How is the lingering recession impacting the food security of District households?
In the face of skyrocketing unemployment in the District— which reached 12.1 percent in December 2009, the highest rate in more than 30 years— many families are finding it harder or impossible to pay for such basics as housing, utilities, transportation, and food. Since families must pay fixed costs like rent (or face eviction) and child care (in order to work or look for a job), many opt to reduce food spending first.
This is what happens when families don’t have enough money to buy nutritious food:
· A child, who had been a model student, starts to misbehave and grabs food from his friend’s plate during school lunch because there is no food at home.
· A woman who runs an afterschool program gives extra food to children who come to her program hungry so they can take the food home.
· A child brings 20 pennies to school to pay for reduced-price school lunch since pennies are all that’s left after the family pays for its rents, utilities, transportation, and groceries.
· A mom doesn’t eat dinner so that her children get the food they need to sleep through the night.
As D.C. Hunger Solutions staff members work to connect families to federal nutrition programs, these are just a few of the stories we hear. Families in the District of Columbia are facing challenges that many of us cannot even imagine. In fact, families with children in the District of Columbia are more likely to be food insecure. A new report from the Food Research and Action Center finds that one in five households in D.C. say they weren’t able to afford the food they needed, but the number is even worse when you look at children: the rate for households with children is a shocking 40.6 percent. That’s two out of every five households with children.
Approximately 74 percent of all District households in poverty are headed by women, making food hardship a particular concern for women and their families.
These findings vividly underscore that more must be done, and quickly, to help struggling families with children.
Fortunately, the District’s child nutrition programs (school lunch and breakfast; afterschool snacks and supper, summer, and child care meals; and WIC) are responding to this increased need. Children can access these nutrition programs at schools, at child development centers and homes, at afterschool programs, at recreation centers, and at sites throughout the city when school lets out. Participation in these programs is growing at record rates:
· 49,000 students are now participating in school lunch— a 20% increase from last year when 41,000 students participated.
· 23,500 students are now participating in school breakfast – a 20% increase from last year when 19,600 students participated.
· 14,000 children are getting meals through the child care food program— a 17% increase from last year where 12,000 children participated.
The federal nutrition programs are designed to fight hunger, poor health, and poverty in the District. The programs (with the exception of WIC) are entitlements, able to meet the rising need when the economy gets worse, and are not subject to federal or state appropriations limits –they are economically counter-cyclical.
While the programs are working, there is more that we can do to ensure that more eligible families are connected to these programs. Here are some steps you can take:
· Support the D.C. Healthy School Act introduced in December 2009 by Councilmember Mary Cheh and Council Chairman Vincent Gray. Not only does this act improve the nutritional quality of school meals, but it would help connect more children to school meals by eliminating the reduced-price co-payment. No longer would a child have to scrounge for pennies to pay for a school meal.
The act also recognizes the importance of breakfast as both a nutrition and academic intervention. D.C. Public Schools currently offer breakfast for free for all students, but this act would champion the benefits of free breakfast and extend it to the charter schools. The act also promotes widely-successful models – like breakfast in the classroom or grab and go carts, which are proven to boost participation —that will connect more children to the “most important meal of the day”. Contact D.C. Hunger Solutions by emailing kroberts@frac.org to learn how you can support the Act and sign-up to testify on March 26, 2010 by contacting Councilmember Cheh’s Office.
· Help promote the Afterschool Meal Program. Advocates, led by D.C. Hunger Solutions, worked to convince Congress to make the District a federal Afterschool Meal Program state. As a result, in October 2009, D.C. joined 13 other states that benefit from this program, which provides federal funding to serve a full meal at afterschool programs that run into the late afternoon or evening. Now, thousands of children and teens attending school or community-based afterschool programs can get a more substantial meal when their parents work late hours or cannot afford to provide a healthy dinner on a consistent basis.
If there’s an afterschool program at your school or in your neighborhood, make sure they know about this exciting new program. Check our Afterschool Meals web page and contact D.C. Hunger Solutions by emailing kvinopaul@dchunger.org for more information on the application process.
· Help recruit summer meal sites so that children get nutrition when school lets out. District budget cuts stemming from the recession threaten to close some school-based and community-based summer meal sites, cutting off children living in low-income neighborhoods from access to consistent nutrition in the D.C. Free Summer Meals Program. Smaller summer programs may be able to get a sponsor who can help them with the paperwork and deliver food to their sites. Email kvinopal@dchunger.org for more information.
· Distribute D.C. Hunger Solutions’ “How to Get Food in the District of Columbia” Guide. One of the greatest barriers to participation in the federal nutrition programs is residents’ lack of information about what programs are available and how to access them. D.C. Hunger Solutions has published “How to Get Food in the District of Columbia,” a 40-page, plain-language guide for residents on available nutrition assistance in the District. D.C. Hunger Solutions has 3,000 copies available for distribution. Call Matt Grason at 202.986.2200 x 3024 to arrange to pick-up your copies while supplies last.
When two out of five households with children say they can’t afford enough food, the District must do all that it can to ensure families can access adequate food. For more information on how you can get involved in ending hunger, contact D.C. Hunger Solutions.
Alex Ashbrook is the director of D.C. Hunger Solutions. You can contact her by email at aashbrook@dchunger.org.
