Voice: Prep Grad Othello Medows's talk "Place as Fate"

This Saturday, Operation Others will deliver more than 600 food boxes to the zip codes Othello mentions in this talk.  His talk is inspiring and shocking at the same time. Check it out at Othello's talk

In Depth: Food Insecurities Hit US Families (Paper by Abby, a former core team member)

Food Insecurities Hit US Families

         

            Over sixteen million children in the United States lack food needed for their survival. With the current economy, their parents cannot provide for them the food they need. The long terms effects of inadequate nutrition cause lifelong problems. Without necessary nutrients children will have stunted growth and other health problems that will most likely cause health issues for their whole lives. Children who eat only fatty and unhealthy food will be at a much higher risk for heart disease and obesity. Often a lack of access to affordable fruits, vegetables, milk and other healthy foods within a close distance can be classified as a source of malnutrition for children. People often do not have easy access to transportation making it difficult to reach grocery stores. These areas are referred to as food deserts.

Waiting for Midnight

Click here to view the video clip regarding Americans who depend on the federal SNAP program.  This segment appeared on the November 28 episode of Rock Center with Brian Williams
Waiting for Midnight video

The Poor, the Near Poor and You

This editorial was published in the New York Times on November 24, 2011.

What is it like to be poor? Thankfully, most Americans do not know, at least not firsthand. And times are tough for the middle class. But everyone needs to recognize a chilling reality: One in three Americans — 100 million people — is either poor or perilously close to it.

The Times’s Jason DeParle, Robert Gebeloff and Sabrina Tavernise reported recently on Census data showing that 49.1 million Americans are below the poverty line — in general, $24,343 for a family of four. An additional 51 million are in the next category, which they termed “near poor” — with incomes less than 50 percent above the poverty line.
As for all of that inspirational, up-by-their-bootstrap talk you hear on the Republican campaign trail, over half of the near poor in the new tally actually fell into that group from higher income levels as their resources were sapped by medical expenses, taxes, work-related costs and other unavoidable outlays.
The worst downturn since the Great Depression is only part of the problem. Before that, living standards were already being eroded by stagnating wages and tax and economic policies that favored the wealthy.
Conservative politicians and analysts are spouting their usual denial. Gov. Rick Perry and Representative Michele Bachmann have called for taxing the poor and near poor more heavily, on the false grounds that they have been getting a free ride. In fact, low-income workers do pay up, if not in federal income taxes, then in payroll taxes and state and local taxes.
Asked about the new census data, Robert Rector, an analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation told The Times that the “emotionally charged terms ‘poor’ or ‘near poor’ clearly suggest to most people a level of material hardship that doesn’t exist.” Heritage has its own, very different ranking system, based on households’ “amenities.” According to that, the typical poor household has roughly 14 of 30 amenities. In other words, how hard can things be if you have a refrigerator, air-conditioner, coffee maker, cellphone, and other stuff?
The rankings ignore the fact that many of these are requisites of modern life and that things increasingly out of reach for the poor and near poor — education, health care, child care, housing and utilities — are the true determinants of a good, upwardly mobile life.
Government surveys analyzed by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities indicate that in 2010, just over half of the country’s nearly 17 million poor children, lived in households that reported at least one of four major hardships: hunger, overcrowding, failure to pay the rent or mortgage on time or failure to seek needed medical care. A good education is also increasingly out of reach. A study by Martha Bailey, an economics professor at the University of Michigan, showed that the difference in college-graduation rates between the rich and poor has widened by more than 50 percent since the 1990s.
There is also a growing out-of-sight-out-of-mind problem. A study, by Sean Reardon, a sociologist at Stanford, shows that Americans are increasingly living in areas that are either poor or affluent. The isolation of the prosperous, he said, threatens their support for public schools, parks, mass transit and other investments that benefit broader society.
The poor do without and the near poor, at best, live from paycheck to paycheck. Most Americans don’t know what that is like, but unless the nation reverses direction, more are going to find out.

Can We Afford to Eat Healthy?

 Walking through Omaha’s Farmers Markets this summer and seeing the mountains of fresh produce, it is hard to imagine that many in our community do not have enough healthy food to eat. Lack of access to healthy food – specifically in so-called food deserts – and lack of food education have been blamed for epidemic levels of obesity and type II diabetes.  Although access to fresh produce is limited for many, the larger problem is financial.

The latest federal Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend that Americans consume more potassium, dietary fiber, vitamin D, and calcium.  But these nutrients do not come cheap.  A recent University of Washington study found that to get enough potassium, an average family would have to increase its annual food budget by $380.

