healthy food - Coalition on Human Needs Responds to Speaker Ryan's proposal - SIBEJO

Deborah Weinstein, executive director of the Coalition on Human Needs, issued the following statementy in response to the House GOP anti-poverty proposal:

�The plan put forth by House Speaker Paul Ryan and his GOP colleagues actually is a blueprint for exacerbating poverty and inequality in the United States. While lacking in legislative and policy specifics, this blueprint cannot be separated from the budget proposal championed by House Republicans. This year�s GOP budget derives three-fifths of its cuts from programs that help low- and moderate-income Americans, while protecting tax cuts for the wealthy and for corporations.

�The issue of funding is a gaping hole in this proposal. It costs money to give people the tools to escape poverty. But the budget approved by the House Budget Committee earlier this year would cut low-income programs by $3.7 trillion over 10 years, mostly in health care, but also cutting SNAP by $150 billion (a 30 percent cut between 2021-2026), and cutting Pell Grants and other low-income education programs. Do Ryan and his colleagues now disavow these cuts?

�While the report mostly chooses rhetoric over specific proposals, it does hint at an intention to reduce cash assistance. In one very troubling example, it criticizes Supplemental Security Income (SSI) for children with disabilities, calling for �access to needed services in lieu of cash assistance.� Children who receive SSI have severe and long-term disabilities, requiring time and expense that diminish their parents� ability to work. Denying cash assistance to these families will drastically worsen their ability to provide for their children�s significant needs. 

�The report vaguely favors giving states more authority to change federal programs. This appears to be a nod to Speaker Ryan�s past recommendation to create �Opportunity Grants� � fixed funding to states that allow them to change rules in effective safety net programs. It is also similar to the House Agriculture Committee�s Child Nutrition Reauthorization proposal to allow three states to take a reduced funding level and change school meals program standards as they choose. There should be no doubt that freezing or reducing funding while allowing states to change program rules is no way to reduce poverty or increase opportunity. Instead, it will give states more incentives to deny help to people who need it. 

�If Speaker Ryan and his colleagues are serious about cutting poverty and expanding opportunities for American families, they should embrace policies that actually benefit working families. This requires investing in good jobs, raising the minimum wage, ensuring an adequate safety net, adopting family-friendly work policies such as paid medical leave and predictable hours, and investing in human capital through a sound education system, all the way from pre-K through college.�

healthy food - New CCE ag teams aiding North Country - SIBEJO

ALBANY � Home to rich soil, a large dairy presence and determined crop producers, New York�s North Country also has more square miles than the entire state of Vermont and faces unique agribusiness challenges. Helping farmers navigate those issues are a pair of new regional agriculture teams fu...

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healthy food - BABIES COST MORE WHEN YOU�RE POOR - SIBEJO

New parents quickly learn there are very few financial supports for families with young children to help them buy baby supplies. Many low-income families are doubly penalized because they can�t  afford to join wholesale stores or shop online and therefore pay more for basic supplies. One blogger (with Amazon Prime and Costco memberships and a car) compared her costs with the retail options available to a mother without these options.

• Diapers--22 cents/diaper online versus 36 cents at the local grocery store
• Formula--$20 per week at big box store versus $29 at local grocery
• Baby food--$5 made at home (thanks to  food processor/blender/dishwasher) versus $18 for jars at grocery store
• Baby supplies (swaddles, laundry detergent, diaper cream, and bottles)--free thanks to points on Amazon credit card versus $10 at grocery store.

Total savings=$41 per week or over $2000 a year.

Source: Talk Poverty, 6/1/16, Baby Costs

healthy food - Toxic Charity - how our efforts to help may actually hinder... - SIBEJO

Have you read the book, "Toxic Charity" by Robert Lupton? 

This is a book primarily about churches and the charity projects they undertake, but it has lessons for all of us working to build a better world.

Two themes that really resonated with me (and I'm sure there may be more in the future):

Volunteer projects - When a group or even an individual wants to volunteer, it's important to establish motives.  Is it more important that the volunteer activity meet the needs of the volunteers or the needs of the community / the organization you are volunteering with?

