Bread for the City

>~More and more Americans are asking where to go to receive social services, says the New York Times. This new group of people experiencing poverty and homelessness is comprised mostly of families whose breadwinners have lost their jobs due to the recession. For the first time, they are having to ask for help and are realizing that they have no idea how to go about navigating both non-profit and government-funded social service programs.

~According to a report by the Brookings Institution, unemployment rates have grown faster in DC suburbs than in the city itself.

~The About Homelessness blog asks “Why are people homeless?” and provides information on the four different types of homelessness that the National Alliance to End Homelessness focuses on.

~We’ve been spotted all over the blogosphere this past week, but we missed the ongoing coverage we’ve been getting on The Slow Cook blog, where both our Gleaning program and the Save our Safety Net campaign have been highlighted. Thanks for reading about, blogging about, and supporting our initiatives!

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[Rally today at the John A Wilson Building today at noon. Meet us in front of 1350 Pennsylvania Ave, NW!]

Yesterday morning, we delivered the www.SaveOurSafetyNet.com petition to all City Councilmembers. Nearly 1,500 names in support of smart, responsible leadership that protects DC’s safety net.

Several Councilmembers thanked us for this display of support, and expressed their agreement with our position that the government must act responsibly during this budget crisis, fairly balancing cuts and revenue.

We still don’t know what was said in the course of yesterday’s proceedings, since members of the public were not allowed in the chamber. But early reports indicate some promising movement in the right direction: the Council restored some of the Mayor’s proposed cuts to programs including TANF, job training, legal services for the poor, Rapid Housing and Grandparent Caregivers. Also, several revenue raising measures (like a minor increase in the sales tax, and taxes on cigarettes and gas).

There are still severe cuts on the table to affordable housing, senior services, and legal services. In the meantime, the Council made few cuts to economic development, public safety, or public works. So we must take our message one step further.

You can help protect safety net services by coming to the John A Wilson Building today at noon. Meet us in front of 1350 Pennsylvania Ave, NW.

Join together with community leaders, business owners, service providers and fellow citizens, as we urge City Council to to invest in the safety net. After we hear from a brief set of speakers, we will divide into groups and meet personally with Councilmembers and staff.

If you aren’t able to attend, you can still make a difference! Please call your Councilmember (or call Chairman Vince Gray or an At-Large Councilmember) to express your support for more balanced budget cuts and responsible revenue enhancements.

>As you’ve read here, the Mayor’s proposed budget cuts would slash $52 million dollars from services helping people in poverty. These cuts will have a painful effect on our clients, as well as a direct effect on Bread for the City.

In total, we stand to lose $503,408 if the proposed cuts go through. That’s more than the operating cost of an entire month’s worth of Bread for the City’s services.

This has been a tough year for us: we’ve already cut $500,000 from our expenditures, mainly by reducing staff salaries and service hours for clients. These cuts weren’t “fat” from our budget—we lost bone. If there ever was fat to cut, there certainly isn’t now.

Bread for the City could accomplish all of the following with $500,000:
• We could distribute a three-day supply of groceries to 2,874 hungry homes
• We could conduct 2,332 social services visits
• We could conduct 2,243 examinations in our medical clinic
• We could provide 2,332 hours of legal representation

These services save the District real money. If Bread for the City received the full $500,000, we can provide these cash benefits to the City:
• The average BFC medical clinic visit costs $122.60. The national average cost of an emergency room visit is approximately $1,000. 758 patients visited BFC last year who did not qualify for any public health insurance programs, and did not have one provided by their employer. The potential cost savings for these patients to visit Bread for the City over an emergency room is $758,000.
• A cot in the average DC shelter costs the government approximately $27,000 a year. Bread for the City prevented 111 evictions last year. If even 10% of these clients had ended up in the shelter system, it would have cost the DC Government $299,700.
• The average monthly food stamp benefit is $101 per person. Last year BFC screened 10,095 DC residents for all public benefits, including food stamps, and provided assistance through the application processes. If even just 10% of these residents receive the national average monthly benefit for a single person, that’s $1,222,908 in revenue to spend at DC grocery stores.

In short, Bread for the City is a blue chip investment.

The DC Council faces a very difficult challenge, and I do not envy them. All we’re asking is that the pain of these cuts be spread fairly across the board, and that serious revenue raising actions are taken to minimize the blow.

If you haven’t already signed the Safe our Safety Net petition, do so now: http://www.saveoursafetynet.com/. If you have, Call the DC Council today and urge them to show responsible and humane leadership.

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Two days ago I made my third trip to Parker Farms in Virginia to gather fresh crops for our pantry.

I was met by volunteers from Setauket Presbyterian Church. Rev. Jeff Geary, the group leader, brought a group of 8 volunteers to hit the fields with Glean for the City. After two successful gleanings, I am expanding our trips to include education and dialogue regarding food security (similar to the discussions we’ve been posting on this blog).

I took the opportunity to speak with our young volunteers about food waste, gleaning, and the role that Bread for the City takes in addressing poverty. It turns out Rev. Geary had education on his agenda as well. His church works to educate their youth about commercial agriculture and its exploitative use of underpaid farm workers. He hoped that Glean for the City would provide hands-on example of the arduous task of handpicking crops.

