Bread for the City

>~So let’s start this off nice and easy… with a nod to the approaching 2009 Anti-Hunger Policy Conference! Could this be the most timely anti-hunger conference in recent memory? Seems likely but, :-O, this event costs some $$$. $310 for a ticket, and that’s with the Early Bird Special which ends this Sunday. One would think that anti-hunger folks would be dollar-mindful… you know, at least a B.Y.O.Brown.Bag kind of deal? But what I really mean to say here is: does anyone out there want to sponsor a Bread for the City registration in return for what will surely be ace-to-the-minute anti-hunger blogging? Yes we can! Just tell us so in the donation-comment field.

~The bleakness: 100,000 jobs lost in a week. President Obama’s +$800billion stimulus package passed the House and now heads to the Senate. While more tax cuts get built into the thing to appease intractable Republicans, word continues to percolate that, dollar-for-dollar, the best stimulus is food stamps (according to Moody’s, $1 invested in food stamps results in $1.73 of trickling-up economic activity) and similar support for the lowest income Americans. The plan as it stands has $102 billion set aside for food stamps and unemployment insurance (and, remarkably, an unprecedented amount for education). The Poverty and Policy Blog points to the Coalition on Human Needs’ summary review of the stimulus package. The gist is: there’s good stuff in there, but it just might not be enough. In the meantime, aid is coming to the states (and District) to presumably help them shore up critical programs like Medicaid etc, but no one knows yet what it’s going to look like.

~So what’s the word for a victory that’s undeniably a victory, not the pyrrhic kind but rather a seriously legit win that somehow still leaves one feeling cold in the shadow of the billowing clouds of war? In this instance, small beans would have an uncomfortable ring to it since the beans at stake are four million previously-uninsured children who will now be covered by SCHIP. For serious: it’s good news (DC doesn’t have an SCHIP program per se, but the funding does come to us via the DC Health Care Alliance, which ultimately reimburses the care we give in Bread for the City’s medical clinic), though it’s still a far cry from universal. And but so did anyone else notice Nancy Pelosi’s stated mantra for her Congress — “women and children first” — and get even more unnerved? Right?

>So… we’re gonna need a bigger building!

Bread for the City’s Northwest medical clinic currently serves 2700 patients, which puts us basically ‘at capacity.’ We do accept new patients, but our available slots are typically taken within minutes of opening the phone lines every morning. Our medical staff is great at running things as efficiently as possible, but there’s no denying that the conditions in our clinic are cramped and not optimal for providing truly quality primary care.

Likewise, as all of our other programs have been growing at a fast clip ever since we moved into our building in 1994, every department suffers for space. Our social workers must have sensitive conversations with clients in small rooms off crowded hallways; our food pantry currently doubles as a storage closet; the less said about our legal clinic’s desk-spaces the better; meanwhile, Bread for the City’s humble accountants and bloggers and assorted pencil-pushers are out-housed up the street in an office that this humble blogger will gingerly describe as such: :-/

We need more space — and fortunately, the DC Primary Care Association has stepped up to provide the hefty seed money for a major expansion of our facility. A new and nifty medical clinic is the centerpiece of the expansion: it will have twice as many visitation rooms, specially-equipped for specialty care and almost tripling our capacity to serve the community.

It was recently announced (press release PDF here!) that we’ll receive $1.35 million for the expansion as part of the DCPCA’s Medical Homes DC initiative, which is funded in part by the Government of the District of Columbia. Through Medical Homes DC, $30 million is being distributed to community health organizations like Bread for the City. We’d already received a commitment of $2.975m from the DCPCA; this additional funding puts us over the halfway mark of our capital campaign.

That’s an $8.5 million dollar capital campaign; hefty to be sure, so expect to hear more about it on this blog. Right now, you can check out the plans for the new building (and images of our former centers). You can also jump right in and join our capital campaign with a donation today!

And looking ahead, you should note the groundbreaking for construction on the new center: March 25th at 8AM (rain or shine). We’d love to have you come join us! (RSVP @ rsvp@breadforthecity.org)

Many thanks to the DCPCA for making this possible. Along with the generous and compassionate support of our community, we’re going to take a major step forward to meet the great need for health care and other critical services in DC.

