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

Hunger: Nicholas Kristof in Say, Niger

The mother, Miero Finiba, told us that she was eight months pregnant (confirmed by a health card) and had nothing at all to eat in the house (confirmed by her husband). She and her children had last eaten a day earlier, when neighbors — themselves impossibly poor — shared some of their food.

Ms. Finiba was also afflicted with a leg infection that looked gangrenous. That meant that if she didn’t starve, she might soon lose her leg — or, more realistically in a village with no medical clinic, simply die of the infection.

Her two small children, ages 5 and 2, would then be at great risk of dying without their mother to look after them. The father is blind, from a disease called river blindness, which is transmitted by black flies, and cannot cultivate the fields.

It was at that point in the conversation that Ms. Dave choked and teared up. “Is there anything we can do?” she asked.

Click here to read the entire story as it appears in the New York Times (June 25,2011)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/opinion/sunday/26kristof.html?_r=1