After gleaning 1,000 lbs. of corn, we loaded up the van and took a step back to admire our work. Rev. Geary remarked that a day laborer picking tomatoes in Florida would have made only $10-25 for gathering the entire quantity on his/her own. As we looked out at the endless acres of corn we couldn’t glean, we discussed the utility of this fresh food for our clients.

Glean for the City provided a rare opportunity for education in agriculture. Most of our volunteers had never been to a farm, and none had ever worked in a field. Picking produce is a strenuous activity, and I’m glad we’re able to provide this type of exposure to our volunteers while being able to help our clients access nutritional foods.

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Our petition to stop the City Council from slashing services for DC’s most vulnerable residents is getting more signatures every hour, but we need every one of our supporters to back us up on this crucial issue. The proposed cuts will do inestimable damage to DC’s ability to propel people out of poverty. If you have not yet signed the petition, please do so!

Thank you to the many blogs, organizations, and individuals in the District who have helped us spread the word about the danger we are in. Please continue to forward these emails or post links on your blog to the Save Our Safety Net site that has all the information about the cuts.

Special thanks to Greater Greater Washington, DCist, The Center for Non-Profit Advancement, Jews United for Justice, Washington Grantmaker’s Daily, Pink Banana World, Poverty & Policy, The CKP National Blog, and DCBlogs for your coverage and support!

Through the Coalition for Community Investment, we are presenting the petition in all its lengthy papery glory to City Councilmembers this morning. We will continue to keep you updated about our efforts.

>In just a day, more than 1,000 people have signed our petition calling upon City Council to Save Our Safety Net. Please make your voice heard–sign the petition to stop cuts to safety net services–and help us spread the word.
Here are some samples from the many comments we’ve received from the petition:

~These cuts would disproportionately impact low-income families who are working hard and still struggling to make ends meet. Don’t make DC’s achievement gap any wider…save the safety net.

~Please save programs critical to the well-being and economic advancement of low-income DC residents.

~Slashing funding for critical safety net services disproportionately impacts low-income DC residents at at time when we need to be dedicating as many resources as possible to reducing inequality and health disparities. A safety net is KEY to prevention and saving money in the long term.

~These are not programs to cut. Our community needs them.

~As a public health professional, I strongly urge you to consider the grave losses when the most vulnerable families in the District are compromised because of funding cuts.

~We have to protect the most vulnerable in our city, it is 100% wrong to abandon social programs at a time when people need them most.

~DC’s vulnerable residents need somewhere to turn.

~In this time of economic hardship, we should be raising revenues and cutting back on programs that don’t affect the most vulnerable residents. Otherwise we’ll be digging ourselves into a deeper hole of debt by causing huge demands in the areas of shelter and homeless services, emergency room costs, police and foster care.

~As a resident of DC for the past 10 years, I would rather pay higher taxes than see cuts to services and benefits for my most vulnerable neighbors.

~Please examine revenue resource options before slashing funding for important support and low-income programs.

~Social services are the first thing people need in this recession.

~We can’t afford to ask the least fortunate to bear the brunt of the economic downturn. It’s a matter of justice.

~Investing money in building communities and strengthening families is the smartest use of government funding. It will yield tremendous results and long-term benefits for the future of DC.

~Individuals and families are reliant on these services for survival. They cannot be cut!

~Hitting the worst off the hardest makes no sense.

~Cutting core safety-net programs will only send our city’s low-income residents into further poverty, and make it even harder for the city to climb out of the economic crisis. Please consider other ways of raising revenue before slashing the safety-net services.

~I am a social worker at a community health clinic. I refer participants to these vital services everyday. These supplemental programs and supports are essential to ensuring that families can survive in this increasingly expensive city. I seriously fear for DC’s health and safety if we start cutting social supports.

~It is crucial that the Council not balance the budget on the backs of the District’s most vulnerable citizens. Cutting the safety net will ultimately cost the District more in emergency services to people made homeless or otherwise forced to suffer through these cuts.

~It’s ridiculous that the economic crisis that already disproportionately affects the poor will now be affecting them even more harshly.

~DC’s low-income and/or elderly citizens will be thrown into increasingly difficult situations without this safety net!

~We won’t take these budget cuts lightly. It matters that you all care and stand up for what is right, because you are OUR leaders. Do the right thing—create solutions to our problems by not creating MORE problems.

**Mayor Fenty has proposed massive cuts to programs that help low-income residents in DC. Please visit Save our Safety Net to learn more.

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Last week we posted on Mayor Fenty’s proposed budget cuts, which will slash a number of programs providing critical support for low-income residents of DC. Critical safety net services (like affordable housing, assistance for families with children, and literacy programs) will be affected, and no serious actions to raise revenue have been proposed. Moreover, the cuts are imbalanced–cuts to services for poor residents make up nearly half of the mayor’s proposal.

These cuts will prolong and deepen this recession.

