Food Programs

At a time when the demand for emergency food assistance is rising sharply, the Maryland Department of Human Resources is eliminating funding for two nutrition programs that help feed the poor.The state's budget cuts, which total $235,000, will make it harder for Maryland's non-profit food banks to meet the increasing demand for emergency food aid, Linda Eisenberg, executive director of the Maryland Food Committee, said yesterday.The cuts also will threaten a badly needed food assistance program for migrant farm workers on the Eastern Shore, she said.

The number of residents receiving food stamps in Howard County has increased by nearly 30 percent in the past year, one of several indications that people are struggling in one of the wealthiest counties in the nation, according to a report commissioned by two local organizations. The number of students requiring free school lunches has risen 20 percent, while the number of food bank grants has risen 27.4 percent since last year, according to a study by the Policy Analysis Center, a partnership between the Association of Community Services and the Horizon Foundation.

WASHINGTON -- The Democratic-led House is trying to seize the Republican "family values" theme by approving new federal spending on child welfare and food programs and imposing a 10 percent surtax on millionaires to pay for them.Opponents charged that the measure, adopted on a 256-163 roll-call vote yesterday with relatively few Republican votes, was an election-year ploy that would be vetoed by President Bush if it were passed by Congress. The legislation faces an uncertain fate in the Senate.

When the loaded school bus arrives in a Jessup parking lot each month, 40 Clarksville Middle School sixth-graders tumble out in a tangle of chatty anticipation and field trip-fueled glee. But instead of visiting a museum or historical site, the 11-year-olds are making a pilgrimage to Morningside Park Apartments, where they deliver bags of food and toiletries to residents who depend on the donations to make ends meet. Later, on those same days, fifth-graders from Pointers Run Elementary play out the same scene with a different set of residents.

Block grants can be effective ways to distribute federal aid to states and cities, but for food and nutrition programs they would be a good idea gone bad. The proposed Personal Responsibility Act, part of the Contract with America, would combine all federal food assistance programs into one block grant to states, eliminating all uniform national standards for these programs and giving states broad discretion in designing programs. It would also require the U.S. Department of Agriculture to stop donating commodities to these programs and force states to pay for them.

WASHINGTON -- Advocates called for up to $15 billion in new government food programs after the release yesterday of a new two-year study showing that one in four American children suffers from hunger or is in danger of hunger.About 5.5 million children under age 12 are hungry and 6 million others are at risk, and hungry children are more likely to suffer health problems and miss school, said the Food Research and Action Center, a Washington-based nutrition advocacy group that conducted the study.

WASHINGTON -- The Clinton administration denounced a major element yesterday of the House Republicans' welfare bill, which would replace most federal food and nutrition programs with cash grants to be administered by the states.The administration said the Republican proposal would cut at least $5.2 billion -- almost 13 percent -- from the $40.8 billion that would otherwise be spent on food assistance next year.In a report analyzing the bill, the Agriculture Department said yesterday that the Republican proposal also would eliminate "all uniform nutrition standards" now set by the federal government for school lunches, the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, and other food programs.

WASHINGTON -- The Republican team taking over the House of Representatives in January will propose a welfare bill that eliminates a decades-old guiding principle of poverty and food programs: that anyone who qualifies for these benefits automatically gets them.Under the proposal drafted by House Republicans for submission in January, Congress would set an overall annual limit on welfare spending and replace food stamps and child-nutrition programs with a lump sum payment to each state.The Republicans would consolidate 10 nutrition programs into a "food assistance block grant," cut the available money by 5 percent and then set a limit on spending.

Just as the corporate and government landscapes don't resemble what they looked like a few years back, the effort to stem hunger in this country is a markedly changed operation, too.In 1980, less than 50 soup kitchens and pantries dotted Maryland. Today, there are nearly 600. Food collection drives, once confined to Thanksgiving week, are now held by churches and synagogues year-round. Area soup kitchens and food pantries, once temporary set-ups, now stay open most of the week to satisfy mounting demand.

Congressional Democrats are concluding their first year in the majority by taking a shellacking in showdowns with President Bush. A months-long budget battle ended this week with the Democrats caving in to Mr. Bush's demand that no strings be tied to Iraq war funding and that domestic spending remain essentially flat. The score in a separate high-profile dispute over expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program stands at Bush 2 (vetoes), Congress 0 (legislation signed into law.)