While $380 may be added to the grocery bills of some in our community without consequence, there are many in Omaha whose budgets do not have this flexibility.  Ten percent of Douglas County families buy food using food stamps provided by the federal Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).  The average benefit for SNAP participants is $1 per meal per person. According to the August Consumer Price Index Summary, grocery prices have increased 5.6 percent over the last twelve months. With food prices already soaring, following the federal dietary guidelines (finding an additional $380) is simply not possible.

Focusing too much on the statistics can overshadow the human element of this issue.  The point is that many in our community do not have enough healthy food to eat not because they don’t want it, but because they cannot afford it.  No matter how much education you’ve received about proper nutrition and creating healthy menus, if you have only one dollar per meal, you’ll end up eating off the dollar menu.  The consequences are shocking: this generation of children could be the first in the history of our country to have a shorter average life span than their parents, specifically because of a lack of healthy food.

Job creation or other economic improvement alone will not solve these problems.  (A family of four can earn up to $2,389 per month and qualify for food stamps.)  Families have to make tough choices that often prevent them from purchasing nutritious food.  Parents skip meals so kids can eat.  Fast food is cheaper and easier than home-cooked meals.  Families decide to fill up the car, buy medication, or pay the electric bill instead of buying healthy food.  The consequences of skimping on food are not as immediately apparent as the car running out of gas.  Obesity, diabetes, delayed cognitive development, low birth weight, and depression are among the myriad problems that can be caused by not having enough food to eat.  It is time to reconsider governmental food policy and find ways to let all Americans have the ability to purchase enough healthy food for their families.

Can We Afford to Eat Healthy?

Walking through Omaha’s Farmers Markets this summer and seeing the mountains of fresh produce,  it is hard to imagine that many in our community do not have enough healthy food to eat. Lack of  access to healthy food – specifically in so-called food deserts – and lack of food education have been  blamed for epidemic levels of obesity and type II diabetes.  Although access to fresh produce is limited  for many, the larger problem is financial. The latest federal Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend that Americans consume more  potassium, dietary fiber, vitamin D, and calcium.  But these nutrients do not come cheap.   A recent University of Washington study found that to get enough potassium, an average family  would have to increase its annual food budget by $380. While $380 may be added to the grocery bills of some in our community without consequence,  there are many in Omaha whose budgets do not have this flexibility.   Ten percent of Douglas County families buy food using food stamps provided by the  federal Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).  The average benefit for SNAP participants  is $1 per meal per person. According to the August Consumer Price Index Summary, grocery prices have  increased 5.6 percent over the last twelve months. With food prices already soaring, following the federal  dietary guidelines (finding an additional $380) is simply not possible. Focusing too much on the statistics can overshadow the human element of this issue.   The point is that  many in our community do not have enough healthy food to eat not because they don’t want it, but because they cannot afford it.  No matter how much education you’ve received about proper nutrition and creating healthy menus, if you have only one dollar per meal, you’ll end up eating off the dollar menu.   The consequences are shocking: this generation of children could be the first in the history of our country  to have a shorter average life span than their parents, specifically because of a lack of healthy food. Job creation or other economic improvement alone will not solve these problems.  (A family of four can  earn up to $2,389 per month and qualify for food stamps.)  Families have to make tough choices that  often prevent them from purchasing nutritious food.  Parents skip meals so kids can eat.  Fast food is  cheaper and easier than home-cooked meals.  Families decide to fill up the car, buy medication, or pay  the electric bill instead of buying healthy food.  The consequences of skimping on food are not as immediately  apparent as the car running out of gas.  Obesity, diabetes, delayed cognitive development, low birth weight,  and depression are among the myriad problems that can be caused by not having enough food to eat.    It is time to reconsider governmental food policy and find ways to let all Americans have the ability to purchase enough healthy food for their families.  It is time to reconsider governmental food policy and find ways to let all Americans have the ability  to purchase enough healthy food for their families.

