Bread for the City

This post is adapted from testimony delivered today by Bread for the City’s Advocacy Coordinator, Joni Podschun, to City Council’s Committee of the Whole. (You can follow a live discussion of the budget hearing on Twitter under the #gapclosing tag; follow Bread for the City’s tweets here.)

The health and prosperity of our city depend on public investments that expand economic opportunity and support families. In these difficult economic times, careful planning is needed to make sure we can continue to meet these goals.

Last week Mayor Adrian Fenty released his long-awaited FY2011 Budget Gap-Closing Proposal. Yesterday, the DC Fiscal Policy Institute published analysis of the proposal, listing cuts to programs like affordable housing, TANF, job training, Access to Justice, Interim Disability Assistance (IDA), mental health services, and LIHEAP utility assistance.

We’ve blogged about the critical importance of these programs many times.

One of the proposals is to reduce TANF benefits by 20% for households that have been in the program over five years. When I read that proposal, I thought about Tameka, who I first met three years ago when she was receiving training through the Center for Employment Training. At the time, she was just barely making ends meet on $428 a month provided by the TANF program for her and her two boys, even though she was among the 1/3 of TANF recipients fortunate enough to live in subsidized housing. She now has a good job with a career path, after graduating from the program, but she has received TANF for over five years. But what happens if she has an emergency and needs to quit her job? What if her position is eliminated due to the recession? If she needed TANF again, her benefit would be cut by $85. For her and other women like her, 20% of their already meager household income would be gone.

This is just one example of a larger trend to cut services that low-income and middle-income residents depend on. Low-income DC residents in particular face long lines at IMA service centers, harried staff at non-profits, reduced hours at libraries, a growing wait list for IDA (a program designed to tide people over while they are waiting for federal disability benefits), and limited capacity at TANF job readiness vendors, among other things.

According to DCFPI, 39% of the cuts in the gap-closing plan we consider today are to human services programs, even though they only make up 26% of the total budget. And there is just $1 in proposed revenue for every $40 in spending cuts.

The alternative is to ask more of households in the top 5%. These families have suffered the least in the recession, pay a smaller share of their income in combined taxes than middle-income households, and have continued to receive city services largely unchanged. By creating a new tax bracket of 9.5%, an individual earning $300,000 would contribute about $85 a month, only 0.3% of their income. This proposal would generate approximately $75 million in new revenue.

If we are going to ask District residents to take a hit, shouldn’t the $85 a month come from those for whom it will be only 0.3% of their income, not households barely making it on $428 a month, for whom it is one-fifth their total budget? After the new brackets, a household at $300,000 will still have income net of taxes at $24,915 each month.

It is the role of government to provide a basic level of support and to reinforce the positive steps that people are taking to meet their goals. That is more important during an economic downturn than ever. With a limited job market, we should invest in education and intensive hard skills, retooling District residents for the 21st century and ensuring they can compete for jobs. Housing costs are down, the perfect time for the preservation and creation of affordable housing. These are just two examples of costly programs that yield huge benefits down the road.

We need to make smart, targeted investments in the local economic infrastructure, to help our city rebound from the recession. Investments that keep families out of costly emergency and remedial services, that bring dollars into the local economy. Let’s have a conversation about priorities, about what we can build with progressive revenue. What kind of housing do we need to keep our workers in DC? What types of job training should we provide? How can we support entrepreneurship and small businesses that employ DC residents? When DC residents consider what their tax dollars can buy, they will be excited to contribute to a thriving, diverse, healthy city.

In the immediate, we need better choices and bold leadership. Tell the City Council to stop the trend of asking more of those with limited resources, struggling to survive. Create new tax brackets of 1% higher on income above $200,000, to invest in an economic recovery that includes everyone.

While this blog normally covers issues directly related to the District, we have recently discovered that dear friends of ours in Virginia are in trouble and need our help. Just a quick moment of your time can literally help save a farm!

Of all the inspiring support that we’ve received from the community this holiday season, one effort really takes the taco.

Hungry Samaritan Peter Gartrell is about to pull up a chair in the final round of Tonic’s Iron Taco Eating Championship (taking place tomorrow, Tuesday, at the Mount Pleasant location, at 8pm) — and he is dedicating this competitive eating performance in support of our Holiday Helpings campaign!

