Bread for the City

CEO George A. Jones

Yesterday was the final day of the social justice protest known to anti-hunger advocates as the Food Stamp Challenge, and I have to admit that I am relieved.

As the CEO of Bread for the City, a DC nonprofit that has been fighting hunger since 1976, I felt obligated to join my fellow advocates who agreed to a week-long diet, consisting of foods purchased with a total of $30.  You see, $30 is the average weekly allotment food stamp recipients receive through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP); a program, for which the Federal government is threatening to cut between $4 million and $16 million from its budget.  This all in the face of the fact that the food stamp program infuses over $2 million per year into the DC economy, not to mention its economic impact for the remaining 50 states. So I and advocates from across the country have spent the last seven days challenging ourselves to walk in the shoes of those for whom we advocate to bring attention to the fact that SNAP is foolishly on the chopping block.

And as I stated in my initial sentence, I’m relieved that the challenge has come to an end. After only 7days, I am not only hungry; I’m quite humbled by the difficulty I had this week stretching my $30 worth of groceries.

I actually purchased $29.92 worth of groceries. This got me 3 cans of tuna, 1 small bag of frozen corn, 1 small bag of frozen broccoli, 3 cans of tuna, 1 bag of white bread, 1 small bag of navy beans, 1 large can of baked beans,1 16 oz. jar of peanut butter, 1 bottle of apple juice, 1 bag of green apples, 1 box of grits, 1 box of oatmeal, 1 dozen eggs, 1 small plastic bottle of mustard, 1 raw baking potato, 1 raw sweet potato and 4 bananas. When I arrived at the grocery store checkout line, my cashier told me I had to put something back if all I had was $30 to spend.  I put 4 items back: crackers, beef chunk, milk and cereal.

Now let me confess, I am a very hearty eater. So it’s in that context that I report that after only 3 and half days, I had eaten two of my three cans of tuna, all of my apples, 6 of my eggs, all four bananas and nearly all of the baked beans. I had also eaten one serving of grits and one of oatmeal. By Monday, October 15^th, with three meals left to negotiate, I found myself left with a jar of peanut butter, dry grits and oatmeal, frozen corn and the remains of a pot of navy beans I cooked for Sunday dinner.  Somehow, all of my white bread – which I don’t normally even eat – is gone. And I have no meats. In fact, I have no food source at all that might be considered a main course.

Hind sight is 20-20 so I’m sure if I started the experiment over, I would purchase different items, and definitely ration them differently. But it’s plain to see that for a person living on a $30 food allowance per week, there is little margin for error.

At the beginning of my week, I was bothered by the fact that I couldn’t afford any of my favorite foods. And I’m not talking steak or even chicken. I was unable able to buy any cereal, milk, raisin bread, and certainly not any desserts.  And by the week’s end I was perpetually anxious simply about the general lack of food I had.

Ironically, one revelation I had during my week of the challenge was that virtually every day, there was at least one free meal that I turned down to remain true to the Food Stamp Challenge: breakfast and lunch at the DCPCA Annual meeting, lunch with a donor, and dinner and lunch at two events sponsored by my own agency. These were meals that I would ordinarily have been afforded simply during the course of my week as one of the nutritional “haves” in our society.

So as sit at my desk writing and eating the last of my oatmeal lunch, I pledge to continue my work at Bread for the City fighting for food justice. And I pledge to call the Senate and the House to urge them to fight against cuts to the SNAP program, so that food stamp recipients can at least afford some oatmeal to feed their families. 

I hope you’ll pledge your support to Bread for the City’s work and will call your representative requesting no food stamp cuts.

As Bread for the City continues to increase the amount of fresh produce that we provide to our clients, people’s preferences for fresh food increase accordingly.  Clients often want to know where they can find affordable fresh food — and we do have some good answers for them.

Thanks to the Double Dollars program, our clients can enjoy more farm fresh produce all month long.

Thanks to grants from the Wholesome Wave Foundation, an increasing number of farmers markets in DC not only accept food stamps (including WIC, SNAP, or senior vouchers) but even double their value up to $10 for each visit.

So, for example, if someone wants to spend $10 of their SNAP money at a participating market, the market will give them another $10 for a total of $20 to spend on fresh fruits and vegetables. That goes a long way toward making locally grown, fresh produce affordable for our clients.

Even better: food stamp recipients can double their dollars at as many participating farmers markets as they want, in as many weeks of the month as they want. So if someone goes to two farmers markets a week, every week of the month, and that person spends $10 in food stamps each time, he or she receives an extra $80 that month to spend on fresh, healthy produce!

