Beyond Bread: Budget Cuts and Growing Needs

~More and more Americans are asking where to go to receive social services, says the New York Times. This new group of people experiencing poverty and homelessness is comprised mostly of families whose breadwinners have lost their jobs due to the recession. For the first time, they are having to ask for help and are realizing that they have no idea how to go about navigating both non-profit and government-funded social service programs.

~According to a report by the Brookings Institution, unemployment rates have grown faster in DC suburbs than in the city itself.

~The About Homelessness blog asks “Why are people homeless?” and provides information on the four different types of homelessness that the National Alliance to End Homelessness focuses on.

~We’ve been spotted all over the blogosphere this past week, but we missed the ongoing coverage we've been getting on The Slow Cook blog, where both our Gleaning program and the Save our Safety Net campaign have been highlighted. Thanks for reading about, blogging about, and supporting our initiatives!

Budget update -- RALLY TODAY

Save Our Safety Net

[Rally today at the John A Wilson Building today at noon. Meet us in front of 1350 Pennsylvania Ave, NW!]

Yesterday morning, we delivered the www.SaveOurSafetyNet.com petition to all City Councilmembers. Nearly 1,500 names in support of smart, responsible leadership that protects DC’s safety net.

Several Councilmembers thanked us for this display of support, and expressed their agreement with our position that the government must act responsibly during this budget crisis, fairly balancing cuts and revenue.

We still don’t know what was said in the course of yesterday's proceedings, since members of the public were not allowed in the chamber. But early reports indicate some promising movement in the right direction: the Council restored some of the Mayor's proposed cuts to programs including TANF, job training, legal services for the poor, Rapid Housing and Grandparent Caregivers. Also, several revenue raising measures (like a minor increase in the sales tax, and taxes on cigarettes and gas).

There are still severe cuts on the table to affordable housing, senior services, and legal services. In the meantime, the Council made few cuts to economic development, public safety, or public works. So we must take our message one step further.

You can help protect safety net services by coming to the John A Wilson Building today at noon. Meet us in front of 1350 Pennsylvania Ave, NW.

Join together with community leaders, business owners, service providers and fellow citizens, as we urge City Council to to invest in the safety net. After we hear from a brief set of speakers, we will divide into groups and meet personally with Councilmembers and staff.

If you aren't able to attend, you can still make a difference! Please call your Councilmember (or call Chairman Vince Gray or an At-Large Councilmember) to express your support for more balanced budget cuts and responsible revenue enhancements.

What Budget Cuts Really Mean

As you’ve read here, the Mayor’s proposed budget cuts would slash $52 million dollars from services helping people in poverty. These cuts will have a painful effect on our clients, as well as a direct effect on Bread for the City.

In total, we stand to lose $503,408 if the proposed cuts go through. That’s more than the operating cost of an entire month’s worth of Bread for the City’s services.

This has been a tough year for us: we’ve already cut $500,000 from our expenditures, mainly by reducing staff salaries and service hours for clients. These cuts weren’t “fat” from our budget—we lost bone. If there ever was fat to cut, there certainly isn’t now.

Bread for the City could accomplish all of the following with $500,000:
• We could distribute a three-day supply of groceries to 2,874 hungry homes
• We could conduct 2,332 social services visits
• We could conduct 2,243 examinations in our medical clinic
• We could provide 2,332 hours of legal representation

These services save the District real money. If Bread for the City received the full $500,000, we can provide these cash benefits to the City:
• The average BFC medical clinic visit costs $122.60. The national average cost of an emergency room visit is approximately $1,000. 758 patients visited BFC last year who did not qualify for any public health insurance programs, and did not have one provided by their employer. The potential cost savings for these patients to visit Bread for the City over an emergency room is $758,000.
• A cot in the average DC shelter costs the government approximately $27,000 a year. Bread for the City prevented 111 evictions last year. If even 10% of these clients had ended up in the shelter system, it would have cost the DC Government $299,700.
• The average monthly food stamp benefit is $101 per person. Last year BFC screened 10,095 DC residents for all public benefits, including food stamps, and provided assistance through the application processes. If even just 10% of these residents receive the national average monthly benefit for a single person, that’s $1,222,908 in revenue to spend at DC grocery stores.

In short, Bread for the City is a blue chip investment.

The DC Council faces a very difficult challenge, and I do not envy them. All we’re asking is that the pain of these cuts be spread fairly across the board, and that serious revenue raising actions are taken to minimize the blow.

If you haven’t already signed the Safe our Safety Net petition, do so now: http://www.saveoursafetynet.com/. If you have, Call the DC Council today and urge them to show responsible and humane leadership.

Gleaning Provides Opportunities for Education

Two days ago I made my third trip to Parker Farms in Virginia to gather fresh crops for our pantry.

I was met by volunteers from Setauket Presbyterian Church. Rev. Jeff Geary, the group leader, brought a group of 8 volunteers to hit the fields with Glean for the City. After two successful gleanings, I am expanding our trips to include education and dialogue regarding food security (similar to the discussions we've been posting on this blog).

I took the opportunity to speak with our young volunteers about food waste, gleaning, and the role that Bread for the City takes in addressing poverty. It turns out Rev. Geary had education on his agenda as well. His church works to educate their youth about commercial agriculture and its exploitative use of underpaid farm workers. He hoped that Glean for the City would provide hands-on example of the arduous task of handpicking crops.

