FRAC Releases Its State of the States Report

The Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) released its annual “State of the States: A Profile of Food and Nutrition Programs Across the Nation” on March 15. FRAC is a national policy organization based in Washington that keeps tabs on nutrition policy affecting the anti-hunger movement.

The report is a good news/bad news affair. Briefly, the good news is that participation in most programs is up, in part reflecting efforts by the states to make enrollment in nutrition programs easier to navigate. The bad news is that the percentage of households who are food insecure has increased to 11.4%. In Texas the number of food insecure households is 16.4 percent, one of the highest numbers in the nation.

Poverty is an indicator of food insecurity. Looking at the Census Bureaus’ profile for Lubbock County suggests that the percentage of food insecure household in the county is around 19%. When you look at the statistics for the surrounding counties, the numbers go up to around 25%.

The report concludes by noting that we as a nation are facing tough budget choices. FRAC President Jim Weill writes, “The President’s FY 2007 Budget proposes nutrition program cuts that would: limit states’ ability to get food stamps to 300,000 people in working families with children which are low income but not receiving cash welfare; weaken the WIC program; eliminate the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) that provides nutrition assistance to 420,000 low-income elderly people; and eliminate the Community Food and Nutrition Program (CFNP) that supports local efforts to help needy families obtain nutrition benefits. These are the wrong priorities for the nation.”

I’ve had people ask me why we need federal nutrition programs in light of the work of Food Banks. I guess it’s a matter of scale. The number of people in the United States who are food insecure is massive. Federal programs such as Food Stamps, School Lunch Programs, and the Emergency Food Assistance Program are vital to efforts to end hunger in America.

In spite of Federal efforts, there are still people who are going hungry that for one reason or another do not qualify for federal assistance or the assistance they receive is inadequate. Consider that some seniors on Food Stamps receive $10 per month. Food Banks, such as the South Plains Food Bank, fill in the gaps. Often times we are the first responders as people try to figure out how to access the system. And over the years, Food Banks have become advocates for the hungry.

Several years ago, Janet Poppendieck wrote “Sweet Charity? Emergency Food and the End of Entitlement.” The book called into question the role that food banks and soup kitchens play in feeding the nation’s hungry by asking if we are letting “federal programs off the hook.” It is certainly a book that made me stop and think.

I noticed an interview with Janet on the World Hunger Year site. It was informative to read her views seven years down the road. We are learning from one another.