If
you've been waiting on the edge of your seat to hear what happened in the
budget, see the “Updates” section for details on
the
first major victory of this legislative session: five months of transitional
food stamp benefits for families leaving cash assistance!
Some
of you may want a break from politics crazy California.
See below for this week’s action on federal nutrition policies.
(With Congress on break, our nation’s capitol is a relatively sane
place to do business.)
Background
The
US Department of Agriculture’s own research continues to show that
increasing paperwork hassles for needy schoolchildren pushes many eligible
children out of the free and reduced-price school meal programs.
Yet, when Congress returns from recess after Labor Day, it is expected
to take action on proposals to increase verification as part of the
reauthorization of the child nutrition programs.
At
the same time, some positive child nutrition reauthorization proposals have
been getting some attention in recent weeks.
Congress has shown considerable interest in removing the reduced-price
category for school meals and serving all kids under 185% of the federal
poverty line for free. Senator
Elizabeth Dole has introduced legislation, S 1591, and
California’s own Lynn Woolsey has also pushed the issue.
CFPA has been pushing this issue for some time, and it was identified
as a California priority
for reauthorization. In
addition, several bills have been introduced to increase fruits and vegetables
in schools, encourage schools to adopt healthy school food policies, and
strengthen USDA’s control over the sale of non-nutritious foods.
For example, Representative Putnam’s bill, HR 2592 (which is
co-sponsored by California Reps. Baca, Cardoza, Filner, Nunes, Pombo, and
Radanovich) would provide grants to schools to increase consumption of fruits
and vegetables, expand the Fruit & Vegetable Pilot Program and report on
how well school lunch commodities align with the Dietary Guidelines for
Americans.
While
CFPA strongly supports these improvements to child nutrition programs, we are
greatly concerned that they are going to be funded through so-called
“savings” from increasing the paperwork hassles described above.
The key reauthorization committees, the Senate Agriculture and the
House Education and the Workforce committees, have not been given the
resources to make any improvements. In order to fund positive change, they
will feel pressure to make cuts or use the so-called savings from reduced
participation. While removing the
reduced-price category and improving the nutrition provided in school meals
are priorities for us, our number-one priority is “Do no harm!”
Action
California’s
congressional delegation needs to hear from you.
Tell them not to increase paperwork and verification hassles for
children seeking free and reduced-price meals at school.
Tell them that in reauthorizing the child nutrition programs, they must
first do no harm. Children
currently eligible should not be dropped from the program through cuts or
increased hassles. Urge them to
find other resources to make the positive changes you want to see in the child
nutrition programs.
Take
advantage of the recess to contact the local district offices of Senator
Boxer , Senator
Feinstein and your
Congress person.
For
further background, check out past alerts
or visits FRAC’s
overcertification web page.
Updates
Governor
Signs State Budget -- With
Transitional Food Stamp Benefits for Families Leaving CalWORKs
Anti-hunger
advocates won our first major victory of this legislative session: in signing
the budget on August 2nd, the Governor maintained funding for a new policy of
providing five months of transitional food stamp benefits to families leaving
cash assistance. Transitional
benefits are a win-win-win policy for the state of California: they'll help
families put food on the table during their transition from welfare to work,
they help to position food stamps as a work support instead of a welfare
program, and over 10 years, California will draw down an additional $800
million in federal food stamp benefits that will be spent at grocery stores
and farmers markets all over the state.
California's
implementation of transitional benefits is a double victory, since this new
state option was one of the major accomplishments of last year's Food Stamp
Reauthorization. It's also a step
in the right direction toward increasing food stamp participation, since
eligible families who receive transitional benefits may be more likely to
continue getting food stamps after the transitional period.
Please
join us in celebrating the result of two+ years of hard work by advocates all
over California to secure this important improvement in the Food Stamp Program
-- and accept our thanks for your persistent advocacy to achieve these goals!
In
addition to the transitional benefits victory, advocates also avoided
line-item vetos of a number of key programs and benefits that help low-income
families and individuals. The Governor maintained funding for:
·
Brown
Bag Program for seniors. This
cost-effective program leverages donated food and volunteer assistance to
provide a return of $35 for every state dollar spent.
In 1999-2000, Brown Bag programs throughout the state distributed 16
million pounds of food to help maintain the health and dignity of over 41,000
senior citizens.
·
Other
senior nutrition programs, including home-delivered meals for homebound
seniors.
Home-delivered meals are another important strategy for helping seniors
maintain their health and dignity—as well as their independence from costly
long-term care facilities.
·
The
June 2003 cost-of-living adjustment for CalWORKs and SSI/SSP.
These
modest but critical cash assistance grants help low-income families, seniors,
and people with disabilities stay in their homes and put food on the table.
For
a more detailed analysis of the final budget, please check out this summary
from the Western Center on Law and Poverty.
While
we were disappointed that the Governor didn't veto funding for the Statewide
Fingerprint Imaging System, there is still an opportunity to get rid of this
costly and ineffective system through AB 231.
A modified version of AB 231 -- one that would end finger imaging,
encourage counties to use alternatives to the face-to-face interview, and
allow food stamp recipients to own a reliable car -- will be voted on in
Senate Appropriations around August 27th.
It will then move to the Senate floor as early as August 29th.
There's still hope for these remaining provisions; we will continue to
keep you posted with updates and actions on AB 231.
Last
month, we reported on a federal initiative to make the valuable and
successful Earned Income Tax Credit more difficult for low-income workers to
obtain. The IRS was proposing to
“pre-certify” some low-income filers seeking the EITC.
Despite the fact that other taxpayers do not face similar burdens for
other tax credits and that the process would undoubtedly make it harder for
eligible families to receive the EITC, the IRS appeared intent on moving
forward.
Thanks
to a strong response to these proposals from advocates from all over the
country, IRS was persuaded to make a number of significant changes to its
“pre-certification” plan. Most notably, IRS will delay mailing
of its “certification notice and form” until December, which means that
filers will no longer have to provide these documents prior to the tax filing
season. Instead, they can submit the documents along with their tax
return. The IRS also substantially reduced the number of EITC filers who
would be affected this year, from 45,000 to 25,000.
For
more information on this decision, read IRS’ press
announcement or this analysis
from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
This
article
from the California Journal presents an in-depth analysis of how the
two-thirds vote, re-districting, and term limits have coalesced to create
California’s current budgetary and political climate.
USDA’s
Economic Research Service released a report entitled “How are Eating
Patterns of Children Disrupted When Families Lack Food.” Read this brief
to find out how the diets and eating patterns of American children are
disrupted when their families cannot always afford to get food on the table.
The
Los Angeles Unified School District’s Nutrition Network is getting students
to eat healthier foods at school and at home through their federally-funded
Harvest of the Month program, which distributes 6,000-8,000 crates of fresh
fruit and vegetables to 236 schools monthly.
Read this Los
Angeles Times article for more information.
Join
Assembly Member Gene Mullin at the San Mateo County Children’s Forum to hear
about issues affecting children in San Mateo County and throughout California.
The Forum will also have space for exhibitors to showcase their
activities for conference attendees free of charge.
This event will take place on September 26, 2003, from 8:45 a.m. to
4:00 p.m., at the South San Francisco Conference Center, located at 255 South
Airport Boulevard, in the City of South San Francisco.
If interested in having an exhibit, attending the luncheon, or wishing
to RSVP, please contact Ms. Jessica Stanfill at (650) 341-4319 or register
on-line.
If
you have questions about this alert or if you wish to sign up for future
issues, please contact Sonia Panigrahy at (415) 777.4422 ext.115 or sonia@cfpa.net.