>DC’s Department of Mental Health is undergoing some big changes. Here at Beyond Bread, we will do our best to cover the changes and bring light to the effects that they’re having on the District residents who need these services. (Through our Representative Payee program, we help 800 people receive their disability benefits — many of whom will be affected by the DMH changes.)

But first, the basics…

DC DMH currently provides direct mental health services to about 4,000 severely mentally ill individuals from 4 different locations throughout the District. Typically you hear these locations referred to collectively as “the DC CSA” (Community Services Agency). These services are described as “wrap-around, community-based” services–assistance with daily living like making doctor appointments, day programs, case management, etc.

While the DC CSA has been doing a reasonably good job caring for the needs of the severely mentally ill, there is very little capacity for those who need less comprehensive care. Those who need to meet regularly with a therapist, those who suffer from mild depression or anxiety who could benefit from an anti-depressant, or those in need of group counseling are at a real disadvantage with our current system. There just isn’t capacity for these types of basic (but important) office-based services.

Thankfully, DC realizes that this is a problem and is working to diversify the public mental health system. The centerpiece of their plan is to close the DC CSA and use the savings to expand capacity in the private sector so that DMH could go from being both provider and overseer to just being the overseer. See this recent Washington Post article on the matter, and Kathryn Baer’s Poverty and Policy blog where she recently wrote about the history of the DC CSA and the implications of the proposed closure.

This redefinition is necessary to improve the quality of services provided in the District and to improve the efficiency of mental health funding. I think Kathryn’s right that the restructuring will ultimately be for the better, expanding the access to these services to thousands of people who currently are underserved, but that doesn’t mean it will be easy.

In the midst of the transition, thousands of people who need guidance and stability hang in the balance. It’s going to take a lot of coordination and commitment to make sure nobody falls through the cracks.

DMH finally released its implementation plan for the transition – so stay tuned to this blog for a run-down of the plan and a look ahead to the coming year.

>The City Paper reported Friday that Mayor Fenty has released a letter he wrote to Representative Norton outlining what he would like her to ask Congress to fund. As the City Paper notes, some of the news isn’t surprising. Mr. Fenty’s number one priority is “School Modernization,” most of which would be for capital improvements. Also included are a couple bridge projects (Eleventh Street and Capitol South Street Bridges), a forensics lab for the DC police, and a big sewer.

>In her great new Poverty and Policy blog, Kathryn Baer recently linked to a letter that Bread for the City Executive Director George Jones posted here about the need for nutrition initiatives to improve community health. Kathryn’s post reaffirmed the importance of comprehensively addressing the matters of hunger, obesity, and other forms of malnutrition – and she notes the challenges involved in such a mission. How can we get people to eat healthier without dictating their diet, item for item?

I want to call attention to two programs that show lots of non-paternalistic promise:

• The People’s Grocery, of Oakland, California. This non-profit organization engages community through their youth and adult outreach efforts, including working their 3 1/2-acre farm, holding regular cooking classes, peer education programs, and monthly community parties that feature health-focused guest chefs, poetry readings, a local DJ, and more. Their flagship program has been their popular Mobile Market, an affordable health food store on wheels that has served West Oakland for years. (West Oakland, like DC’s communities East of the River, is an area deprived of food markets but rich in liquor stores.) The Mobile Market is now on hold as The People’s Grocery focuses their resources on opening a brick-and-mortar health-centered grocery store in West Oakland, the first supermarket there in more than 20 years, and the only in the four square miles of this neighborhood.

• Wholesome Wave’s Double Value Coupon Initiative, which started in Connecticut and is expanding nationally. To complement the Food Stamp and the USDA Farmers Market Nutrition Programs, participants are able to receive twice the amount of produce at local farmer’s markets. A $3 WIC voucher has a new worth of $6, and $5 in food stamps suddenly means $10 of fruits and vegetables. By encouraging the purchase of healthier foods in this way, private money is being used to augment governmental programs, government is not dictating what to purchase, sustainable agriculture is strengthened, and local economies are supported.

Both of these efforts started with small budgets and straightforward concepts. We’d love to hear of other programs you’re acquainted with that are approaching this issue in innovative and holistic ways.