There are currently at least eight local markets that participate in the Double Dollars program (up from just two when Bread for the City first reported on this program back in 2009). Participating markets include:

• Ward 8: 1901 Mississippi Avenue SE. Saturdays 9 AM – 2 PM
• Columbia Heights: 14th St. & Park Road NW. Saturdays 9AM-2PM
• Dupont Circle: 1500 20th St NW. Sundays 8:30 AM – 1 PM
• H Street NE: 625 H Street NE. Saturdays 9 AM- Noon
• Health and Human Services: 200 Independence Avenue SW. Wednesday 11 AM – 2 PM.
• By the White House: 810 Vermont Avenue NW. Thursdays 3 – 7 PM.
• The Crossroads (MD): 7676 New Hampshire Avenue Takoma Park. Wednesdays 2:30-6:30 PM
• Silver Spring (MD): Ellsworth Drive between Fenton St & Georgia Ave. Saturdays 9AM -1PM

WIC, SNAP, or Senior Food Voucher recipients simply go up to the market information table each time they attend, swipe or present their food stamp card, and tell the staff member on-site how much food stamp allotment they would like to spend. The staff member will hand them their dollars, as well as an equal number of “Market Dollar” coupons that they can use at the market. It’s that easy to make food stamps go twice as far!

Last month, Bread for the City hosted a Free “Farmers Market” at our NW Center, where we provided over 150 people with a free bag of fresh produce. This Friday, from 10am to noon at our Southeast Center (1640 Good Hope Road), we’re doing it all over again! We hope that by promoting initiatives like the Double Dollars program at these markets, we can help our clients access fresh, healthy foods all month, every month.

We're ready to give away more fresh, free produce, this time at our SE center!

This post is the second in a series from Bread for the City intern Allison Burket exploring the basics of food, hunger, and politics in the District.

As I explored in my previous post, hunger and food insecurity are realities for a startling number of DC residents. Not surprisingly, the ranks have grown in the wake of our economic crisis, and our federal safety net has played an essential part in making sure families can put food on the table during tough times. For that reason, an important piece of building a more food secure DC is making sure eligible DC residents are accessing these programs and that those participants have healthy and affordable options within reach.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly the food stamp program, provides food assistance to low-income households across the country. Families and individuals receive monthly benefits on an electronic benefit transfer (EBT) card that acts like a debit card and can be used in most grocery stores and retailers to buy food items (excluding alcoholic beverages, household supplies, and prepared meals).

By far the largest of the federal nutrition programs, over 42.9 million Americans received benefits in September 2010, including 128,759 in the District, with average monthly benefits of about $100 per person or about $227 per household around the country. Until recently, all families and individuals with less than 130% of the poverty level in monthly income could apply, as long as they had less than $2,000 in their bank account. “The Food Stamp Expansion Act,” implemented last spring, raised eligibility for DC residents to 200% of the poverty level ($21,600 a year for a one-person household and $44,100 a year for a household of four) and eliminated the $2,000 asset cap. (To apply for SNAP in DC, visit your nearest Income Maintenance Administration office. To find out which service center to go to, call 202-698-3900.)

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Several federal programs focus on ensuring that children receive the nutrition they need to support healthy growth, brain development, and eating habits for life. First, the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (commonly known as WIC), is a preventative program designed to ensure adequate and consistent nutrition for pregnant women, new mothers, babies and children up to age 5. Participants (17,000 in the District this month) receive vouchers through local WIC clinics to buy healthy foods. Nutritional counseling, health screening and referrals, and other nutrition services are available at local clinics through this program. WIC is funded federally and administered locally through the Community Health Administration of the DC Department of Health.

Millions of kids elementary age and older count on meals served in school as their most reliable daily meal. The National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs are another pair of federally funded child nutrition programs designed to ensure students have enough food in their bellies to focus and thrive at school. Through the DC Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE), schools are reimbursed for offering meal options that meet certain federal nutrition standards. Participating schools are required to offer free and reduced-price meals to low-income children and to implement wellness policies that promote healthy school environments. These requirements and federal nutrition standards were recently updated as part of the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010, which also added 6 cents per meal to the level of funding schools receive. In DC, the groundbreaking Healthy Schools Act takes a number of steps to promote better school meals – offering free school breakfast for all students, incentivizing healthier meals, supporting farm to school programs, and more.