That’s right: For each taco that Peter puts down, his Tacos for Turkeys drive is asking people to pledge to donate a given amount to our pantry. Peter polished off 15 tacos last time (in just 5 minutes) and says that he intends to best this performance by at least a couple more.

So far, Tacos for Turkeys has raised over $87 in pledges-per-taco. If Tacos for Turkeys can break $100 per taco in the next day, this contest may raise enough money to provide more than 60 low-income families with a complete holiday dinner (a turkey and all the trimmings)! So please jump on board this taco train by making a pledge today.

We imagine that an eyebrow or two might raise at the thought of a competitive eating contest benefiting an organization that fights hunger. But we say to you that Peter didn’t create the Iron Taco; he has just come to conquer it. We thank him for considering this novel way to spread awareness of our less fortunate neighbors. Good luck to our voracious friend. See you at the Iron Taco.

Thanksgiving: when families come together, gather around the table, and eat a whole lot. It’s a time for thinking about our family and our blessings – and right alongside those things, we should also be thinking about our health.

Last week, our nutrition consultant, Sharon Gruber, hosted a special Thanksgiving cooking class for clients and staff. Sharon asked the group to list their favorite Thanksgiving foods. The list was long, including: turkey wings, sweet potatoes, macaroni and cheese, ham, pie, collard greens, mashed potatoes, corn pudding, cranberry sauce and Buffalo wings. At one point, a long-time cooking class participant, Val Ford, suggested “salad.” The room erupted with some astonishment, but Val held her ground and insisted that salad does have a rightful place at the Thanksgiving table.

Sharon then asked the class to identify those food items that are starches. There was some confusion as to what constitutes a starch, and Sharon explained that starch is a food that breaks down into sugar into our bodies. This includes foods like rice, pasta, and potatoes. Sharon explained that though not all starches are bad, but too much can be detrimental to your health. Starchy foods on our Thanksgiving list included be stuffing, Macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, etc.

Sharon advised that, like dinner on any other night, we can find balance on Thanksgiving by adding vegetables into starchy items. Dishes like stuffing can accommodate a lot of vegetables — like celery, onions, bell peppers and even apples. Like stuffing, potato salad can be made healthier by adding ingredients like parsley, onion, celery, and olive oil and vinegar (instead of using mayonnaise).

Even with desserts, Sharon talked with the group about how sweets like pie can be prepared in a healthier way. Instead of more bread and more starch on the top of the pie, putting nuts or oats can be less starchy.

The class then put what they learned into practice, cooking mashed potatoes and green beans and baking an apple crisp. The mashed potatoes were made with cauliflower mashed together because the vegetable would make it less starchy and it gives it a creamier base. While making the mashed potato with cauliflower, people wondered whether the dish needed butter–but that would add cholesterol to the meal, and the cauliflower replaces the need for butter to give it a creamier base.

Dorothy Corry voiced her opinion, “My main problem is that I try to not use butter for flavor so I’ll just add salt. Is there a replacement for using salt?” Sharon suggested that instead of using salt use garlic and onions. “Think green herbs, the more spice and herbs mean less salt.”

The apple crisp, which was made with oats, apples and cranberries, can be put into the oven just like a pie. At the end we enjoyed these traditional desserts, healthfully prepared, and still delicious. The biggest hit was the greens beans: several clients said that they’d never had vegetables that tasted that good.

We’ve distributed nearly 4,000 of these bodacious birds to some of DC’s lowest income families. Meanwhile, across town, the Obamas will be having the same birds for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow night. (See this article about how the President donated several Jaindl turkeys last year to Martha’s Table.)

They’re Jaindl turkeys, and we’re told they’re the best.

Indeed, when it comes to our clients, only the best will do. We ordered many thousands of these Jaindl turkeys from the Capital Area Food Bank this year, selected for both affordability and healthfulness.

In fact, these turkeys are the only turkeys permitted by the USDA to be labeled “Lite” — because of a remarkably lean fat content (55% less fat and 25% less calories than your average gobbler).

They’ve been served at the White House holiday table for three decades. That’s some top-notch turkey!

You can make sure more of these fine specimens of holiday delight make it on to holiday tables by making a gift to Holiday Helpings. Thanks for all your help!

This blog post brought to you by beloved former volunteer corps member, Lucas Sharma.

It is almost Thanksgiving, a time for reflecting with close family and friends. Our reflections center on what we are thankful for, especially as we look on our many blessings over this past year.