This may seem easy to answer, but I can't tell you how many times people have called me with ideas for things they want to do that don't really meet the needs or mission of GardenShare.  They often have a hard time accepting "no" for an answer, even though I think that I am, for the most part, pretty diplomatic in providing that answer!  

Then there are the volunteer groups who expect nonprofits to spend our limited resources to feed the volunteers lunch or provide t-shirts or other things.  We've already spent a lot of resources in staff time setting up and organizing the project, so don't be surprised if we say no to those requests, also!

Ending hunger or poverty -  The book has lots of examples of programs that have not succeeded in ending the social ill they set out to fight.  And a little guidance about how to do better.  Lupton says the key is in relationships.

"To effectively impact a life, a relationship must be built, trust forged, accountability established.  And this does not happen in long, impersonal lines of strangers.  A name and a story have to be attached to each indivdual face.  Highly personal life struggles must be explored and with each person a unique action plan created.  A bed for the night...where to get a job...treatment for addiction...escape from an abusive husband...childcare for homeless children...a wheelchair for an amputee."

This is the same conclusion that I have come to in my 30+ years of work in the anti-hunger field.  We won't end hunger by building bigger food banks and distributing more and more food.  We will end hunger one family at a time, because each family's needs will be different.  And we can only do this by mobilizing an army of volunteers who will work one-on-one with people in need and build these kinds of relationships.

At GardenShare, we have two primary ways of building community - the CSA's and the Farmers Markets.  Can you help us think about other ways we can build community and engage people in need with people who can help?

healthy food - Auction at GardenShare's annual dinner - SIBEJO

A silent auction will be one of the highlights at GardenShare's annual dinner (after the outstanding, locally-sourced menu prepared by Jake's head chef Josh Taillon!) coming up just two weeks from tonight.  Hope you're planning to join us on June 14 at Jake's on the Water.

Here are some auction items donated to date:

Potsdam ACE Hardware gift certificate
Adirondack Fragance and Flower Farm gift certificate and gift basket
Potsdam Agway gift certificate
Best Western gift certificate for one night's stay
Brewer Book Store gift certificate
Northwind Day Camp one week campership
Cinema 10 season tickets
Planter and gardening supplies from Coakley's ACE Hardware
First Crush gift certificate
One treatment at Five Elements Living
Glow Skincare and Spa gift certificates
A piece of jewelry from Inlay Design
A pedicure at MH Studio
Ole Deckside gift certificate
A half gallon of maple syrup from the Orebed Sugar Shack
Golf at Partridge Run
Bread from the Potsdam Food Co-op
Golf and dinner at the Potsdam Town and Country Club
Three month membership at the Roos House Fitness Center
Pick-your-own berries at Sweet Core Farm

More auction items are being donated every day.

To learn more about the dinner or order your tickets, go here.

healthy food - THE POOR PAY MORE - SIBEJO

Prices for everyday purchases at grocery and drug stores are increasing faster for low-income Americans than their wealthy counterparts, according to new research from Harvard University. Researchers found that retail prices are increasing by more than 2% per year for goods purchased by consumers with incomes below $30,000, but just 1.4% per year for those with incomes above $100,000. Most of the price discrepancy can be attributed to wealthy consumers� habit of buying premium brands, which tend to have more stable prices over time, according to the study. While apparently small, if that divergence continues it would become hugely important in a relatively short period of time. After 20 years, for example, every dollar in the pocket of a poor consumer would be worth just 88 cents compared to what a wealthier consumer would be able to buy with it at the grocery store, given the differences in inflation and in both consumers' preferences.

Source: Washington Post, 5/20/16, Poor Pay More

healthy food - THE COST OF FOOD INSECURITY - SIBEJO

New research finds that food insecurity costs families with young children over $1.2 billion in health care, special education, and workplace productivity. Hospital care for food-insecure children under age 4 cost over $500 million, while special education costs for such 3- and 4-year olds were nearly $675 million.  The study�s authors recommend, among other things, changing the way SNAP benefits are calculated, eliminating participation barriers in WIC affecting pregnant mothers and toddlers, strengthening the Child and Adult Food Program, and enhancing the Summer Food Program.

Source: Children�s Health Watch, 5/20/16,   Food Insecurity Costs