Kids can also receive meals at child care and child development centers through the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP). In DC, all child development centers must serve snacks and supper options that meet certain meal quality standards, or must require that families bring meals that comply with those standards. The CACFP program also funds meals for elderly or functionally-impaired adults at adult care centers.

Beyond CACFP, a collection of additional programs support seniors and persons with disabilities. The Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) provides eligible seniors with a monthly food package, and the Senior Farmer’s Market Nutrition Program (FMNP) offers eligible seniors $30 in coupons to purchase fresh fruits and veggies at farmer’s markets. Other programs such as Meals with Friends, which offers group meals for seniors at local wellness centers, and Homebound Meals are DC-specific programs administered by the DC Office on Aging.

Beyond the Benefits

The good news for the District is that not only do these federal benefits protect families from the detrimental impacts of hunger and undernutrition, but they bring in funds that then recirculate in DC’s economy. According to Moody’s Analytics, every $1 of SNAP benefits spent in the community generates $1.85 in local economic activity. Unfortunately, this means when eligible households are not receiving their entitled benefits, DC misses out twice. As of fall 2009, approximately 18,500 eligible individuals were not enrolled in SNAP. For some, language access is a barrier; many others don’t know that they are eligible, have trouble navigating IMA, or don’t think the benefits are worth the time it takes to apply and recertify.

Ensuring sufficient access to these programs is the work of organizations like DC Hunger Solutions, whose report How to Get Food in DC outlines in plain language
who is eligible for what program and what you have to do to apply. (DC Hunger Solutions also provides print copies of this report – call (202) 986-2200 ext. 3041) The DC Food Finder, a project of several different organizations, includes information on how and where to access and apply for your federal benefits, as well as a searchable map of affordable food options.

Making sure these federal programs guarantee access to healthy and nutritious foods is another story, however. Are the meals that are served truly healthy and nutritious? Can SNAP and WIC benefits be used at farmers markets and grocery stores? How can the DC government improve these programs? Where do we start administratively or legislatively to support a food secure DC? Join me next time to find out!

It’s the holiday season and although again this year I don’t have a lot, I’m grateful to have a roof over my head and my daughter Kerryn, who has been by my side through all the tough times. She’s the reason I’m here today.

I was in an abusive relationship, and I got out of it because I knew I was pregnant. I know some people will stick with a person and take what they can get. My husband had money, he had nice cars, but underneath he was abusive – I didn’t want that for my daughter. So I chose to walk away.

Even after all the troubles with my crazy landlords, having to be homeless for a little while, getting sick from mold in the places we were living, having to move from house to house, I don’t regret my decision. But sometimes it’s hard, knowing that Kerryn doesn’t have what other kids have, knowing she deserves better. I wish I were a millionaire so I could give her it all, but I have what I have, and I am trying to make it work.

Last year when we moved, I had no money to buy her gifts, and Kerryn had no Christmas. There was no tree, there were no lights. She came down the stairs and I know she was looking for something. I just said “Kerryn, I am so sorry,” and she said, “It’s ok Mommy, it’ll be better next year.” Even though things were that way, she never complained. Some kids would get mad. Instead, when I cry, Kerryn will hug and kiss me and tell me it’s alright.

Now here we are at Christmastime again, and I get just $118 a month in Food Stamps, even though Kerryn has food allergies and needs more expensive foods. I’m disabled and on a fixed income, so I’m not sure I can even get her the basics, let alone a special holiday meal. And even as I struggle to put food on the table, the City Council is cutting the budget for programs like Interim Disability Assistance and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.

Some people in my situation would give up. Because I have Kerryn, I find hope when so many people are trying to take our hope away. She is on the Principal’s Honor Roll, and she was just voted Vice President of the student government. I am so proud of her, and I want so much to be a mother she can be proud of. I want to take care of her the way I know she deserves. She gives me joy and peace, and the strength to fight for my rights and make sure my voice is heard.

>The District’s food stamp eligibility rules changed recently, making thousands of households whose income is between 133% and 200% of the Federal Poverty Level newly eligible for benefits.

Bread for the City’s legal clinic interns Zila McDowell, Bryan Evans, and Carrie Johnson recently called through the 151 food pantry clients who reported incomes in this range. The clients’ eligibility for benefits depends on several additional factors: their household size, income source (a job versus disability benefits and other unearned income), and certain household expenses. Based on the information they gave us, some of these clients became eligible for food stamps when the changes went into effect.