>~Special thanks to Kathryn at the Poverty & Policy blog for picking up George’s open letter to the Washington Post. Ms. Baer always has insightful, well researched stuff, and we’re happy to count her among our friends.

~Bread for the City got another mention (albeit brief) by Norman Ornstein in a lucid piece he wrote about how President Obama’s administration should commit to getting nutritious food to all Americans.

~A former Bread for the City volunteer, Elizabeth Acevedo, won The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Award this year for Diversity Education and Service!

~The House voted again, just before the inauguration, to expand health insurance for children. The State Children’s Health Insurance Program is badly in need of expansion, but efforts to do so were twice vetoed by President Bush. Assuming the Senate can figure out what it’s doing, we might see dramatic new legislation very soon!

>[A similar version of this post appeared in Bread for the City’s most recent quarterly newsletter, City Helpings. To subscribe to our mailings, email info{at}breadforthecity{dot}org with the subject “newsletter”]

As I watched the inauguration of our country’s 44th President yesterday, I was overcome with the incredible energy in the air throughout our city. And considering the path ahead, I was struck by the force of the momentum of this occasion: President Barack H. Obama comes to office now amidst high hopes and incredible challenges of a breathtaking scale.

We welcome the new President, and call upon him to fulfill his campaign promises: among them to provide health care for all, to help businesses create jobs that pay living wages, and to support community initiatives that will combat poverty.

He has lots of work to do. We all do.

A year and a half ago, President Obama gave a major address on poverty in Anacostia, a few miles from our Southeast Center:

We stand not ten miles from the seat of power in the most affluent nation on Earth. Decisions are made on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue that shape lives and set the course of history. With the stroke of a pen, billions are spent on programs and policies; on tax breaks for those who didn’t need them and a war that should’ve never been authorized and never been waged. Debates rage and accusations fly and at the end of each day, the petty sniping is what lights up the evening news.

And yet here, on the other side of the river, every other child in Anacostia lives below the poverty line. Too many do not graduate and too many more do not find work. Some join gangs, and others fall to their gunfire.

The streets here are close to our capital, but far from the people it represents. These Americans cannot hire lobbyists to roam the halls of Congress on their behalf, and they cannot write thousand-dollar campaign checks to make their voices heard. They suffer most from a politics that has been tipped in favor of those with the most money, and influence, and power.

How can a country like this allow it?

No matter how many times it’s asked or what the circumstances are, the most American answer I can think of to that question is two words:

“We can’t.”

We can’t allow it. It’s not who we are. Americans are a diverse and proud people, working together to overcome adversity. We demand dignity and respect, and at the same time, we give generously of ourselves.

But for more than three decades, the American Dream has fallen increasingly out of the reach of so many. During that time, Bread for the City has served the tens of thousands of our neighbors who have slipped through the cracks. We’ve done it with the support of concerned, compassionate community members; proof positive that, yes, an inspired community can provide respectful, effective care for the most vulnerable among us.

I am proud of all we have accomplished, and all that our partners in the community have accomplished. But we can only catch people as they are falling. We cannot change the conditions that make it perilously easy for people to fall in the first place. True, sweeping change can come only through a dynamic balance of committed and determined leadership from above, and robust grassroots action from below.

And now we’ve come to the beginning of a new era. The coming year is a decisive moment, in which President Obama will set forth to realize this vision of America that we share. He has made great promises over the past two years – many of which, as he himself acknowledges, will not be easy to fulfill.

President Obama promised an expansion of health care to cover every American. He has promised to create programs that will increase access to affordable housing and increased access to food stamps. And he has called for a renewed societal commitment to service in all forms – service like that which is done by the volunteers who work hard every day right alongside me in Bread for the City’s offices.

Volunteers like Deanna Drake, who recently told her story about working with a homeless man on this blog. It’s her service, and the service and commitment of thousands of Bread for the City volunteers and donors, that compels me to believe President Obama when he says that we can and must take action to affect change, in spite of great difficulty. And it’s how I know that we can’t wait for President Obama to singlehandedly bring this change himself. We must work in partnership with him – citizens, community organizations, and government combining our efforts to overcome the great difficulties of our time.