After gleaning 1,000 lbs. of corn, we loaded up the van and took a step back to admire our work. Rev. Geary remarked that a day laborer picking tomatoes in Florida would have made only $10-25 for gathering the entire quantity on his/her own. As we looked out at the endless acres of corn we couldn’t glean, we discussed the utility of this fresh food for our clients.

Glean for the City provided a rare opportunity for education in agriculture. Most of our volunteers had never been to a farm, and none had ever worked in a field. Picking produce is a strenuous activity, and I'm glad we're able to provide this type of exposure to our volunteers while being able to help our clients access nutritional foods.

Save Our Safety Net: Ongoing Coverage

Our petition to stop the City Council from slashing services for DC's most vulnerable residents is getting more signatures every hour, but we need every one of our supporters to back us up on this crucial issue. The proposed cuts will do inestimable damage to DC's ability to propel people out of poverty. If you have not yet signed the petition, please do so!

Thank you to the many blogs, organizations, and individuals in the District who have helped us spread the word about the danger we are in. Please continue to forward these emails or post links on your blog to the Save Our Safety Net site that has all the information about the cuts.

Special thanks to Greater Greater Washington, DCist, The Center for Non-Profit Advancement, Jews United for Justice, Washington Grantmaker's Daily, Pink Banana World, Poverty & Policy, The CKP National Blog, and DCBlogs for your coverage and support!

Through the Coalition for Community Investment, we are presenting the petition in all its lengthy papery glory to City Councilmembers this morning. We will continue to keep you updated about our efforts.

Save Our Safety Net: What the People are Saying

In just a day, more than 1,000 people have signed our petition calling upon City Council to Save Our Safety Net. Please make your voice heard--sign the petition to stop cuts to safety net services--and help us spread the word.
Here are some samples from the many comments we've received from the petition:

~These cuts would disproportionately impact low-income families who are working hard and still struggling to make ends meet. Don't make DC's achievement gap any wider...save the safety net.

~Please save programs critical to the well-being and economic advancement of low-income DC residents.

~Slashing funding for critical safety net services disproportionately impacts low-income DC residents at at time when we need to be dedicating as many resources as possible to reducing inequality and health disparities. A safety net is KEY to prevention and saving money in the long term.

~These are not programs to cut. Our community needs them.

~As a public health professional, I strongly urge you to consider the grave losses when the most vulnerable families in the District are compromised because of funding cuts.

~We have to protect the most vulnerable in our city, it is 100% wrong to abandon social programs at a time when people need them most.

~DC's vulnerable residents need somewhere to turn.

~In this time of economic hardship, we should be raising revenues and cutting back on programs that don't affect the most vulnerable residents. Otherwise we'll be digging ourselves into a deeper hole of debt by causing huge demands in the areas of shelter and homeless services, emergency room costs, police and foster care.

~As a resident of DC for the past 10 years, I would rather pay higher taxes than see cuts to services and benefits for my most vulnerable neighbors.

~Please examine revenue resource options before slashing funding for important support and low-income programs.

~Social services are the first thing people need in this recession.

~We can't afford to ask the least fortunate to bear the brunt of the economic downturn. It's a matter of justice.

~Investing money in building communities and strengthening families is the smartest use of government funding. It will yield tremendous results and long-term benefits for the future of DC.

~Individuals and families are reliant on these services for survival. They cannot be cut!

~Hitting the worst off the hardest makes no sense.

~Cutting core safety-net programs will only send our city's low-income residents into further poverty, and make it even harder for the city to climb out of the economic crisis. Please consider other ways of raising revenue before slashing the safety-net services.

~I am a social worker at a community health clinic. I refer participants to these vital services everyday. These supplemental programs and supports are essential to ensuring that families can survive in this increasingly expensive city. I seriously fear for DC's health and safety if we start cutting social supports.

~It is crucial that the Council not balance the budget on the backs of the District's most vulnerable citizens. Cutting the safety net will ultimately cost the District more in emergency services to people made homeless or otherwise forced to suffer through these cuts.

~It's ridiculous that the economic crisis that already disproportionately affects the poor will now be affecting them even more harshly.

~DC's low-income and/or elderly citizens will be thrown into increasingly difficult situations without this safety net!

~We won't take these budget cuts lightly. It matters that you all care and stand up for what is right, because you are OUR leaders. Do the right thing---create solutions to our problems by not creating MORE problems.

**Mayor Fenty has proposed massive cuts to programs that help low-income residents in DC. Please visit Save our Safety Net to learn more.

Save Funding for DC's Poorest Residents--We Need Your Help!

Save Our Safety Net

Last week we posted on Mayor Fenty's proposed budget cuts, which will slash a number of programs providing critical support for low-income residents of DC. Critical safety net services (like affordable housing, assistance for families with children, and literacy programs) will be affected, and no serious actions to raise revenue have been proposed. Moreover, the cuts are imbalanced--cuts to services for poor residents make up nearly half of the mayor's proposal.

These cuts will prolong and deepen this recession.

Save Our Safety Net is brought to you by Bread for the City and the Coalition for Community Investment, a broad array of community leaders and business owners in DC who support humane and responsible fiscal governance. Please visit Save Our Safety Net, learn about the cuts, and sign a petition asking the mayor and the council to change course and invest in our future.

Sign our petition today!

