Swine Flu Frenzy?

This post is authored by Aviva Bellman, Bread for the City's medical clinic coordinator.

Media reports about the H1N1 vaccination have painted a scary picture. For instance, a recent Washington Post article quoted a doctor describing "an unprecedented amount of verbal abuse" at medical clinics; another indicated that supplies are being underutilized in some parts of the city. Confusion abounds.

Some people are over-eager to get vaccinated, fearful that there isn’t enough to go around. Other people fear that the vaccine may actually be harmful. It isn't. But this makes for a very stressful and confusing time for both patients and health-care providers.

And yet, I am happy to report that at Bread for the City, things are proceeding relatively well!

To be sure, this season is challenging: we are much busier that usual. H1N1 vaccination has significantly increased the number of walk-in visits, at times with entire families walking in mid-clinic. Vaccinations are eating up break time and sometimes keep the staff working late.

At the same time, we do not have limitless amounts of the vaccine - and according to CDC guidelines, we can only vaccinate people who fit into key vulnerable groups: young people, ages 6 months to 24 years old, people who have certain chronic illnesses including asthma, diabetes, and HIV, pregnant women, caregivers to infants, and healthcare workers ourselves.

But I have yet to see a patient be upset when informed that he or she cannot get the vaccine. And, though some qualifying patients do end up opting out of the vaccine, we are fairly effective at explaining to at-risk patients that it is not only safe but important to their health.

This level of communication is deliberately fostered through our model as a medical home. Unlike “drive by” medical providers like health fairs and mass vaccination sites, a medical home allows for strong relationships to develop between people and their doctors. Our patients meet with staff members whom they know and trust, and who take the time to explain they people don't qualify for the vaccine, or why it's important for them to take it. Generally, our patients trust us in either case.

As a matter of fact, last week we received word that the DC Department of Health (DOH) "will be adjusting its current H1N1 vaccine clinic schedule, by reducing the number of free H1N1 vaccine clinic locations for priority groups in the District and increasing the amount of vaccine available at doctor’s offices and community health centers." This means, presumably, that medical homes and other community clinics will have more capacity to vaccinate more people. At BFC, we think that is a very good thing indeed.

(For more about Bread for the City's medical homes model, watch this video below.)

Help the Homeless Walk -- 2 Days Away!

Look how much the Help the Homeless Walk is!!

Join Bread for the City this Saturday on the National Mall for the Help the Homeless Walk. It's only $25 for adults and $15 for youth (age 25 and younger). Bread for the City gets 100% of your registration fee, and you get a snazzy t-shirt, some exercise, and if you're lucky, we'll let you hold the cool BFC banner. (See above-- it's really fun)

Register here: http://bit.ly/31xXuP. Don't forget to choose Bread for the City as your beneficiary organization!

Hope to see you there!

13 yrs + 317 donors = 77,000 Holiday Meals

Dickstein Shapiro. We've written about them before on here, but man oh man, they just keep knocking our socks off.

George and I had the honor today of presenting an award to Dickstein Shapiro for their service to Bread for the City. Dickstein volunteers work in our food pantry, participate in Glean for the City, and provide hundreds of hours of pro bono legal assistance. (I swear, they never sleep.) Dickstein Shaprio also represents the biggest contributor to our annual Holiday Helpings campaign (firm and staff). In fact, they're closing in on $2 million since they started giving in 1996.

And while Partners Paul Taskier, Larry Garr and Michael Nannes do so much for Bread for the City-- really, we'd be lost without them-- what I personally find most remarkable is the groundswell of support we receive from every corner of the firm. When I think about it, it warms my heart.

So thank you, Dickstein Shapiro. You mean so much to us.

Food Stamp Benefits Needed for Families Moving from Welfare to Work

[This is authored by Katie Vinopal, Nutrition Associate at DC Hunger Solutions, and cross-posted from the DC Food For All.]

A new report by So Others Might Eat (SOME Inc.) and the DC Fiscal Policy Institute finds that Temporary Assistance for Needy Familes (TANF) is not providing adequate support for the 16,000 low-income families in the District's program. TANF is designed to provide job training, supportive services, and cash assistance, with the goal of helping adults who are able to work find jobs.

Others have written about the findings of the report and its innovative methods. What hasn't yet been discussed is cash assistance, and in particular the supports available as families transition from TANF to employment.

At D.C. Hunger Solutions, we’ve often heard that cash assistance and food stamps rarely last the full month, leaving people without enough money to buy food. This report comes to the same conclusion, pointing out that the benefits TANF families receive ($428 a month for a family of three) are not enough to make ends meet. These families often face one or more weeks at the end of the month without enough money to buy food.

Research has consistently shown that even a temporary increase in food insecurity can have a long-lasting and serious impact on the well-being and health of families.

While the report recommends the District government increase cash assistance, something Fair Budget Coalition and others have pushed for, there's another immediate step the District can take to improve food security for TANF families: adopting transitional food stamp benefits, a policy option that will help families moving from TANF to paid employment.

Adopting this policy makes sense for D.C. families. There is a reduction in public benefits that accompanies an increase in earnings which makes transitioning from TANF to work that much more difficult. According to the report, a family of three that works for $9 an hour at their job (well below the living wage at $12.10), will lose $4,512 in food stamp benefits annually. Even worse, many families drop out of the food stamp program altogether when they leave TANF, unaware that they may still be eligible for benefits.

As one TANF recipient says in the report, "It's more than you get with TANF but when you look at it, if you take that job, they're going to take all your benefits from you once you get that job, so that means you have no help with food."

Under the transitional food stamps policy option, a family leaving TANF can continue to receive the same food stamp benefit, adjusted for the loss of TANF income, without any additional interviewing, processing, or reporting requirements, for up to five months. And the payment is 100% federally funded. Nineteen states, including Maryland and Virginia, have already adopted this option.

During this difficult transition from TANF to employment, the District must ensure that families do not go hungry. Adopting transitional food stamp benefits for these families is one important way of providing this support and moving families toward stability

Katie Vinopal, Nutrition Associate at DC Hunger Solutions