The interns helped interested clients complete a food stamp estimator, giving them a sense of the level of benefits for which they’d qualify. Carrie says, “clients I called were excited about the change in the food stamp program. Some only qualified for $16 [the minimum monthly benefit for 1- and 2-person households], but they still said ‘something is better than nothing…. I’ll take what I can get.’”

Even $16 in food stamps will stretch a little farther this summer thanks to Freshfarm farmers’ market’s “Double Dollars” program. We covered this program last summer and are pleased to report that this year it’s expanded from one to three farmers’ markets in the District (plus the Saturday market in Silver Spring):

Food stamp recipients who visit these markets can make up to a $10 charge on their EBT cards, and get twice the value of their charge in tokens to buy food at the market. (Several other markets take EBT cards and the $25 in “Get Fresh” checks provided to WIC and Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program recipients, but are not currently participating in double-dollar promotions. A new market at Howard University Hospital is also taking WIC and senior vouchers.)

According to Carrie, “Mr. P was incredibly excited about the farmers’ market double-dollars program. He was excited about being able to buy fresh produce in an open air market.” We’re glad that DC food stamp recipients can now extend their food budgets and access more nutritious, locally-grown food…and happy to have interns who help us share this good news with our clients!

>Today, the Washington Informer reports on the expansion of food stamps in the District, as celebrated here at Bread for the City last week in a press conference with Councilmembers Michael Brown (I-At Large) and Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3).

The actual implementation of the Food Stamp Expansion Act (introduced by Brown and unanimously approved by the Council) was way delayed, but finally an additional 4,800 DC residents are eligible for food assistance. It’s good news at a time when the low-income residents of DC need more of it. We are proud to have partnered on the push for this policy with Councilmember Brown’s office and DC Hunger Solutions.

But can we just take a step back to last week, when the Washington Post covered this story? (I know it’s lame to blog about something that’s like a whole week old; yet it was a busy week around here, and there’s something about the Post’s article that really sticks in the craw.) Check out how WaPo’s Tim Craig caps off his article with an out-of-nowhere conclusion:

“Still, for some residents both inside and outside the city, the fact that city officials are bragging about increasing the District’s food stamps rolls is sure to generate debate, and reinforce conservatives’ criticisms of the District government’s priorities.”

Okay — hold on. Is that a fact that Craig is reporting? Is such a debate actually happening somewhere? Would any District resident really think it’s a bad idea for our city government to claim federal funding (free money!) that will both alleviate miserable hunger and stimulate $1.73 of local economic activity for every $1 of food stamps? Or was this paragraph written because the practice of journalism demands that the ‘other side’ get its say, regardless of reason, morals, or even presence?

We are not journalists, so maybe we just don’t understand. But we do think that Craig could have put this precious column space to better use by, say, reporting on the fact that Councilmember Mary Cheh has another food stamp expansion bill in the works, one which will bring relief to 4,000 more District residents (working families, homeless people, and self-employed individuals) and is already unanimously-supported by Council. That sounds like news to us.

>The Food Stamp Expansion Act of 2009 is finally going into effect, bringing much-needed assistance to thousands of DC residents who are struggling to make ends meet but also previously did not qualify for food stamps. We’re proud to have worked with DC Councilmember Michael Brown, DC Hunger Solutions, and other community leaders to enact this smart legislation.

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WHAT/WHO: Councilmember Michael A. Brown, will be joined by Councilmember Cheh, and representatives from local government agencies, and Bread for the City, DC Hunger Solutions, and other local advocacy and service providers to celebrate the implementation of the Food Stamp Expansion Act of 2009. The event will highlight the new changes in eligibility that took effect on March 15th and the forthcoming changes in benefits under the bills “Heat and Eat” provision. There will also be discussion regarding the new bill that Councilmembers Michael Brown and Mary Cheh recently introduced further strengthening the local food stamp program.

BACKGROUND: In March of 2009, Councilmember Michael A. Brown authored and introduced the Food Stamp Expansion Act of 2009 with the support of the full council. The bill was passed as part of the Fiscal Year 2010 Budget Support Act making the bill effective October 1st 2009. The law creates two separate initiatives which are aimed at expanding eligibility and increasing the benefits of our federally funded food stamp program by utilizing existing mechanisms within the federal regulations.

>Yesterday, we posted Stacy Braverman’s testimony before DC City Council’s oversight hearings of the Department of Human Services. The following is the testimony of Bread for the City attorney Allison Miles-Lee, who represents Bread for the City in the Language Access Coalition. Allison speaks to the challenge that non-English speakers face when trying to obtain public assistance — food stamps in particular.