Ensure Transparency! Council Meetings Must Be Open

Next week, the DC Council will hold two marathon — but private — sessions to come up with a plan to close a major budget gap. Each Council member has been asked to come prepared with ideas for cutting up to 12% of the budgets of the agencies they oversee.

These full-Council meetings should be open to the public, to ensure transparency for residents upon key decisions that will affect their lives.

Bread for the City has signed on to this letter below, circulated by the Coalition for Community Investment. You can sign on -- send an email to Jenny Reed at the DC Fiscal Policy Institute (include your ward and/or your organization's name).

July 24, 2009

The Honorable Vincent C. Gray
Chairman, District of Columbia Council
1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Suite 504
Washington, DC 20004

Dear Council Chairman Gray:

We, the undersigned organizations, are writing to request that you make open to the public the Council’s budget deliberations that will occur during the week of July 27. We believe that making all full-Council sessions accessible to the public is critical to having an open and transparent government in the District of Columbia.

It is our understanding that the DC Council will meet as a whole on Monday July 27 and Tuesday July 28 to work out budget and revenue decisions to address the District’s budget shortfall. Those decisions will have a major impact on the services received by DC residents and on the taxes they pay. If the meetings are not open, it is likely that the public will not be aware of the decisions before the July 31 vote. This means that residents will not have an opportunity to offer insight and feedback on critical budget decisions that the Council will make.

The Council currently allows members of the media to attend these kinds of meetings. Accommodating members of the public should be possible, as well.

We thank you for considering this matter.

(Please repost or tweet this TODAY with the hashtag #SOSdc.)

Save Our Safety Net: A letter from a constituent

Longtime donor, volunteer, and former BFC Board Chair Roger Kuhn shared with us a letter that he sent to Mayor Fenty yesterday about the proposed cuts to the city's social services, and gave us permission to share it here.

Mr. Mayor:

Your proposed budget cuts are grossly unfair to the City's neediest. While the wealthy move into the growing number of luxury condos around town, more and more of our neighbors are heading for shelters. While some eat $100 dinners at DC's finest restaurants, others line up at food pantries. And now you are proposing cuts in support for food pantries, shelters, and other services needed by more and more newly individuals and families.

The fair approach is to cut support for luxuries enjoyed by the fortunate -- support for ballparks and the like -- and to raise revenue from those who are most advantaged: a new top income tax bracket, a new sales tax on sports tickets, concert tickets, DC lottery winnings -- you could name a lot of sources if you looked around. (I'll add that many of these taxes would affect me personally, but I'd pay them willingly if I knew the revenue was preserving the safety net for people in need.)

I'd like to feel my city was dealing fairly and humanely with all of us who live here. Right now, I'm feeling angry.

Roger Kuhn

Roger urges you to take action as well: email City Council today to express your support for programs that help our most vulnerable neighbors survive. (And share your email with us!)

We are currently attending the hearings at the Wilson Building - stay tuned for more...

Glean for the City: Corn and More

Monday was our second Glean for the City event, again at Parker Farms.

I was accompanied by 20 volunteers from the Washington Quaker Workcamps. With this large volunteer group we picked literally tons of corn -- and fast. We filled every produce bin, and decided to stuff every picking bag full for good measure. On the drive home, I was accompanied by the sweet scent of nearly 2,000 lbs of corn in the van.

Our volunteers wanted more. "I wish we could keep going! We’ve barely put a dent in this field, and I can't believe the rest will go to waste."

Another volunteer remarked to me that, "The government should create a volunteer corps to organize gleanings with farms and food pantries. But I am happy that Bread for the City is doing their part."

The corn will be split up between our SE and NW centers. This will provide a fresh produce staple for our food bags for the rest of the week.

As a side note: We typically offer canned corn in our pantry, which is very popular with our clients - but also high in sodium! Fresh corn is very high in fiber and generally healthy. Just as important, it is easy to prepare: boil for 15 minutes, grill for 10 minutes, cut it off the cob and put it in salsa or salad. Our volunteers were eating it right off the cob, and so was I. We even brought some back for the Bread for the City parking lot barbecue, where it was a big hit.

In trying to bring in more fresh produce to the pantry, we're also working toward variety. Sharon, our in-house nutritionist, likes to say " people should eat a variety of colors.” The more colors, the more variety of vitamins and minerals. A large array of nutrients supports and protects the body from illness and chronic conditions.

So on Sunday, I picked up over 800 lbs. of fresh fruits and veggies from our friends at the West End Farmer's Market. Our fridge is now stocked with a rainbow variety, including squash, eggplants, peppers, greens, cucumbers, tomatoes, and fresh bread.

The quantity has increased with every trip to the West End Market, and I will go every Sunday until they close for the season. Combined with our gleanings, this will enable us to bring both variety and quantity to our food pantry for months.

We’re deeply grateful to Parker Farms, FreshFarms Markets, and all of our community partners for helping us make sure that this surplus food will go to those who need it most, instead of going to waste.

Budget crisis: DC's safety net is in danger

DC’s budget crisis is coming to a head. Our elected officials have proposed budget-slashing actions that are far more severe than we had anticipated, and we are alarmed.

Mayor Fenty’s proposal puts massive amounts of funding for the city’s social safety net on the chopping block: some $54 million worth of funding for programs that provide assistance for families with children, affordable housing, services for the disabled, etc. Proportionally, the proposed cuts to the safety net are dramatically larger than cuts to other government services – according to the DC Fiscal Policy Institute, they are at least three times larger! Meanwhile, the Mayor has proposed hardly any measures that would actually raise revenue.