Save Our Safety Net is brought to you by Bread for the City and the Coalition for Community Investment, a broad array of community leaders and business owners in DC who support humane and responsible fiscal governance. Please visit Save Our Safety Net, learn about the cuts, and sign a petition asking the mayor and the council to change course and invest in our future.

Sign our petition today!

>Next week, the DC Council will hold two marathon — but private — sessions to come up with a plan to close a major budget gap. Each Council member has been asked to come prepared with ideas for cutting up to 12% of the budgets of the agencies they oversee.

These full-Council meetings should be open to the public, to ensure transparency for residents upon key decisions that will affect their lives.

Bread for the City has signed on to this letter below, circulated by the Coalition for Community Investment. You can sign on — send an email to Jenny Reed at the DC Fiscal Policy Institute (include your ward and/or your organization’s name).

July 24, 2009

The Honorable Vincent C. Gray
Chairman, District of Columbia Council
1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Suite 504
Washington, DC 20004

Dear Council Chairman Gray:

We, the undersigned organizations, are writing to request that you make open to the public the Council’s budget deliberations that will occur during the week of July 27. We believe that making all full-Council sessions accessible to the public is critical to having an open and transparent government in the District of Columbia.

It is our understanding that the DC Council will meet as a whole on Monday July 27 and Tuesday July 28 to work out budget and revenue decisions to address the District’s budget shortfall. Those decisions will have a major impact on the services received by DC residents and on the taxes they pay. If the meetings are not open, it is likely that the public will not be aware of the decisions before the July 31 vote. This means that residents will not have an opportunity to offer insight and feedback on critical budget decisions that the Council will make.

The Council currently allows members of the media to attend these kinds of meetings. Accommodating members of the public should be possible, as well.

We thank you for considering this matter.

(Please repost or tweet this TODAY with the hashtag #SOSdc.)

>Longtime donor, volunteer, and former BFC Board Chair Roger Kuhn shared with us a letter that he sent to Mayor Fenty yesterday about the proposed cuts to the city’s social services, and gave us permission to share it here.

Mr. Mayor:

Your proposed budget cuts are grossly unfair to the City’s neediest. While the wealthy move into the growing number of luxury condos around town, more and more of our neighbors are heading for shelters. While some eat $100 dinners at DC’s finest restaurants, others line up at food pantries. And now you are proposing cuts in support for food pantries, shelters, and other services needed by more and more newly individuals and families.

The fair approach is to cut support for luxuries enjoyed by the fortunate — support for ballparks and the like — and to raise revenue from those who are most advantaged: a new top income tax bracket, a new sales tax on sports tickets, concert tickets, DC lottery winnings — you could name a lot of sources if you looked around. (I’ll add that many of these taxes would affect me personally, but I’d pay them willingly if I knew the revenue was preserving the safety net for people in need.)

I’d like to feel my city was dealing fairly and humanely with all of us who live here. Right now, I’m feeling angry.

Roger Kuhn

Roger urges you to take action as well: email City Council today to express your support for programs that help our most vulnerable neighbors survive. (And share your email with us!)

We are currently attending the hearings at the Wilson Building – stay tuned for more…

>Monday was our second Glean for the City event, again at Parker Farms.

I was accompanied by 20 volunteers from the Washington Quaker Workcamps. With this large volunteer group we picked literally tons of corn — and fast. We filled every produce bin, and decided to stuff every picking bag full for good measure. On the drive home, I was accompanied by the sweet scent of nearly 2,000 lbs of corn in the van.

Our volunteers wanted more. “I wish we could keep going! We’ve barely put a dent in this field, and I can’t believe the rest will go to waste.”

Another volunteer remarked to me that, “The government should create a volunteer corps to organize gleanings with farms and food pantries. But I am happy that Bread for the City is doing their part.”

The corn will be split up between our SE and NW centers. This will provide a fresh produce staple for our food bags for the rest of the week.

As a side note: We typically offer canned corn in our pantry, which is very popular with our clients – but also high in sodium! Fresh corn is very high in fiber and generally healthy. Just as important, it is easy to prepare: boil for 15 minutes, grill for 10 minutes, cut it off the cob and put it in salsa or salad. Our volunteers were eating it right off the cob, and so was I. We even brought some back for the Bread for the City parking lot barbecue, where it was a big hit.

In trying to bring in more fresh produce to the pantry, we’re also working toward variety. Sharon, our in-house nutritionist, likes to say ” people should eat a variety of colors.” The more colors, the more variety of vitamins and minerals. A large array of nutrients supports and protects the body from illness and chronic conditions.

So on Sunday, I picked up over 800 lbs. of fresh fruits and veggies from our friends at the West End Farmer’s Market. Our fridge is now stocked with a rainbow variety, including squash, eggplants, peppers, greens, cucumbers, tomatoes, and fresh bread.

The quantity has increased with every trip to the West End Market, and I will go every Sunday until they close for the season. Combined with our gleanings, this will enable us to bring both variety and quantity to our food pantry for months.

We’re deeply grateful to Parker Farms, FreshFarms Markets, and all of our community partners for helping us make sure that this surplus food will go to those who need it most, instead of going to waste.