Student Reflection: Serving the evening meal at the Siena Francis House

    Last Monday, two Operation Others core team members, Mr. Kinney, and I, went to the Siena Francis House to serve dinner. It was my first time serving there. The first thing that I noticed was how friendly everyone was. The people sitting outside – who were obviously the ones who would be receiving my services that night – all said “hello,” and a man leaving held the door for me while I walked in. Since everything was new to me I had to ask the people at the front desk where I was needed. They all smiled at me (5 smiling faces was very reassuring) and one of them walked me back to the kitchen where I my escort introduced me to all of the kitchen staff. I was a little bit (ok maybe a lot) early, so to begin with there was not much to do. I put some hamburger buns into a container and then one of the men working in the kitchen suggested, “hey lets do it like on Sundays,” and they sent me out to put bananas on each place setting. At this point other members of my group started to show up and I began to feel more at home. I relaxed a little and began to notice more of what was going on around me.
     People began to line up outside the eating area, young and old, men and women, each waiting patiently and politely for the meal to begin. When one of the workers gave the signal, everyone came and sat down, filling nearly every seat. Probably the most touching part of the night was when they asked for a volunteer to lead the prayer before the meal. Before each group ate its meal, the staff would ask for a volunteer to lead the prayer. Before each of the four meal-times, one person in the group got up and led a prayer. During their prayer they managed to name a few things they were thankful for – that put some things into perspective for me. During and after each meal I witnessed little things that showed me how heroic these people were – like the father who went out to the common area an played with his children after the meal, or the table in the last group who saved a place for their friend who was running late so that he would not be forgotten, or every mother who passed the tray of food to their children before looking for one for themselves. In serving at the Siena Francis house I was able to interact with a group of people who I don’t normally have a chance to meet. Not only was I able to observe and learn from them, but I was also able to serve them and hopefully brighten their day a little bit.

The Siena Francis House is Nebraska's largest homeless shelter. It has been serving men, women, and children for 35 years.
The writer, Claire, is a Senior Operation Others Core Member.

Senate Appropriations Committee to make decison on international poverty assistance

This post is from the Creighton Center for Social Justice
Catholic Relief Services
As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, your Senator will be making decisions about funding levels for poverty-focused international assistance this week. Please contact your Senators now and ask that they give priority to poverty-focused international assistance within the Foreign Operations Appropriation, and to protect poverty focused assistance from disproportionate cuts proposed by the House. Background: The Senate Appropriations Committee is scheduled to take up the Fiscal Year 2012 Foreign Operations Appropriation Bill this week. This bill will have a substantial impact on poverty-focused development and humanitarian assistance, and could help prevent disproportionate cuts proposed by the House of Representatives. Poverty-focused international assistance amounts to less than 1 percent of the U.S. budget and provides help for people suffering from severe poverty, disease and violence. Each year this small amount of assistance will: Feed 46.5 million of the world’s hungry persons. Feed 5 million schoolchildren; Prevent more than 114,000 infants from being born with HIV. Provide millions of HIV-positive people with counseling or treatment; Save 3 million lives through immunization programs. (Statistics provided by: Bread for the World, 2011) In the last decade this assistance has brought safe, reliable drinking water to more than 1.3 billion people, preventing disease. Cutting funds to poverty-focused development and humanitarian assistance will cost lives. Church Teaching: The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops supports federal programs that provide assistance for “the least of these,” (Mt 25:45). In a joint letter to the Chairman and Ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Bishop Howard Hubbard and Ken Hackett, President of Catholic Relief Services, addressed the importance of preserving and prioritizing international poverty assistance. Send an email to your senator

New Data on Food Insecurity Shows Anti-Hunger Efforts Must Continue

This is a post from the Bread for the World Blog.  

This morning, the Department of Agriculture released new data showing that 14.5 percent of American families struggled to put food on the table in 2010. The technical term for this is “food insecure.”

The good news is that while the number of food insecure families has remained basically unchanged since 2008, when the rates first spiked due to the recession, this year’s data does demonstrate some improvement. The number of families with very low food security declined between 2009 and 2010. (Very low food security means that at least one family member’s food intake was reduced, and eating patterns were disrupted because of a lack of money for food.) Food insecurity among households with children also declined slightly.

These small improvements, however, are not enough to end hunger across the country. In the world’s wealthiest nation, more than 6 million households are food insecure, and more than 16 million children still live in families that struggle to put food on the table. As so many Americans know, this data shows that the effects of a struggling economy continue to be real and severe.

With record high poverty and unemployment rates, there is no doubt that food insecurity numbers could have been much worse than what we saw this morning. Were it not for programs like SNAP (formerly food stamps), school meals, and WIC, combined with the efforts of local food banks, the needs of many hungry Americans would not have been met. Throughout the recession, more and more Americans have had to rely on the federal safety net to ensure their family gets sufficient food. Sadly, federal nutrition programs have been prime targets for cuts during the ongoing budget debates in Congress.

You can help us ensure that next year’s numbers show real progress in eliminating hunger. This September, Bread for the World has partnered with Feeding America -- the nation’s food bank network -- to continue to raise awareness about hunger and to mobilize action against it. Visit www.hungeractionmonth.org to find out how you can get involved with your local community.