Let it be clear that by raiding the social safety net, the Government will send thousands of our neighbors lives into crisis. These are programs that keep people off the streets, keep children safe, keep the vulnerable secure, and so on. As a result, these are programs that save the city lots of money. Ultimately, cuts to these programs will make this recession more prolonged and painful for the City as a whole.

Bread for the City receives funding from the city to provide some of these critical services – like our Court Based Legal Services Project, which helps prevent evictions and keeps people out of shelters. At a time when people need help more than ever before, and funding for our work is already threatened by the economy, these cuts would force us and our partner organizations to scale back our services. Rather than turn to the safety net as a first resort for freeing up capital, the City should be doing everything in its power to protect these programs.

The City has other options. The DC Fiscal Policy Institute has proposed alternative solutions that would raise revenue, tap special sources of funding for the city, and maintain DC’s safety net. Bread for the City, along with the Coalition for Community Investment, urges our elected officials to consider more humane and responsible strategies for this budget crisis.

It’s not too late. The Mayor and the Council still have time to change course. The Council will vote next Friday the 31st, so this week and next are our only opportunities to weigh in. You can also join us at the Council’s budget hearing this Friday, July 24th, 1350 Pennylsvania Ave, Suite 500, at 10am. You can also email and call city leaders to express your support for an alternative course of action that will protect the safety net - and let us know that you’ve done so.

Bread for the City will keep our community updated about the process from here on out. Please spread the word that this crisis is looming.

In the meantime, here is a list of the proposed cuts:

Enhancements previously secured for the 2010 budget that now face rollbacks include:
$2 million for rent supp
$1.5 for TANF grants
$750k for Housing First
$5.4 million for adult job training
$2 million for literacy
$1.5 million for grandparent caregivers
$500 k for rapid housing (this cuts half of the enhancement)

Cuts to existing programs include:
$6.2 million cut to TANF benefits for poor families with kids
$1.8 million for legal services to poor/poverty loan program,
$3.5 million taken from HPAP special purpose fund (not sure what impact is in 2010)
$340,000 from Office of Victims’ Services
$4 million from libraries
$1.9 million “supported work program” within income maintenance administration
$575,000 from school mental health programs
$5 million from “community health administration” (not sure the impact)
$3 million cut to neighborhood investment fund
Cut to health care contract at DC Jail
$2.5 million cut in grants for the Children Youth Investment Trust Corp
$5 million from the Dept of Disability Services

The only revenue enhancement measure is $7 million from raising a tax applied to phone bills that pays for 911 and 311 services.

A long overdue homecoming

Wow. Check out this story about a client of ours who had been evacuated from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, only to suffer from memory loss. For years, Herlin Griffin was helplessly adrift from his family, and relied upon DC social services like Bread for the City to survive.



Finally, his family was identified and just last week he returned home - tided over for the trip with clothes and supplies he received from Bread for the City.

It's great to see a happy ending to a sad story! Thanks to the other agencies that helped Herlin along the way, like the DC Housing Authority and So Others Might Eat.

Watch the full video news report here:

Katrina Homecoming | WUSA9.com | Washington, DC |

Food, Fun, and Friends!

(See this set of photos from the picnic on Flickr here.)

Last Thursday, Bread for the City hosted our 2nd Annual Parking Lot Picnic! Bread for the City staff, clients, donors, volunteers, neighbors and friends braved the high summer heat to come out to our Northwest Center for hours of food, fun, and Motown. We were so pleased to have the opportunity to celebrate with the community, and thrilled to have Food Program Director Ted Pringle grilling up his legendary smoked barbecue chicken.

Deputy Director Jeannine Sanford, Development Director Kristin Valentine, and Executive Director George Jones spoke about work from this past year, and our exciting plans for the future. George fielded questions from the crowd about our program schedule and our plans for a major expansion of the Northwest Center, and we also heard from several of our clients, who shared stories of progress, perseverance, and thankfulness.

Many thanks to our generous and supportive community!

Helping Other People Clothe People

Bread for the City’s clothing bank (in our Southeast center) is always hopping with fresh, free inventory and lots of folks coming through in search of business and casual wear. We get plenty of donations from the community, which we greatly appreciate.

For our allies over at So Others Might Eat, the need is more acute. SOME works with a clientele that is generally more chronically homeless than the people we see here at Bread for the City, and one of the many challenges of homelessness is that you can hardly keep clean sets of clothes lying around. (I wonder how these people in Baltimore store their running shoes.)

SOME’s Tracy Monson tells us:
“We need all types of men's summer clothing for the more than 30 gentleman whom we outfit each day.”

Contact Tracy if you’d like to donate your summer clothing.

And, because they are just that awesome, SOME let me know that other organizations like Martha’s Table are also in need.

National Poverty News Roundup for 14 July

[I'm going to be unavailable for several weeks, so these semi-weekly updates are going to go on hiatus until sometime in August. But they will resume then.]