Good morning/afternoon. My name is Allison Miles-Lee. I am a bilingual family law and public benefits staff attorney at Bread for the City.

Others have given testimony today and in the past about ways that DHS can improve its customers’ access to services. However, these improvements will be meaningless for a large portion of DC residents unless DHS also provides services in a language that its customers can understand.

Under federal and DC laws, including the 2004 DC Language Access Act, DHS is required to provide meaningful access to services for limited and non-English speaking customers. This includes oral interpretation and written translation of vital documents. But we have frequently seen and heard from non-English speaking customers who were turned away by security guards or front desk staff at service centers because they were not able to communicate in English. We have seen frontline staff at one service center attempting to communicate with a Spanish speaking customer by Googling phrases in Spanish, and IMA (Income Maintenance Administration) eligibility workers frequently rely on customers’ children, other family members or advocates to provide oral interpretation for customers. In more alarming cases, customers have reported being shouted at and belittled in English, castigated for not speaking the language.

In our experience, even if customers do receive language interpretation at IMA service centers during their initial interview, information about their language preference is somehow not captured by IMA’s computer system. This happens even though the capture of such information is required by the Language Access Act. As a result, we have seen that important follow-up notices are often sent to these limited or non-English speaking customers in English.

I recently helped two clients, Ms. C and Ms. D, with very similar problems. Both are Spanish-speaking single mothers, who had applied for food stamps for their children multiple times at the Taylor street service center. Both failed to receive adequate Spanish interpretation at the service center, and left believing they had been denied benefits each time. They finally sought the assistance of an attorney since they did not understand why their applications continued to be denied.

I quickly learned that in both cases, my clients had actually been approved for food stamps and food stamps cases had been opened more than eight months earlier. In both cases, an EBT card had been issued to each woman and benefits were loaded onto the card every month.

Luckily, the EBT cards were still available to be picked up, and the benefits on the cards had not yet expired. Ms. D’s card had over $2,700 of food stamps loaded onto it when she picked it up. Neither of these women was told in Spanish at the service center that their food stamps case had even been opened. In addition, because neither of these women ever received notices of approval for food stamps in Spanish, or notices explaining where to pick up their EBT cards in Spanish, they had no idea these cards were waiting for them. Our understanding, after speaking with senior DHS staff, is that if these cards had not been picked up, the money loaded onto the cards would not be refunded to DHS, even after it expired. The failure to send notices in a comprehensible language to these clients was almost a lose-lose situation, for the clients and for the agency.

In these cases, since the women also did not receive notice of the need to recertify for food stamps benefits in Spanish, their cases had been closed after 6 months for failure to recertify. Working with IMA appeals officers and other senior DHS staff, I was able to secure retroactive benefits for both women. Ms. D received over $2,500 in retroactive benefits. While she was happy to finally get the benefits that her three children were entitled to, much had happened during the months she believed she had been denied benefits. Unable to purchase food for her children and pay rent, Ms. D was forced to move out of the apartment she had rented and into the basement of a family friend with her children.

For both of these women, as well as other Bread for the City clients, senior IMA staff quickly remedied problems and restored or provided benefits once we brought a language access concern to their attention. However, we are concerned about the doubtless many other customers who have encountered language access barriers and do not seek the help of advocates like those at Bread for the City.

Unless IMA comes into compliance with DC and federal laws regarding language access, any of its other service improvements will still leave a large portion of its customers in the dark.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak today.

>This is a guest post from Katie Vinopal at DC Hunger Solutions.

While food stamp participation has skyrocketed in D.C., there are still many people that are eligible for the program but not receiving it. One reason why they are missing out: They simply don’t know they are eligible.

The Food Stamp Benefit Estimator – a new tool created by D.C. Hunger Solutions, Bread for the City, and D.C. Legal Aid – can help advocates and providers determine whether someone is likely to be eligible for food stamps and what their possible food stamp monthly allotment may be. The benefit estimator provides an estimate of eligibility and benefits (not an official determination of eligibility or benefit). It comes as an Excel spread sheet and can be used in as little as five minutes.

On February 25th from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m., D.C. Hunger Solutions and Bread for the City are hosting a phone tutorial on the estimator. The phone tutorial will include essential information about the food stamp program and eligibility guidelines, a how-to on the estimator, and information on upcoming modifications to the estimator.

To RSVP, contact Katie Vinopal at kvinopal@dchunger.org by Tuesday, February 23rd.