Also, learn more about Bread’s efforts to protect vital federal nutrition programs by visiting www.bread.org/budget. Also, read a more detailed analysis of the food insecurity data released September 7, 2011.

Christine Meléndez Ashley is a policy analyst at Bread for the World.

Posted by Bread on September 07, 2011 in Advocacy, Hunger and the U.S. Budget,Hunger in the News, U.S. Hunger / Comments (0) / TrackBack (0)

Student reflection: "We had to decide between getting full and eating healthy"

The writer, Patrick, is an Operation Others Core Team Member and a High School Junior. 

On September 7 the Operation Others Core Team participated in a Food Stamp Challenge. We were divided into groups of three or four and were given $9 for a family of three, or $12 for a family of four (the average food stamp allotment for American families).  Each group had to use their money very carefully in order to buy enough food for the three meals. Three of the groups went to No Frills Supermarket and the other two went to Hy-Vee. The students were given roughly 30 minutes to buy the food, and it took a lot of work to stay under the budget while buying enough food for 3 or 4 people throughout the day. When we came back many of the items were very similar. Some of the most common were oatmeal, bananas, bread, milk, canned fruit, canned vegetables, and different types of cheap meat. It was a great opportunity for us to see how tough it is to stay under the food stamp budget. The one main point brought up with this budget was would you rather be hungry and eat healthily or be full and not eat healthily?

Click here for more information on the Food Stamp Challenge
Click here to learn more about Operation Others' participation in the challenge

Child Food Insecurity: The Economic Impact on our Nation

A report on research on the impact of food insecurity and hunger on child health, growth and development commissioned by Feeding America and The ConAgra Foods Foundation

http://feedingamerica.org/SiteFiles/child-economy-study.pdf

O.O. members to take the Food Stamp Challenge

Operation Others Core Team members and others will participate in a modified version of the Food Stamp Challenge. After watching the documentary Food Stamped, groups of four will attempt to purchase healthy food to create meals for one day.  Students will be given the average daily food stamp allotment for a family of four ($12).  A discussion will occur regarding the SNAP program and the experience of living on the program for one day. Students will attempt to find out if it is possible to eat healthy on food stamps. Stay tuned for more information.

Student Reflection: O.O. Members Pack and Deliver Lunches for Others!

On August 5, Operation Others members packed lunches with food provided by the Open Door Mission Streets of Omaha Project and delivered them throughout Northeast Omaha. Please read Molly and Tina's reflection on the experience below.  Please visit http://www.opendoormission.org/ for more about the Open Door Mission and visit http://creightonprep.creighton.edu/page.cfm?p=2115 for more information about Operation Others

We went to the Open Door Mission to make over one thousand sack lunches, and delivered them throughtout Omaha. As we drove around and gave the lunches to people on the streets we witnessed a part of Omaha that we haven't really seen before. Everyone was so grateful and kind, someone even hugged us. This was a very eye-opening experience for us because we've heard a lot about the lack of food in many people's lives, but we never truely saw it. This helped us to see the hungry people in Omaha directly and let us feel a little bit of their pain. This experience helped us to connect with our community through food, which is what Operation Others is all about. It felt great to help others in need and we would definitly recommend this to others!


Peace, Love, & Food
Molly and Tina

Report on hunger ‘alarming' - Omaha.com

Report on hunger ‘alarming' - Omaha.com

Can you eat healthy on a budget? Local experts and consumers discuss

Is is possible to eat healthy on a budget? A new study says no, but some local experts and consumers disagree.  Click the link below to access the article describing reactions to the study.  Feel free to comment on this post and express your thoughts. 

Eating healthy on a budget - LivewellNebraska.com


For more information please seek out the article published in the journal Health Affairs.

Following Federal Guidelines To Increase Nutrient Consumption May Lead To Higher Food Costs For ConsumersHealth Affairs August 2011 30:81471-1477

Following Federal Guidelines To Increase Nutrient Consumption May Lead To Higher Food Costs For Consumers

Here is the abstract from a new University of Washington study regarding the consumer cost of meeting the federal food guidelines:

The federal Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010, emphasized the need for Americans to consume more potassium, dietary fiber, vitamin D, and calcium, and to get fewer calories from saturated fat and added sugar. We examined the economic impact of meeting these guidelines for adults in King County, Washington. We found that increasing consumption of potassium—the most expensive of the four recommended nutrients—would add $380 per year to the average consumer’s food costs. Meanwhile, each time consumers obtained 1 percent more of their daily calories from saturated fat and added sugar, their food costs significantly declined. These findings suggest that improving the American diet will require additional guidance for consumers, especially those with little budget flexibility, and new policies to increase the availability and reduce the cost of healthful foods.

source: http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/30/8/1471.abstract
the complete study was published in the August 2011 Health Affairs Journal (vol. 30 no. 8)

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Very Rev. Tom Smolich, S.J., President of the Jesuit Conference, has signed on as a “primary signatory” to a new ecumenical and interfaith “Circle of Protection” Statement urging the Federal Government to protect programs for the poor.