If we take seriously two propositions about the contemporary media landscape -- that visibility is key to driving policy, and that virtual spaces are at least as important as traditional print outlets if not more important -- then it follows that online visibility for poverty and homelessness are critical to focusing public attention and crafting compelling policy solutions. I've talked about the wired-but-homeless before, but here's a different twist: courtesy Computer Sim Games, I recently found out about Alice and Kev, an experiment in The Sims 3 involving a poor and homeless family (a father and a daughter) whose creator/player is attempting "to help them survive without taking any job promotions or easy cash routes." And blogging the experience, of course. I find the unfolding story oddly compelling -- not because it is a "realistic" depiction of homelessness or poverty, of course, but because it is among the most creative uses of virtual spaces to raise awareness of these issues I have seen. Yes, it's fascinating to see people using Second Life for stakeholder conferences, and the kinds of "apps for democracy" that people are coming up with are quite innovative. But homeless sims? That's a special kind of creativity.

Speaking of policy, lots of intriguing things seem to be happening around urban policy and planning in the past few weeks. This Brookings report indicates that the populations of cities nationwide continue to grow, perhaps as people flock inwards from the suburbs in search of the employment opportunities afforded by economic diversity -- and the opportunity to cut their commute-times. How convenient, then, that the 2010 budget contains funds for a number of new inter-agency initiatives, including a renewed focus on sustainability and the revitalization of neighborhood networks. Perhaps we are seeing the instantiation of what Rob Goodspeed calls "the new normative planning," characterized by a commitment to "high density, mixed-use urbanism" and a real move away from the automobile-dependent landscape architecture of suburbs. That architecture, as we have learned, is implicated in a variety of problems, from impoverished inner cities to the need to import food from long distances away -- with a correspondingly high carbon footprint. Maybe mixed-use city spaces should press urban gardening even further, along the lines of this recent initiative to allow beekeeping within the limits of New York City. Or maybe the lessons of Will Allen's urban farming operation should be taken to heart. In any event, the kinds of cities that are being envisioned and developed will not look like the cities of the past, and with any luck, they will not be beset by the same problems of persistent poverty.

As food pantries across the country continue to report an increase in client visits, it is heartening to hear of local and federal initiatives to keep feeding families with school-aged children during the summer months when the school-year free and reduced lunch programs are on hiatus. It's heartening to hear that the G8, a summit meeting often known for a focus on macroeconomic stability, has committed to a multi-year initiative to combat global hunger. And it's deeply heartening to hear of local initiatives like this book club in Boston, primarily made up of homeless men. Such humanizing moments should not go unacknowledged or forgotten; working for the end of poverty also, and perhaps ultimately, means working for the end of a refusal to acknowledge the humanity of others, and what more human activity is there than getting together in a small group to discuss a topic of mutual interest?

Covington & Burling Recognized for Two Decades of Service

Pro Bono Counsel Anne Proctor accepts award from
Executive Director George Jones

Executive Director George Jones recognized Covington & Burling LLP yesterday for their 20 years of service to Bread for the City. Here is a quick snippet of some of Covington's great work:

• Covington provides pro bono legal counsel on a number of BFC’s corporate legal issues; including helping establish the 1986 DC Free Clinic Act, which provided us with medical malpractice coverage.

• Covington Partner Tony Herman serves on our Board of Directors, providing wisdom, guidance and fundraising prowess.

• To date, the firm and its associates have donated over a quarter million dollars to our programs.

• And Covington continues to provide Bread for the City with a loaned associate who works part-time for a six month rotation as a member of our legal team. These associates work primarily in housing law matters, preventing evictions and battling housing code violations. Heck, just last Thursday our current Covington associate, Ashley Weed, prevented the eviction of a mentally ill client from his apartment.

Thank you Tony, Anne, Ashley, and all our Covington friends for all that you do for Bread for the City. Quite simply, you’re the best.

The Future's so bleak, I gotta wear sunscreen

We recently posted about the shelter crisis in DC here at Beyond Bread – but the magnitude of the problem did not hit me until the latest request for Helping Other People Help People came in from Miriam’s Kitchen.

Ashley Lawson, Volunteer and Development Coordinator over at the Kitchen, shared with me:

Right now we need small bottles of sunscreen since most of our guests are in the hot sun all day.

For the many people who are unable to work, being without a home means having no place to go during the day- to take shelter from cold or heat, to use a bathroom, or to eat. During particularly bad summers, the “Hypothermia Hotline” becomes the Hyperthermia Hotline, allowing for a van to come pick up those in need of emergency help. Organizations like Miriam’s Kitchen, N Sreet Village, and others provide spaces for a percentage of people for have their needs met during the day, when shelters are closed.

It’s not enough.

Residents of our city are without shelter, homelessness is rising at the same time our budget for shelter has been decreasing. The funding for safety net programs is being threatened.

Help Miriam’s Kitchen protect our most vulnerable citizens by contacting Ashley, and then tell your council members that now that you’ve done your part, it’s time for them to do theirs.

Corn for the City

Our gleaning initiative begins!

Early Saturday morning I took a beautiful country drive to Parker Farms in Colonial Beach, Virginia. I was on my way to Glean for the City’s inaugural event. As the event coordinator, I must admit, I was a little nervous. But that quickly turned to excitement as enthusiastic volunteers began to arrive. After a quick rundown of the gleaning process our group of 10 headed to the fields to meet Rod Parker. As we looked out across hundreds of acres of corn fields, comments by owner Rod Parker hammered home the scope of food waste; and the amazing opportunity this was for the food pantry.