At Bread for the City, we’re committed to this role. In the last several years, a faltering economy and decaying social infrastructure have caused an increase in demand for every one of our services, and we are rising to this challenge on all fronts. The size of our legal clinic has doubled in just a few years. Our food program has recently seen an annual increase of 20% in the number of bags we distribute. We’ve just hired our second full-time staff physician for our medical clinic, which has itself seen annual increase of 20% in the number of visits we receive. All of this growth was made possible by your support.

And we will only be able to maintain this increased service level with the continued—and increased—support from our community.

I find hope in this moment of crisis. As bleak as the economic outlook may be, we also find ourselves facing a great opportunity. For too long, the poor have been invisible to our media, and absent from our leaders’ agendas – even absent from their campaign speeches. Finally, people are thinking about those who are ground down to desperation by forces beyond their control. Our country is increasingly aware of the growing millions who need the kind of help we give here in Bread for the City every day. Now is the time to be bold in our commitment to change.

Bread for the City is determined to carry on, to meet the rising level of need in our community. We are determined to do as we have done for over thirty years: to expand, to grow, to do more. We are excited to engage in this new chapter alongside President Obama, and greatly hope to help him carry out his promises to reduce poverty and ensure viable, humane health care for all.

Our work is needed now more than ever – and, indeed, our hope for the future only grows stronger.

>So there are some things happening in DC in the next few days! As everyone braces themselves for an influx of what could be millions of people, note that at least one of the big Inaugural Balls is set to benefit Bread for the City.

Here’s some information about the unOfficial Inaugural Ball from one of the planners:

In 1992 when Bill Clinton was elected to the White House, a group of enthusiastic, socially conscious twenty-somethings rented out Eastern Market and held the Inaugural Ball for the Not Well Connected. Sixteen years later, the election of Barack Obama has inspired some of the original ball planners and others like them to organize The 2009 UnOfficial Ball.

The UnOfficial Ball will be held at McLean Gardens Ballroom on January 20th. Proceeds will benefit Bread for the City. Our Deputy Director Jeannine Sanford (and her husband Charlie Parker) will represent us at the event, along with Rosalind Cohen, Esq., Vice President of Bread for the City’s Board of Directors (accompanied by her husband Don).

>President-Elect Barack Obama will take office next week, and I suspect many, if not all, direct-service providers share my curiosity about whether poverty reduction efforts will make it into the new President’s speech. How serious is Mr. Obama about housing, healthcare, and literacy efforts? Is he prepared to expand AmeriCorps, Volunteer Corps, and the host of other stipended programs that provide non-profits with crucial support? Many non-profits are in grave danger of shutting down completely. If the role of government isn’t the single determining factor determining whether the safety net strengthens or depletes, it certainly makes the top five list. We’ll be keeping a close watch during the first 100 days of Mr. Obama’s presidency, and in the meantime we’ll take our minds off it by following some links.

~West Coast: The Orange County Register has one of the best articulated arguments I’ve heard for communities taking responsibility for the issue of homelessness in their neighborhoods.

~Midwest: Stone Soup Station out of Nashville has another great entry about the way in which we conceive of the problem of homelessness (namely, that we never think to fully fund the effort).

~East Coast: The Washington Post reports that before the inauguration, all homeless residents within the security perimeter will be carted off to shelters on the outskirts of DC. The problem with that being that the few shelters remaining in DC don’t have the capacity to hold all of the estimated homeless.

~National: Poverty in America has a great roundup of links to organizations producing data on poverty.

~Honorable Mention/Story I Feel Guilty for Missing: The Washington Informer has Mr. Obama’s designate to HHS, Mr. Daschle, holding a discussion about healthcare with residents of the Congress Heights Senior Wellness Center.

>One of our closest allies, The Capital Area Food Bank, is partnering with Feeding America for a rally outside the Martin Luther King Jr. Library located at 9th and G Streets NW. The rally starts at noon and will feature Martin Luther King III, John Arquette, and Herbie Hancock.

We Feed Our People, another non-profit, will then pass out meals to about 1,000 homeless people. If you go, don’t forget to poke your neighbors and remind them that MLK Library (along with every other library in DC) is targeting homeless residents and kicking them out this winter season.

You can see more information about the event on CAFB’s formal invitation.