNAP and heating assistance).  So I wish that I could serve all students breakfast and lunch during the school year, just like I do in the summer.”

Ruth Meiers Hospitality House

While we were in Bismarck, we volunteered at the Ruth Meiers Hospitality House, which serves the homeless and those at risk of becoming homeless. 

We toured the offices and outreach facility with Julie Huwe, and then helped Dale Romans prepare and serve supper to the residents of the men’s shelter.  The menu was chicken quarters topped with pasta sauce and cheese, bread stuffing, creamed corn, and iced tea.  It was easy to prepare, leaving us time to chat with some of the residents before dinner.  The crowd was small, most watching TV and talking with each other as they enjoyed their dinners.  We served about 15 of the 21 current residents and put a few meals into the refrigerator for late-comers. 

Dale Romans

Ruth Meiers Hospitality House is a homeless shelter.  It has two emergency facilities, one a men’s shelter and one a women and children’s shelter.  Last year, all the beds were full for 276 of the 365 nights, and they housed 131 different men, women and children at different times.  Hospitality House also has several transitional housing facilities for single men and women, with various entry and resident criteria, but all with on-site support staff.  Residents are expected to progress toward permanent housing and to work towards gaining employment and/or income.  Staff, including case managers, job service representatives, and an addiction/mental health counselor, help residents address their needs. 

But Ruth Meiers Hospitality House is much more than just a shelter. 

• It is the “24/7 Single Point of Entry” to services for those that are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless in the Bismarck area.  Here, clients in need can come to one place for all services rather than being referred to a number of different agencies. 
• It’s a place to obtain food.  They house a food pantry, open 5 days/week.  Like many other food pantries, it often suffers from a lack of some of the products they want to distribute.  The food pantry has a refrigerator for storing perishables (when we visited, it contained only eggs, donated by a local farmer) and a freezer which held frozen meat, mostly donated by Walmart and other local supermarkets.  They also sometimes receive meat from Sportsmen Against Hunger.  Other protein sources and fast meals were in very short supply – see the empty shelves in this photo.  Clients may use the food pantry once/month, and get about 20 lbs of food.  There is also a “bread shelf” in the lobby, where anyone can come and pick up three packages of bread and rolls, collected daily from local bakeries and supermarkets by volunteers. 



Julie Huwe showing us the food pantry at the
Ruth Meiers Hospitality House

• The Stone Soup Kitchen, in existence since 1994, provides a free noon meal to homeless and low-income individuals in the community on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday.  The meals are prepared and served by volunteers, and they have a waiting list for people who want to help!

This little shelter, run by compassionate people and home to so many other services, seemed to us uniquely fitted to meeting the needs of homeless and struggling people in Bismarck.  We’re glad to have helped out in 1 small way.

What Does 7.8% Mean in North Dakota?

Feeding America's Map the Meal Gap

See that largest light area on Feeding America’s Map the Meal Gap?  That would be the state of North Dakota, which Feeding America estimates as having the lowest food insecurity rate in the nation – 7.8%.  This is a very low rate!  The next lowest is New Hampshire, with a rate of 10.0%, and the national average is 16.6%. 

What does a state look like that has the lowest food insecurity rate?  We went to North Dakota to find out.  We expected to find little need for food assistance.  Instead we found innovative state-wide programs facing special challenges in feeding hungry North Dakotans.

Melissa Sobolik,
Great Plains Food Bank

We began in Fargo, ND, where we interviewed Melissa Sobolik, Director of Member and Client Services at Great Plains Food Bank, the food bank that supplies all of North Dakota and one county of Minnesota with much of its emergency food, including TEFAP commodities.  Then we traveled to Bismarck, the state capital, and talked with Arlene Dura, Director of Food Assistance Programs (including SNAP) for the North Dakota Department of Human Services. 

We certainly heard about the challenges of reaching the population of North Dakota with services: North Dakota is largely rural, people here take great pride in their self-reliance, and currently, flooding is at disastrous levels.