“We have already gone through the fields and picked everything we can sell,” Rod said, “but most of what is left is perfectly good to eat. As you can see, there are 3 or 4 ears of edible corn left on every stalk.”
“How do we know if it’s good to eat?” one of the volunteers asked.
“Just give a good squeeze,” Rod responded. “If it’s fat and juicy, then pick it. You can even eat it raw off the cob. It’s like candy.”

A few volunteers took Rod’s suggestion and quickly discovered that the corn was delicious, even uncooked. Then it was time for us to hit the fields. Each volunteer took a couple of picking bags and a row of corn and got to work. And oh how the corn rolled in. I patrolled the edges of the fields, filling produce bins with bags from the volunteers. At times, it was tough to keep up with everybody! Most of the group were clearly amazed as they grabbed corn at a constant pace. “This is great!” one of them told me, “I cannot believe that all of this would have gone to waste. It’s so easy to glean corn, and you see the results of your work right away. I want to do this again!”

Before we knew it we had filled half of our containers in the first hour. After a short water break we stuffed the remaining containers in only 45 minutes. In total, we picked 1,500 lbs. of corn in two short hours.

With one last look at the BFC van, bulging full of corn, we left satisfied with a hard day’s work. This will feed over 1,000 hungry clients at Bread for the City over the next week. Thanks to the volunteers who made it possible!

Beyond Bread: Minimum Wage Increases

~HUD’s annual report to Congress released yesterday documents no major changes in the number of homeless people in the United States since 2007 but a change in the makeup of that demographic. The report notes an increase of nine percent in homeless families seeking shelter and “more demand for transitional housing in the suburbs and in rural areas of the country.”

~The federal minimum wage is set to increase to $7.25 an hour from the current $6.55 an hour on July 24th. While many people advocate this wage increase as a way to relieve economic stresses related to the recession, “At $7.25 an hour, a full-time worker earns $15,080. At the nationwide work week average of 33 hours, the worker would earn $12,441. The U.S. government sets the poverty level at $10,830 for one person or $22,050 for a family of four in the lower 48 states and D.C.” This pay increase may prove to make it easier for minimum wage workers to rise above the poverty line but won’t necessarily make it easier to live, as those making more money may not qualify for certain welfare benefits.

~Bread for the City’s cucumber sorting trip was mentioned on the Wasted Food blog this past week, drawing attention to how our American focus on aesthetics has contributed to food waste.

~In case you didn’t get a chance to read through Joni's post on the budget deficit that DC is facing, here is the issue in brief. DC is facing a $190 million dollar shortfall for this fiscal year and a projected deficit of $150 million next year, and the Mayor's Office is working on a proposal to close this deficit. We want to make sure Mayor Fenty continues to fund a strong safety net for DC’s vulnerable residents and that programs that help those in need don't get cut!

Happy Anniversary to Jim Frank

Bread for the City serves about eleven thousand clients a month with groceries, health services, legal counsel, case management, and clothing. That’s eleven thousand individuals as compared to roughly sixty full-time employees at Bread for the City. So you can see why we depend so much on the service of the volunteers that help us out every day. While many of these volunteers only pass through our doors once, we have a small force of dedicated volunteers who come back time and time again, about 45 people, making the work of Bread for the City possible. One of these volunteers is Jim Frank.

After retiring in 2006, Jim found his opportunity to engage with community at Bread for the City as an intake volunteer. While Jim hasn’t been interviewing intake clients on his own very long, he is "impressed" with the DC residents Bread serves. "They’re living on a shoestring, much less than I could ever imagine living on," he notes, and "on the whole, their outlook on life is more positive than negative."

Jim comes back to Bread for the City because he gets satisfaction from doing a good job with interviews. "I know it’s something that’s needed," he says. He also points out that he doesn’t feel guilty returning to his home in the suburbs after volunteering at Bread. Rather, his service with us allows him to see the gap between the "haves" and the "have-nots," and the "desperate need to provide a safety net for the have-nots, which is why Bread for the City is so important."

Providing this safety net is an undertaking that Bread for the City cannot accomplish without dedicated volunteers like Jim. Next week’s Parking Lot Picnic marks Jim’s one year anniversary with Bread for the City! Although Jim and his wife had been donors to our Art with a Heart and Holiday Helpings campaigns, it was at last year’s picnic that he expressed interest becoming a volunteer. Now that a year has gone by, Jim plans to continue to spend part of his retirement helping us out, saying "I’m not burned out yet!"

Dear Mr. Mayor, Please Fund a Strong Safety Net

The District is facing a $190 million shortfall for this fiscal year, according to the revenue forecast released last week by DC's CFO. Next year's projected deficit is $150 million.

To close the gap, Mayor Fenty and the Council must find cuts or increase revenues. This week the Mayor will craft a proposal to close the gap for FY2009 and FY2010. He needs to hear from you.

All DC residents have a stake in the city budget: if city leaders make wise choices with our shared resources, our communities will be more healthy and prosperous, and better able to weather the economic downturn.

Please call or email the Mayor today to tell him that his budget-balancing plan should maintain a strong safety net. Feel free to use the talking points below, or write your own message. Call the Citywide Call Center at 202-727-1000 and ask to speak to someone in the Mayor’s Office, or email mayor@dc.gov.