One specific District program that is especially important to me is the Interim Disability Assistance (IDA) Program. IDA provides a small income ($270) each month to residents waiting the long months (even years) between their initial disability application and approval from the Social Security Administration. Clients I worked with applying for disability are unable to work, and thus depend on this program to have their basic necessities met. One notable aspect of this program is that the Social Security Administration repays the District government when a client’s social security is approved.

One client of mine I’ve written about before is Mr. S. When he was approved for his disability income after seeking legal representation at Bread for the City, he explained to me how crucial IDA had been to his stabilization. Chronically homeless and suffering from a long litany of impairments ranging from HIV to chronic leg pain to severe depression, IDA provided a “loan of hope” to Mr. S. He was proud to say that he was able to repay that loan, allowing someone else to have hope as they waited for their disability decision.

Another story that sticks with me is Anthony Brown, who was interviewed for Beyond Bread this spring when the City Council made $6 million in cuts to the program.

Our city has already cut more than $120 million from the safety net programs that people like Anthony depend on. Rather than more cuts, let’s ask more of those who have suffered the least in the recession. Right now, DC’s top tax rate (8.5%) starts at $40,000 a year. An increase of one percentage point in the rate for the highest-earning 5% (those with income above $200,000) would bring in at least $65 million in new revenue. It’s a small contribution for high-income households, roughly equal to the price of a large coffee each day, but makes an enormous difference for the quality of life in our city.

If you care about this issue, send an email to Chairman Vince Gray and ask him to take a balanced approach and protect the programs you care about.

As you reflect on what you’re thankful for, take some time to consider what changes you would make in your budget, to ensure our city can invest in an economic recovery that includes everyone. What tax structure would be fair and just? Would you be willing to give up the equivalent of a large coffee a day?

As we celebrate Thanksgiving, I am thankful for IDA’s impact on the residents of DC, and for the ways Mr. S, Anthony Brown, and Bread have blessed me this year.

This post brought to you by Patty Anne, a member of Bread’s Consumer Advisory Board and resident of Ward 8. Welcome to the blogosphere, Patty Anne!

I joined the TANF program in 1997, just after welfare reform. Last week, I learned about a bill to create a five-year time limit to the program, and it seemed like a good time to share my story. When I was training to become a firefighter and EMT in 1989, I was hit by a car and seriously injured. I worked odd jobs off and on but continued to have health problems. In 1997, I left an abusive relationship when I learned I was pregnant. I went on TANF to provide for my daughter. The year she was born, we became homeless because of a house fire.

In almost every other state, they tried 5-year-limits for TANF back when Clinton was in office. It didn’t work then for the same reason it wouldn’t work now — they didn’t give people the tools that they needed to go to work. It was a mess. They called it “Welfare to Work,” but they didn’t have enough job training sites and they didn’t help people gain skills. They’d be pushing you out there to get a job, when a lot of people don’t know how to work.

They need to teach people to be self-sufficient, how to be successful off of TANF. For a lot of people, their grandmother might have been on TANF, their mother and aunties and cousins might be on TANF – that might be all they know. But have to open them up to options to better and improve themselves. You can’t be telling them to go out there and work without any training. They don’t even know how to work a job, keep a schedule, or even just communicate. People need life skills training, financial budgeting. You have to figure out what skills they’re best at. You have to give them hope, instead of take all their hope away.

They tell you in the program, “If you get a job, you’ll be happy. Your family will be happy. You’ll be wonderful.” They don’t tell you if you get a job they’ll take your Medicaid and your Food Stamps, and if you don’t have a job that has health benefits, you are stuck. They don’t see that.

I joined the Welfare to Work program and got a job. But then I passed out on the job because of my multiple sclerosis and fibromyalgia, and my supervisor said I couldn’t come back. Eventually, my doctor made sure that I got a medical exception so that I didn’t get sanctioned for not working, but it took me 7 years to get Supplemental Security Income.* I don’t want to be on TANF or SSI. I wish I could have a good job, so I can make good money, so I can take care of my daughter. I don’t want to live in a constant state of trial and tribulation, fighting for my disability benefits, for good housing I can afford, for enough Food Stamps to feed my family.

Give TANF participants the tools they need to survive. Give them a chance to learn new skills and get good jobs. Let’s see what they can do to meet their goals.

For more recommendations for DC’s TANF program, see Voices for Change, a report co-authored by Bread’s Advocacy Coordinator, Joni Podschun.