Rural
The population of North Dakota is 672,591.  Only 2 states have fewer residents (Vermont and Wyoming).  About 39% of North Dakotans live in the 4 biggest cities, Fargo, Bismarck, Grand Forks, and Minot, but 2 whole counties have less than 800 residents each, and another 3 have populations between 800 and 2000.  Some people need to drive 60 miles just to get to the nearest grocery store or social service office.  The average distance clients drive to a food pantry is 48 miles. 

What techniques are being used to reach this far-flung populace?

Arlene Dura, North Dakota
Department of Human Services

Arlene told us that there are county social services offices in 51 of the 53 counties (those two very sparsely populated counties are combined with a neighbor), and at least 7 counties staff satellite offices to better reach those in need.  Several of these satellites are on the state’s 3 Indian reservations. 

The county offices make the application process as efficient as possible.  Each eligibility worker handles applications for all federal programs – SNAP, Medicaid, TANF, Child Care Assistance, Basic Care, and LIHEAP fuel assistance.  In August, North Dakota added an on-line application process, which saves a client at least one trip to the county office.  So far, they’ve received more than 2400 applications via computer.  Applications are automatically routed to the correct county office, and someone in that office must follow up within one day.  For expedited service (extreme need), applicants will have their benefits within 3 days, instead of the federally mandated 7 days.  In addition, in cases of hardship (such as disability or lack of transportation), social service workers can conduct a phone interview instead of a face-to-face interview. 

The Great Plains Food Bank is also specialized to supply programs and services to low-density rural areas.   For example, they will deliver to all pantries, not requiring any to come to their warehouse to pick up food.  In 16 areas without adequate food pantries, they run mobile food pantries.  They prepare 40-lb boxes of food, load about 800 boxes onto a semi, and go to a pre-arranged and advertised site.  Clients line up in their vehicles, and workers try to provide one box of food for each person in the household.  Melissa told us about one mobile food pantry where 500 cars were in line when the truck arrived, and 1400 people showed up.  They had to ration the food that day, and next quarter, they may send 2 semis out to that location.  At least 10 communities are on the waiting list for these mobile pantries.

Self-sufficiency
The SNAP participation rate in North Dakota in 2008 was 67%.  How can more people actually receive the benefits to which they are entitled?  

Melissa told us about the Great Plains Food Bank’s new outreach efforts.  In partnership with the state, the food bank employs 3 SNAP outreach workers, who have visited every one of their 278 partner agencies to explain SNAP to those coming for service. These agencies include food pantries, senior programs, meal programs, and others. 

The outreach workers found that there are many barriers to participation in SNAP.  One of the main barriers is “Prairie Pride;” many North Dakotans choose not to admit that they are food insecure, preferring to just “make do.”   Other barriers are transportation, the distance to the social services office, and misconceptions about the programs (for example, that you can’t own a car, can’t have any assets, need to be fingerprinted, or shouldn’t take food assistance because someone else might need it more).  It often takes several low-key visits to establish a relationship with a potential client, explain the SNAP program, dispel these misconceptions, and pre-screen clients for eligibility.  Outreach workers then do whatever’s necessary to help clients apply, including sometimes visiting their homes, helping to determine what paperwork will be needed, and delivering paperwork to the social services office. 

North Dakota State Capitol in Bismarck, ND

Flooding
This year, North Dakota is experiencing an additional huge challenge – flooding, which is causing widespread damage in 3 major cities on 3 different rivers.  Minot had just been declared a federal disaster area and has been authorized for individual assistance to those affected.  

The response from the Department of Social Services was swift.  Plans were in place ahead of time so that the day after the official disaster declarations were made, the plans could be submitted to the regional USDA office.  The state used disaster overlay maps to identify all SNAP recipients affected by the flooding, and will give them an automatic replacement of their June SNAP grant, supplemented to the maximum amount allowed for their household size.  They are also ready to offer emergency SNAP benefits to anyone who lost their job because of the flooding, with a shorter application process, and taking into account the extra costs such as emergency housing, and granting an immediate interview. 