• The safety net provides stability. DC families and individuals are already struggling with stagnant, low wages, layoffs and rising food, energy, medical and housing costs during this economic downturn. Cutbacks in safety net programs can increase hardship, reducing residents' buying power, and creating the need for more costly emergency services.
• A strong safety net is good for the economy. Public investments stimulate economic recovery because the money is spent quickly and locally. Support for human capital development, the environment, and infrastructure will help DC build living-wage jobs, healthy communities, and a thriving business climate.
• Maintaining healthy communities requires raising revenue. The use of responsible revenue enhancements and DC's rainy day fund should be part of the city's approach. It will be difficult or impossible to keep safety net programs from being cut unless new revenues are identified. The economic downturn offers an opportunity to review DC's revenue system and to identify changes that would both raise revenue and improve our tax structure, creating a higher quality of life for all.


Ok, now write the email! Make the call!

Declaring Our Interdependence: Safe Shelter for All

Homelessness is on the rise. The number of those reporting unemployment in DC has swelled to over 10%. The need for emergency shelter, especially in this economy, is crucial. Wider Opportunities for Women, along with over 50 other organizations including Bread for the City, formed a coalition to ask the District government to provide increased shelter space. Instead of closing emergency shelters, as the Fenty administration has been doing for the past couple of years, we need to open more.

Though the coalition supports the Mayor’s Housing First program, it insists that until all in need are housed, emergency shelters should not be closed. Family and Women’s shelters are currently at capacity, meaning that many families and women are still left out to sleep in the streets despite dangerous conditions.

Unlike past years, the demand for shelter has not decreased with the warmer weather. In May 2009, shelters in the individual emergency system were in overflow. In addition, the shelters are poor in condition, and many are infested with bed bugs. Those seeking jobs during the day sometimes do not make it back in time to have anywhere to sleep. It is a problem that is deserving of serious attention. Debra, a homeless woman affected by the shelter crisis, said at a rally last week that, “…everybody that’s going through these situations [does] not want to be in these situations… We need a little bit more respect.”

Because of District budget cuts that resulted from the decline in the economy, opening up more shelters is not on the agenda. But, as our letter to Mayor Fenty states, “an important step towards acknowledging [the basic human right to housing] is to ensure that appropriate funds are designated for all three prongs of housing preservation: adequate prevention, safe and sanitary emergency shelters, and affordable housing.”

Sadly, though our joint efforts are concerted, people are still dying on the streets of DC. If this is the reality in the summer months, what can we expect three months from now when winter approaches?

Announcing Our Latest Initiative: Glean for the City!

Time to bring fresh produce to everybody.

This week, Bread for the City is proud to announce our latest and most ambitious volunteer initiative—Glean for the City!

We’ve posted before on this blog about how much perfectly good food gets wasted, for a variety of reasons, between the farms that grow it and the stores that sell it. There are estimates that up to 50% of all food produced in the United States ultimately goes to waste. We plan to tap into some of this abundant produce supply so we can bring it to the District and give it to the people who would otherwise have to go without.

This weekend our first group will go to Parker Farm, about an hour away from DC, to pick corn. Every Saturday between July 11th and the middle of November, we will be asking other groups of 20-25 people to go to other farms in Virginia and Maryland to pick or “glean” the excess produce the machines leave behind so that we can offer fresh, free, local produce to neglected neighborhoods in our city. We estimate that one group can bring back enough produce to feed 1750 hungry people!

If you are interested in learning more, organizing a volunteer group, or donating to support this new effort, we’ve got specifics on our website for you. We’ll also be putting updates here on the blog as Glean for the City gets underway. Finally, many thanks to all of you in the community who have made this new initiative possible!

Preventing Food Waste: the West End Farmer’s Market

Following a lead, I drove to Brennen Park in Alexandria, VA this past Sunday where the West End Farmer’s Market was happening. I was accompanied by volunteer Meghan Garrity, who helped load and sort the produce (she also took the pictures).

Susan Birchler, who coordinates the farmers market, was kind enough to show me around and introduce me to the vendors. I met some great people who were all excited to see us there. Every farmer who had excess gave what they could. Things started slow and we weren’t sure what kind of quantity we would receive. But as the farmers market drew to a close, the tragedy of food waste became apparent through the sheer quantity of leftovers. Anything with a short shelf life gets dumped—unless of course BFC picks it up first. One of the peach farmers there told me to come back next week, saying that, “Shoppers are too picky, and won’t take a peach with the slightest bruise, even though that just means it’s perfectly ripe. We would much rather give it to you guys than toss it.”

The first vendor gave us a small tray of produce. Meghan went to return the tray, and when I turned around she was walking towards the van with 4 bulging bags of cucumbers, eggplants, and greens! We spent the next 20 minutes loading and sorting produce, and by the end we walked away with 300 lbs for the food pantry. There was a wonderful variety including eggplants, squash, cucumbers, green beans, carrots, beets, parsley, onions, assorted greens, and fresh baked bread. The quantity and variety will expand as harvest season piques this summer.

“We can give you 300-500 lbs of produce every week for the entire market season,” Susan told me as I was leaving, “I could not find anyone to take it off our hands! Without Bread for the City, this would have all gone to waste.” Those farmers are the ones doing us the biggest favor, though. Because of them, the low-income residents we serve will get a great variety of fresh produce, and all of it was free!

To top it off, the food pantry was short on fresh produce this Monday because one of our suppliers backed out. Without the West End Farmer's Market, many of our clients would have missed out on fresh food all together.