Here is a quote from the statement:

"In the face of historic deficits, the nation faces unavoidable choices about how to balance needs and resources and allocate burdens and sacrifices. These choices are economic, political—and moral.

As Christians, we believe the moral measure of the debate is how the most poor and vulnerable people fare. We look at every budget proposal from the bottom up—how it treats those Jesus called "the least of these" (Matthew 25:45). They do not have powerful lobbies, but they have the most compelling claim on our consciences and common resources. The Christian community has an obligation to help them be heard, to join with others to insist that programs that serve the most vulnerable in our nation and around the world are protected. We know from our experience serving hungry and homeless people that these programs meet basic human needs and protect the lives and dignity of the most vulnerable. We believe that God is calling us to pray, fast, give alms, and to speak out for justice.

As Christian leaders, we are committed to fiscal responsibility and shared sacrifice. We are also committed to resist budget cuts that undermine the lives, dignity, and rights of poor and vulnerable people. Therefore, we join with others to form a Circle of Protection around programs that meet the essential needs of hungry and poor people at home and abroad."

Vist  http://www.circleofprotection.us/ for more information and to read the entire statement

House Passes Appropriations Bill: proposed cuts to programs that keep millions from going hungry would be devastating

With more than 50 million people facing hunger, the unemployment rate still hovering near 9 percent, and one in eight Americans seeking food from Feeding America food banks, the proposed cuts to safety-net programs that keep millions of women, infants, children and seniors from going hungry would be devastating

• Funding for The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) would be cut $51 million – or 20%. The program provides food at no cost to low-income Americans in need of short-term hunger relief, resulting in a decrease of the amount of food available to distribute to struggling families in a time of record need.
• $12 million from administrative funding to TEFAP would be cut. These funds help food banks and other agencies store and safely distribute emergency food, making it more difficult for them to serve hungry families.
• $38 million – or 22% – from the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP), which provides a nutritious monthly food package primarily to low-income seniors. This cut would literally take food away from senior citizens across the country.
• $686 million from The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), which would end food assistance for over 300,000 low-income women and children.

Now that the House has passed its FY 12 budget resolution and its agriculture appropriations bill, our focus shifts to the Senate.  With the Senate poised to act on their budget resolution and appropriations process, our best chance to reject the House-approved cuts and protect these vital programs lies there. 

It is critical that key Senators hear opposition to nutrition cuts so they know these programs are important to their constituents and they should protect them as senators draft a more viable deficit reduction plan and more humane agriculture appropriations bill.  Please use our Hunger Action Center to urge our congressional leaders to protect the programs that help those in need.

All Information from Feeding America website @ http://feedingamerica.org/get-involved/advocate/2011-budget-cuts.aspx

Legal Immigrants Lose Aid

"On Friday, the State of Nebraska will cut off an array of welfare assistance that has helped legal, noncitizen immigrants such as Mbuyi and her family make the transition from being non-English-speaking newcomers to taxpaying, working citizens." -Omaha World-Herald June 29, 2011

In 2010 Operation Others delivered food boxes to many immigrant families.  Here is an article about a cut in aid for these families.

Click here to see the article:      Legal Immigrants Lose Aid

Click here to read and article spotlighting Omaha's Sudanese Community and the Project Welcome Organization.  (Each year Operation Others delivers food to many Sudanese families)  Article about Project Welcome and Omaha's Sudanese Community

OECD: Poverty On the Rise

In response to increasing family poverty, the OECD recommends that governments should: ensure that work pays for both parents, including through assistance with childcare costs; help families combine work and care commitments, through an integrated set of leave, care and workplace support for parents of young children; design parental leave systems that encourage more fathers to take and share leave and promote their engagement with homecare responsibilities; start investing in family policies during the early years and sustain investment throughout childhood; ensure high-quality childcare services are linked to improved cognitive development, especially for children from poor households. “More family-friendly workplaces, equal career prospects for men and women, and a better sharing of care responsibilities not only make economic sense, they are a moral and political imperative,” said Mr. Gurría.


Click the link to read the entire article as it appears in America Magazine online
http://www.americamagazine.org/content/signs.cfm?signid=706