The Great Plains Food Bank is likewise implementing their disaster response plans, sending in extra food, as well as staffing an outreach office to help affected residents apply for SNAP benefits.  They’re working very closely with the social services office to coordinate these plans.

7.8%?
So, after our visit to North Dakota, what do we think accounts for the low reported rates of food insecurity there?

First, although North Dakotans are not rich (their 2008-9 level of poverty and median income place them close to the national average), their unemployment rate is by far the lowest in the nation at 3.2%.  Not only does this mean that more North Dakotans have regular income, but also that fewer are in the crisis adjustment stages of coping with job loss and learning to live on a lower budget.

Second, rates of food insecurity are partially determined by a US Census Bureau survey that asks questions about skipping meals, having too little money to afford balanced meals, and other things indicating that a household is at risk of hunger.  Answers to these questions might be slightly biased on the low side due to North Dakotans’ traditional reluctance to admit hardship.  They also are likely lower due to the fact that North Dakotans are blessed with an emergency food system that is highly tuned to meet their particular needs. 

(Acknowledgment:  Special thanks to Julia Brown at Feeding America, who helped us make sense of food insecurity measurement methods and what they mean.)

Ruby’s Pantry – Another Way to Stretch Your Food Dollar



Packing Rolls for Distribution
at Ruby's Pantry

Where can you get about $75-100 of groceries for a donation of $15?  We found one way when we volunteered for a day with Ruby’s Pantry in Cloquet, MN. 

Ruby’s Pantry is one outreach program of a 501(c)(3) evangelical Christian organization called Home and Away Ministries, Inc.   Ruby’s Pantry states its mission like this:  "To procure and distribute corporate surplus food and goods to help fight poverty, hunger and disease in rural communities in the United States for those with low resources and in crisis through churches, food shelves and other local civic organizations." 

All food distributed by Ruby’s Pantry has been donated to the central warehouse in North Branch, MN.  From there it goes out to rural areas and small communities, mostly in northeastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin, where 29 local churches or church groups hold Ruby’s Pantry distribution events, typically once a month.

We arrived at the Armory in Cloquet on the 4th Wednesday of June at 8:30 AM in a rainstorm with heavy winds.  About 30 people were already crowded into the lobby waiting for the doors to open at 10:30.  So that additional people wouldn’t have to wait outside in the rain, volunteers opened the doors as soon as there were chairs set up for them, began registration early, and announced to those who registered that distribution would start at 10:30 instead of 11:00.  There are no qualifications for receiving food at Ruby’s Pantry, but each person is asked to register by name, make a donation of $15, and receive a number indicating their place in line to receive food.

Chris Egelkraut & Richard Moeding

Meanwhile, about 50 volunteers were busy preparing all the food for distribution.  We signed in, got volunteer name tags, and joined in.  Carolyn helped transfer small cubes of frozen scrambled eggs into gallon baggies.  Betsy helped create bags of 15 frozen cheese rolls each.  When those jobs were done, we helped load the two long lines of tables with all the food to be given out that day. 

All the portions and setup were kept smoothly running by a host church representative, Pastor Rex Clyde, as well as two people from Ruby’s Pantry – operations manager Chris Egelkraut and truck driver Richard Moeding. 