Beyond Bread: Childhood Hunger Has Lasting Effects

~Longer school days may not be the only reason that students overseas have a competitive advantage over Americans in the international workplace. A study by Feeding America (pdf) asserts that one of the reasons that American students are having trouble making the grade in the global job market is because they experience childhood hunger, saying "food insecurity and hunger together with other correlates of poverty, can dramatically alter the architecture of children’s brains, making it impossible for them to fulfill their potential." Hungry kids can’t concentrate as well in school and subsequently receive less of an education as their peers with full tummies. These under-educated children have a greater tendency to mature into under-employed adults more likely to experience poverty. Hunger doesn’t stop when class isn’t in session, either. The Washington Post notes: "Millions of children pass July and August malnourished and idle, conditions that promote obesity and contribute to the well-documented learning gap between haves and have-nots."
　
~Bread for the City is expanding our Medical Clinic, and Greater Greater Washington just posted a neat old picture of what once stood where we will stand: the Broadway Theatre!

~It seems like Bread for the City has been all over the blogosphere these past few weeks. We’re grateful to the DCist, DCBlogs, We Love DC, Capital Spice, Dining in DC, and Bloomingdale blogs for helping us make up the $10,360 deficit in our food budget last month--it's a victory worthy of fanfare!

~This week we had a first-hand experience with food waste (and bizarrely shaped produce). Thanks to Campus Kitchens Project national blog for picking up the story.

DC farmers markets to double the value of food stamps

[Thanks to BFC intern Nora Lewis for reporting this story.]

Here’s a local reason to celebrate on this vacation weekend: starting July 4th, select FreshFarms Markets will be doubling the value of food stamps that are used to purchase fresh, nutritious foods.

This special opportunity is made possible in part by the Wholesome Wave Foundation’s Double Value Coupon Initiative. It's the latest in a string of local efforts to increase the flow of healthy food to low-income DC residents.

The Washington Post recently looked at the Wholesome Wave initiative and discovered early signs of success – profiling one market in Holyoke, Massachusetts (“one of the poorest [cities] in the country”) at which “sales using food stamps … jumped 290 percent.”

With levels of food stamp assistance currently increasing on both the federal and local level, this program could bring a similarly large influx of participation into DC’s local produce markets.

FreshFarms Co-Director Bernie Prince tells us that the matching program will only currently operate at two of the markets – H St. and Silver Spring – but that with additional funding they could to expand to additional locations.

FreshFarms first began accepting credits from SNAP (food stamps), WIC (Women Infants and Children) and SFMNP (Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program) at two of its markets around this time last year. The program came off to a slow start, though – approval from the USDA took a long time, and the process of converting EBT credits into farmers market tokens posed a technical challenge. This time around, there’s been a more concerted push through the farmers market coalition and the public agencies that administer these assistance programs. (Councilmember Tommy Wells has also been actively encouraging the program.) The markets will have card machines, a dedicated staff person to administer the transactions, and cooking demonstrations.

It seems like the program is already popular with farmers. While FreshFarms can register entire markets to receive SNAP food stamps, individual vendors must register themselves to receive WIC and SFMNP. So far, all qualifying vendors (i.e. those who sell produce) have registered.

“If people are out there on the 4th ready to buy,” says Bernie, “we’ll be ready for them.”

Food Waste Up Close: Sorting Cucumbers

Why waste something so good?

This past week, we made a trip out to Parker Farms in Oak Grove, VA. The goal of our visit was to get a glimpse at how our new program, Glean for the City, will work to bring fresh produce into our pantry. (We’ll be gleaning corn from Parker Farms in July -- see here for information about this new project.)

Besides growing corn, Parker Farms also runs a sorting and distribution operation for crops from local farms. We were fortunate enough to visit the farm on a cucumber-sorting day, and General Manager Rod Parker took the time to show us the entire process.

To be sorted, every cucumber is loaded onto a long conveyer belt. The cucumbers are then power-washed with water to remove any residual dirt or pesticides. After being sorted by hand, the “imperfect” cucumbers are placed on a separate conveyer belt headed towards a large dump truck.

Cucumbers are rejected for several reasons:

A. They are too curvy for efficient packaging.
B. They have a small white spot at one end, usually only one square inch in size. This is caused by the tip being buried and missing out on photosynthesis. 97% of the cuke is green and edible, but grocery stores still won’t take them.
C. They have small cracks that keep them from the market. Rod notes that, while cucumbers do have a short shelf life, the cracks don’t affect taste or ripeness.

Farmers need shoppers to buy the cucumbers they’re selling, and the market demands aesthetically pleasing produce. Looking at the truck of rejected produce, Rod told us that, “90% of the cucumbers in that dump truck taste perfectly fine and have the same nutrition. They just don’t look good enough to be sold.”

The rejected cucumbers are driven back into the fields and deposited on the ground to become fertilizer. Mr. Parker estimates that, “we dump thousands upon thousands of them every time we sort.” From our experience, it seems that many farmers would like to donate unsellable food to pantries, but they are already strapped for time and resources and don’t have the capacity to take on that additional burden.

There is sometimes a tax break for donated farm produce, but most often they are capped at 10% of market value. Given the difficulty of trucking produce to yet another destination, it’s not enough of an incentive. So the produce goes to waste. But this summer, we’ll be rescuing at least some of it so we can bring it to the people who need it most.