All six children left in Laverne Randall's care receive a nightly buffet. By the time she picks the kids up from a summer program, they have already eaten. When Randall arrives at her home a block away, she has another hot meal ready on the stove. "I cook every day. They eat [at the center], then they go to my house and eat," said Randall, who watches the kids during the evening before their parents pick them up. But not all of the other 35 elementary school-age children who take part in the Pimlico Road Summer Youth Program are as fortunate.

When it comes to helping people weather the effects of a recession, few things are as effective as food stamps. The benefits go to those most desperately in need, and because they must be spent on essential goods, they serve as an immediate boost to the local economy. But it only works if the benefits get in the hands of the right people. That's why it's troubling to see Maryland lagging behind other states when it comes to enrolling eligible families for the benefits and processing the applications of those who seek food stamps.

Congressional Democrats are concluding their first year in the majority by taking a shellacking in showdowns with President Bush. A months-long budget battle ended this week with the Democrats caving in to Mr. Bush's demand that no strings be tied to Iraq war funding and that domestic spending remain essentially flat. The score in a separate high-profile dispute over expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program stands at Bush 2 (vetoes), Congress 0 (legislation signed into law.)

For a senior residence, Morningside Park Apartments was bustling with activity. Children and their parents filled the usually quiet hallways Monday afternoon, some pushing grocery carts full of food, others delivering overstuffed supermarket bags door to door. Once a month, students from Pointers Run Elementary School collect, sort and deliver food to the financially hard-pressed seniors at this Jessup building. Julie Rosenthal, a board member of the Coalition of Geriatric Services in Howard County, coordinates the monthly program, Food on the 15th.

There is something to be said for fast food: It is quick, convenient and - especially - cheap. We all know that it's bad for us, but when a bacon double-cheeseburger costs less than a head of lettuce, it might be hard to refuse. Fruits and vegetables are one of the keys to good health. Barbara Rolls invented the sensible Volumetrics diet, which encourages people to eat large quantities of low-energy-dense foods rather than small portions of energy-dense foods. This plan makes sense: You feel full, lose weight and end up eating a lot more fresh produce.

Internal U.N. audits of the so-called oil-for-food program in Iraq criticize the office led by a former top aide to Secretary-General Kofi Annan for failing to adequately supervise and audit the companies hired to inspect the oil moving out of Iraq and goods going in under the multibillion-dollar program. An early sampling of 10 reports obtained by The New York Times yesterday chide the United Nations' Office for Iraq Program for permitting the program's major contractors to overcharge the United Nations and understaff posts at ports and borders where oil and goods were supposed to be monitored.

Washington. -- I remember with pride the day in 1968 when the conservative Reader's Digest commissioned me to write an article about the hunger that was then so widespread in the United States.I became appalled to learn how many children were being born in America with mental retardation, stunted bodies or organs damaged because of nutritional deprivation starting in the wombs of their ill-fed mothers. I was shocked by Sen. Ernest F. Hollings' admission of the number of children -- even old people -- in South Carolina who suffered from rickets, scurvy and other ailments because they never got enough food, let alone the right kind.

In the rush to overturn the welfare state, it's not at all clear that the changes ahead will be ones the states can live with easily.Exhibit A: the food and nutrition programs that have reduced hunger and malnutrition dramatically in this country. One suggestion has been to lump these programs together in block grants with welfare programs that are far less popular and effective -- not a good idea for anyone interested in sustaining the progress this country has made against hunger.Another idea is to do away altogether with the entitlements associated with the welfare state.

U.S. government isn't decreasing food aid budget The Sun's thoughtful article on U.S. efforts to supply food to the needy in Afghanistan, Sudan and other countries in crisis raises awareness of this important task carried out by U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) and other U.S. agencies. But it might have failed to fully explain just how significant and complex our contribution to fighting hunger is ("U.S. is slashing world food aid contributions," Dec. 19). In 2004, we have provided more than $2.1 billion in food aid - a figure that included $945 million in food and money provided through the U.N. World Food Program, or half of all emergency food aid to the WFP. What the article characterized as the cancellation or delay of food orders is really temporary deferrals in some start-up development programs that we have imposed to meet the more pressing needs of food emergencies.