 

The food distributed differs each time, depending on what Ruby's Pantry has received in donations.  Here’s what each person received the day we were there:

• 1 package of frozen barbecued beef ribs
• 2 packages of frozen chicken breast meat
• 1 bag of stuffing (larger than the supermarket size)
• 1 restaurant-sized can of vegetables such as peas, baked beans, beans, red kidney beans
• 1 bag of frozen scrambled eggs
• 2 loaves of cranberry walnut bread
• 1 bag of 15 frozen cheese rolls 
• 3 cases of yogurt, each containing 12 Yoplait Splitz
• 6 cellophane tubes of Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies, equivalent to 3 boxes of cookies 
• 32 ounces of whipping cream 
• 6 pints of sweet tea
• Choice of 1 miscellaneous item (e.g., a grab bag of 10 small items, or 1 large item such as a large bottle of cooking oil)

Registering (top) and Setting Up (bottom)

CIP Helpers

Volunteers who had worked for a few hours setting everything up went through the line first, followed by all the customers in numerical order.  Each person pushed a shopping cart (lent for the day by a local grocery store) down one side or the other of the distribution area.  Volunteers handed out each item, and the customers placed them into their own tubs or bags in the shopping carts.  At the end they were helped out to their vehicles by nine inmates from the CIP program, Minnesota’s Challenge Incarceration Program, which includes a community service component.  Most customers seemed very pleased by the food they received. 

About 700 people have registered for the Cloquet Ruby’s Pantry so far this year.  As is about typical, 202 people received food the day we were there, and about 8 new customers were turned away at the end of the morning when there were no more shares available. 

One thing that impressed us about Ruby’s Pantry is the large reliance on good-hearted volunteers and donations.  All the food is donated, all the on-site labor is done by volunteers and the CIP inmates, the Armory rental fee is waived for charitable organizations, and local stores donate bags and lend shopping carts.  Some of the donation dollars go back to Ruby’s Pantry to help pay for transportation, and the remainder stays with the local sponsoring organization, which uses it for other charitable purposes.

Volunteers serving at Ruby's Pantry

We also appreciated that this program requires no qualifications to participate other than the expected donation.  That factor appeared to us to foster a sense of dignity among all participants.  There was also an eagerness to volunteer (almost all volunteers were also customers), and we heard from several volunteers that they were giving the food they got to a daughter or grandchild who was in tough circumstances. 

All in all, Ruby’s Pantry had the feel of a community coming together to provide affordable food for everyone in need. 

WIC Works

In fiscal year 2010, the USDA spent approximately $94.8B on congressionally mandated food and nutrition assistance programs.  The bulk (72%) went to SNAP (food stamps), followed by School Lunch (11%).  The WIC program accounted for approximately 7% of the expenditures. WIC served 9.2 million people per month in 2010.

What is WIC? WIC is the common name for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children.  Its mission is “To safeguard the health of low-income women, infants, and children up to age 5 who are at nutrition risk by providing nutritious foods to supplement diets, information on healthy eating, and referrals to health care.” 

But wait.  Isn’t this what SNAP is for?  Not exactly.  Compared to SNAP:

• WIC serves a much more tightly-defined population – just low-income, nutritionally at risk:
  - Pregnant women
  - Breastfeeding women (up to infant’s 1st birthday) 
  - Nonbreastfeeding postpartum women (up to 6 months after the birth of an infant or after pregnancy ends)
  - Infants (up to 1st birthday). WIC serves 45-50 % of all infants born in the United States. 
  - Children up to their 5th birthday.
• WIC is NOT an entitlement program.  States receive a specific amount of money and can only enroll participants until their funding runs out.
• All WIC services are tailored to the client’s health and nutritional status.  WIC requires nutrition education, health monitoring, and regular appointments with WIC nurses at specific sites. 
• WIC vouchers supplement the client’s diet and may only be used for specific amounts of WIC-authorized foods. 

These last two features of WIC are the reason community nutritionist David Holben at the University of Ohio said that he prefers the WIC model for supplemental food programs.  

Ever since meeting Professor Holben, we’ve looked forward to visiting and learning about WIC from those who administer the program at the local level.  We got our chance in Duluth, MN, where we met with Public Health Nurse Supervisor Luzette Samargia. 

