The Center on Budget Policy Priorities released a report "The Impact of Sequestration on WIC". This report highlight that some 600,000 to 775,00 low-income women and children who are eligible for WIC — the highly effective nutrition program that serves roughly 9 million low- income women and children — will be turned away by the end of the fiscal year if the budget cuts known as “sequestration” take effect as scheduled on March 1.
Click here to read more.
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Study Shows Home Delivered Meals Helps Seniors Stay in Their Homes
A new study released by Brown University shows states that spent more than the average to deliver meals showed greater reductions in the proportion of nursing home residents who did not need to be there.
"For every additional $25 a state spends on home-delivered meals each year per person over 65, the low-care nursing home population decreases by a percentage point, the researchers calculated — a great return on investment."Click here to read the full article.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
AASA Highlights Alternative School Breakfast in Recent Publication
The American Association of School Administrators (AASA) has released the Winter 2013 edition of School Governance and Leadership which focuses on enhancing and expanding alternative school breakfast. This publication highlights
the successes and challenges of the four urban school districts AASA
worked with to implement their school breakfast programs outside of the cafeteria. In this issue, two New York State school districts-- Brentwood Union Free School District and Syracuse City School District-- are featured for success in implementing alternative breakfast and their continued innovative approaches to promote and expand school breakfast.
Click here to read more.
Click here to read more.
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
USDA Announces Request for Applications for FY 2014 Farm to School Grants
USDA has announced
the release of a request for applications (RFA) for the latest round of USDA’s
Farm to School grants. These grants help eligible schools improve the
health and well-being of their students and connect with local agricultural
producers.
This year, three different kinds of grants will be available.
Planning grants are intended for schools just getting started on farm to school
activities, while implementation grants are available for schools seeking to
augment or expand existing efforts. Additionally, eligible non-profit entities,
Indian tribal organizations, state and local agencies, and agriculture
producers or groups of producers may apply for support service grants in order
to conduct trainings, create complementary curriculum, or further develop
supply chains, among other activities.
Proposals are due at midnight EST, April
24, 2013. Click here for more information.
Monday, February 11, 2013
SNAP Benefits Will Be Cut for All Participants in November 2013
From the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
The 2009 Recovery Act’s temporary boost to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits is scheduled to end on November 1, 2013, resulting in a benefit cut for every SNAP household. For families of three, the cut likely will be $20 to $25 a month — $240 to $300 a year. That’s a serious loss, especially in light of the very low amount of basic SNAP benefits. Without the Recovery Act’s boost, SNAP benefits average only about $1.30 per person per meal.
These cuts will likely cause hardship for some SNAP participants, who include 22 million children (10 million of whom live in “deep poverty,” with family incomes below half of the poverty line) and 9 million people who are elderly or have a serious disability. Cutting these households’ benefits will reduce their ability to purchase food. This cut will be the equivalent of taking away 14 meals per month for a family of four, or 11 meals for a family of three, based on calculations using the $1.70 to $2 per meal provided for in the Food Plan. USDA research has found that the Recovery Act’s benefit boost cut the number of households in which one or more persons had to skip meals or otherwise eat less because they lacked money — what USDA calls “very low food security” — by about 500,000 households in 2009.[10]
The upcoming cuts to SNAP benefits will be significant and will have far reaching impacts on low-income individuals and families. They will likely increase hardship for the 47 million Americans who rely upon SNAP to meet their basic nutritional needs. If Congress does not act soon to mitigate the cuts, states will need to begin planning for the reduction to ensure that clients and the many organizations and SNAP stakeholders who work with them are aware of the upcoming change and its effects.
To read the full policy brief...
February 8, 2013
The 2009 Recovery Act’s temporary boost to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits is scheduled to end on November 1, 2013, resulting in a benefit cut for every SNAP household. For families of three, the cut likely will be $20 to $25 a month — $240 to $300 a year. That’s a serious loss, especially in light of the very low amount of basic SNAP benefits. Without the Recovery Act’s boost, SNAP benefits average only about $1.30 per person per meal.
These cuts will likely cause hardship for some SNAP participants, who include 22 million children (10 million of whom live in “deep poverty,” with family incomes below half of the poverty line) and 9 million people who are elderly or have a serious disability. Cutting these households’ benefits will reduce their ability to purchase food. This cut will be the equivalent of taking away 14 meals per month for a family of four, or 11 meals for a family of three, based on calculations using the $1.70 to $2 per meal provided for in the Food Plan. USDA research has found that the Recovery Act’s benefit boost cut the number of households in which one or more persons had to skip meals or otherwise eat less because they lacked money — what USDA calls “very low food security” — by about 500,000 households in 2009.[10]
The upcoming cuts to SNAP benefits will be significant and will have far reaching impacts on low-income individuals and families. They will likely increase hardship for the 47 million Americans who rely upon SNAP to meet their basic nutritional needs. If Congress does not act soon to mitigate the cuts, states will need to begin planning for the reduction to ensure that clients and the many organizations and SNAP stakeholders who work with them are aware of the upcoming change and its effects.
To read the full policy brief...
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Hot and Prepared Food Waiver Extended Until February 28 for all of NYC, Nassau and Suffolk Counties
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has extended, until February 28, the ability of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)/food
stamp recipients
to use their benefits to purchase hot and prepared foods from
participating vendors.
Sometimes, when storm victims relocate, are living in shelters, have kitchen damage or are without power, it can be difficult to prepare meals. For these reasons, USDA permits this waiver to enable SNAP recipients to access hot, nutritious meals at vendors that already accept EBT cards (typically grocery stores and bodegas).
Click here to download an updated hot and prepared foods outreach flyer.
Sometimes, when storm victims relocate, are living in shelters, have kitchen damage or are without power, it can be difficult to prepare meals. For these reasons, USDA permits this waiver to enable SNAP recipients to access hot, nutritious meals at vendors that already accept EBT cards (typically grocery stores and bodegas).
The previous extension which also included Rockland,Westchester,
Orange, Putnam, and Sullivan Counties ended on January 31, 2013.
Click here to download an updated hot and prepared foods outreach flyer.
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