*Edited for accuracy.

What a tremendous outpouring of support we’ve seen from the community this year! More than 50 organizations have committed to organizing a Holiday Helpings drive, and more folks are contacting us daily. That is by far the most that we’ve ever had!

While we can’t thank our supporters enough, we also can’t help but wonder: Can we reach 75 partner organizations during Holiday Helpings 2010??

There’s less than a week before Thanksgiving, but keep in mind that Holiday Helpings runs all the way through Christmas. We expect almost 5,000 more families to turn to us for support in the coming month — you can help us help them.

I’m often asked what the best kinds of community drives are. First of all, the best kind of drive is one that everyone can have fun and participate. That said, canned food drives ( a traditional favorite) can sometimes pose more difficulties than organizers would expect. For one, it’s hard to transport large amounts of canned goods and other groceries. And organizers also have to keep in mind Bread for the City’s new nutrition guidelines, which stipulate what kinds of groceries we are looking to distribute, and which kinds we can’t accept for the sake of the health of our clients.

In many ways, a Holiday Helpings cash drive is a more effective option. It’s simple, and easy — people can give by cash and check, or by credit card online. By request, we can even set up an online donation page specifically for your organization’s drive – complete with your group’s name in the URL. (Check out the page for our corporate partner, Alston+Bird: https://www.breadforthecity.org/alston+bird — cool, huh?)

Some people assume that a cash gift is somehow a “cop out,” not quite the tangible assistance that a can of food represents. But I want to assure you that a cash gift is the most effective way you can help us during this holiday season. Not only will 100% of each dollar go to stocking our food pantry, but (since we’re the Capital Area Food Bank’s largest client) we can stretch each of those dollars much farther than you can at a traditional grocery store.

So visit our Holiday Helpings page for suggestions, tips, and guidelines (see also our 2010 Holiday Helpings Brochure and Food Drive Kit) or contact me at nlaborie@breadforthecity.org or 202.386.7611 today and help make this our most collaborative Holiday Helpings ever.

If you’re interested in organizing a Holiday Helpings drive at your workplace or community center, it’s not too late! Contact me at nlaborie@breadforthecity.org or 202.385.7611. You can also visit www.BreadfortheCity.org/HolidayHelpings for more information.

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s our board president!

Today, at the Association of Fundraising Professionals’ 2010 National Capital Philanthropy Day, Bread for the City is honoring the President of our Board of Directors, Mark Aron.

For all those who won’t be at this event to hear in person why we think Mark is just plain fabulous, let me blog it at you.

Mark is a great friend and tireless advocate of Bread for the City. Just ask anyone who has ever sat next to him on a train, walked their dog past his house, stood in line with him at the grocery store — you see where I’m going here– Mark is simply crazy about Bread for the City. He is passionate about our clients, and the work we all do together to help make lives better. This passion is contagious.

Mark’s commitment doesn’t stop with helming our Board. Mark has volunteered in pretty much every one of our programs. He is game for folding shirts, packing grocery bags, planting herbs, or conducting intakes. In fact, he conducts intakes every week at our Southeast Center — one of a very small core of dedicated volunteers. Intakes are hard work — meeting our clients at their most vulnerable — and not everyone can do it. (I should know: I’m an intake quitter. I became overwhelmed with the magnitude of the problems our clients face.) Mark, however, handles this challenge with grace, humility, and calm. He just likes helping people solve problems. It’s amazing.

But Mark doesn’t stop there. Not only do Mark (and his wife Cindy!) give generously to Bread for the City, but they get others to do the same. From foundations, corporations, individuals, and churches — Mark has helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for Bread for the City.

And as a development director, I also gotta say that I deeply appreciate how Mark is always the first to give for the “little stuff” — the staff Christmas party, a bonus, or the extra gift in honor of a birthday or wedding. It’s in all the little stuff that you see how big his heart truly is.

All that and more is why Bread for the City is honoring Mark Aron today at National Capital Philanthropy Day. So, thanks Mark, from the bottom of my heart.

Bread for the City welcomed DC Councilmember Michal Brown at our Northwest Center yesterday. While here, he visited our food pantry and helped to pass out some Holiday Helpings meals before taking a tour of our new expansion.

You too can be a part of Holiday Helpings 2010. It’s not too late to make a contribution to help us meet our goal of providing 8,000 holiday meals to our friends and neighbors. Support Holiday Helpings today!