Luzette has been part of the WIC program since about 1978 when it was first introduced in this part of Minnesota.  As part of her duties, Luzette now manages the County WIC program for the Department of Public Health and Human Services in St. Louis County, Minnesota’s largest county, which stretches from Duluth and Lake Superior in the south, through the Iron Range (Hibbing and Virginia), to the Canadian border in the north.

Luzette manages about 27 public health nurses and 3 dieticians, who as part of their jobs are highly trained to provide WIC health checks, breastfeeding encouragement, nutrition counseling for mothers and their young children, and appropriate WIC food vouchers.  They do extensive outreach in community forums, hospitals, and newspapers to ensure that WIC reaches as many of those eligible as possible.  Currently, about 4500 women, infants, and children receive WIC services in St. Louis County.  And when a woman or child is no longer eligible for WIC, they ensure that any continuing needs are met  by following up with regular home visits or by referring the client to other services. 

When a pregnant woman or mother of young children wants WIC services, she typically calls the public health office and is screened for eligibility.  The Minnesota Department of Health also has a simple on-line tool for assessing eligibility.  Then she comes in to one of 4 WIC locations around the county.  There she and her infants or young children meet with a public health nurse, who does the routine health checks, including height, weight, and routine blood work for children over age 6 months.  The nurse assesses the family’s nutritional risks and needs and provides tailored  nutrition counseling, using a variety of materials developed specifically for use by WIC mothers.   Then the mother receives vouchers for WIC foods and learns about the process for using them.  The WIC mother signs the vouchers once when she receives them. 

One section of Minnesota's WIC Shopping Guide

 

She takes the WIC Shopping Guide with her to the store.  This guide helps her to find the WIC-approved items that can be purchased with the voucher.  For example, pictured here is the section on fresh vegetables.

At the register, she separates the WIC foods from other items she may be purchasing with SNAP benefits or with her own cash.  The cashier checks the WIC items against the voucher, asks the woman to sign the voucher again, and keeps it for processing by the store.  This somewhat complex process will be simplified within a few years, as the USDA is mandating that all states move to the use of electronic benefits cards for WIC by 2020.

Does WIC work?  Luzette felt strongly that her WIC program has positive effects on those it serves.  National studies are somewhat mixed (see The WIC Program: Background, Trends, and Economic Issues, 2009 Edition).  But studies generally agree that WIC has positive impacts on healthy infants, such as mean birthweights, which also leads to savings in Medicaid costs. 

WIC has generally not been found to significantly change food patterns of participants or to reduce the incidence of obesity.  Thus, WIC programs are increasing their focus on nutrition education.  And in 2009 the WIC nutrition advice and foods available with WIC vouchers were completely updated in accordance with current USDA guidelines.  For example, WIC vouchers may now be used for fresh fruits and vegetables, more whole-grain products are required, and only milk with 2 percent or lower fat content is authorized for women and children age 2 and older.

Another reported issue with WIC is that WIC mothers may be less likely than non-WIC mothers to breastfeed their babies.   It’s not clear whether this difference is due to a sampling bias (WIC mothers may differ from non-WIC mothers in other ways related to the choice of whether to breastfeed) or whether the WIC program actually causes more mothers to choose bottle feeding due to factors such as WIC subsidies for infant formula. 

But we are glad to see that locally, regionally, and nationally, WIC programs are stepping up efforts to increase breastfeeding.  In St. Louis County, certified lactation specialists are available in each office and more public health nurses are becoming certified.  All WIC mothers are given advice about appropriately advancing their infant’s diet.  The new Minnesota WIC Shopping Guide offers simple reasons for breastfeeding and strong encouragement, including a reference to La Leche League.  Women who are fully breastfeeding  receive larger portions of WIC foods and also receive vouchers for canned tuna and salmon.  And at the federal level, when Congress reauthorized WIC as part of the Healthy, Hunger-free Kids Act of 2010, the bill included additional incentives for states to more strongly encourage breastfeeding. 

In short, we believe that WIC is evolving to be a very good model for providing need-based and outcome-based, supplemental nutritional assistance.