Executive Director

The school lunch program is an increasingly important source of nutrition for low income children.   In 2007-2008, 32,000 District children received free or reduced lunches each day and 16,000 received breakfast.  Thanks to recent legislation, the federal government will fund evening meals for low-income children as well.  The demand on these programs has likely increased with the recession.

Despite the high rate of participation in free and reduced lunch programs, hunger remains a problem in the District.  Nineteen percent of the District’s population participates in the Food Stamp program, yet a recent study found that one-in-four families with children had trouble securing adequate nutrition.

When it snows and schools are closed, this important source of food is cut off.  What happens to the children and their families who are already at risk from hunger when a week goes by and the breakfasts and lunches that they rely on are not available?

Despite all the criticism that the school lunch program receives – poor nutritional quality, inadequate funding, over-use of processed foods – it is an essential tool to make certain that children are fed.  But the storms last week show that there needs to be a strategy to ensure that there is more food in the home as well.

The District Council has already mandated that the Food Stamp program be expanded to serve people whose incomes are at or below 200% of poverty (up from 133%), but the Department of Human Services is dragging its heels.  An increase to the embarrassing low TANF payment would also assist families to have greater nutritional security.  Currently, a family that receives both TANF and Food Stamps survives at just 50% of the federal poverty level.

Executive Director

Nearly one in five families had at least one period in 2009 in which they did not have enough money to buy adequate food.   The Food Resource Action Center released an alarming report on hunger in the United States on January 26, 2010.   The report is based on surveys conducted in every State and Congressional district of nearly 650,000 people.   The findings include:  

• 18.5% of households answered yes to the “Have there been times in the past twelve months when you did not have enough money to buy food that you or your family needed?”   Those answering yes are considered “food insecure” or experience “food hardship.”
• The rate of food insecurity shot up to 24.1% if there were children in the household.   This means that one in four children is at risk for not getting enough to eat despite school lunch and food stamps.
• If the District were treated as a State, it would be ranked 15, with 20.8% of families not having adequate money to reliably secure nutrition.   Only 11 metropolitan areas are worse off than the District in this regard.
• If just households with children are considered, the District is the worst in the nation.  More than four in ten District households with children experience food hardship.  Mississippi is the next closest at 33%. 

As we have previously written in this blog, DC has the tools to begin to tackle this problem.   The District is authorized to expand food stamp eligibility to 200% of poverty and to provide evening meals through the school lunch program.  

Further information is availalbe in a terrific commentary on the FRAC report and the effects on DC families.

Staff Attorney

 With Council about to undertake planning for the FY 2011 Budget Year, the Legal Aid Society and other members of the Fair Budget Coalition will be the voice for DC’s most vulnerable residents. This year, Fair Budget advocates will be encouraging Council members to consider the needs of our client community as we trudge through another year of budget cuts and decreased services that have pushed an already struggling population further into economic despair.

The issue briefings are scheduled to begin this week and present an opportunity for advocates to have a conversation with council staff about the current crisis facing poor District residents in areas such as housing, health care and income support programs. Fortunately, Legal Aid, along with several other members of the Fair Budget Coalition, have created solutions to help the city resolve some of the economic challenges it faces. These solutions include changes to the welfare to work program’s job training component that would make it possible for those living on welfare to obtain employment that pays a livable wage. Hopefully, Fair Budget’s advocacy at the issue briefings and committee hearings will have a positive impact on the shaping of the FY 2011 budget for the sake of low-income individuals and families that live and work in the District.

The schedule for the issue briefings is as follows: 

• January 22 – Hunger & Nutrition
• January 29 – Tax and Revenue
• Feb. 5 – Workforce Development and Income Support
• Feb 12 – Youth and Families
• Feb. 19 – Housing
• Feb. 26 – Health

Briefings are tentatively scheduled to be held in Rooms 103 or 104 of the Wilson Building -1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW. All interested parties must send an RSVP to Kristi Matthews  and indicate which sessions you wish to attend.

Executive Director

 Hunger:   On December 12, the Washington Post ran a story on hunger and children and the failure of nutrition programs to resolve the problem.  The article looks at the interplay between Food Stamps and other benefits programs, the need to increase Food Stamp benefits and raise the eligibility to cover more working families. 

Victory in Maryland for Benefits Applicants:  Congratulations to our friends at the Public Justice Center for their victory in litigation to speed up the processing of Food Stamp and Medicaid applications in Maryland.    As part of recession driven austerity, the State cut benefits workers at the same time that applications were soaring.   The result was long delays in the grant of benefits which denied families access to necessary medical care and nutrition.   On December 10, a permanent injunction was entered requiring that applications be processed within 30 days.

An Economic Recovery Plan for People in Poverty:   The Institute for Policy Studies gathered 11 progressive public policy experts to develop a jobs and relief plan in response to the recession.   In Battered by the Storm: How the Safety Net Is Failing Americans and How to Fix It, they recommend a $407 billion plan to create jobs that pay a living wage and fixes to the worst tears in the safety net.    This is a recovery plan that focuses on those who have been hardest hit by the recession, rather than Wall Street.

 Changes at the Legal Services Corporation:  Funding and Restrictions:  Despite the hard work of many and a great deal of optimism, the budget for LSC is only a small improvement over past years.  (Note:  Legal Aid is not a grantee of the Legal Services Corporation, although we support additional funding for other programs who serve our clients.)  The appropriation was increased by $30 million to $420 million.   .  While this is an important increase, it is still far from what is needed and leaves LSC behind the funding levels it had in the early 1990’s.  More troubling, Congress failed to remove most of the restrictions that impede the ability of programs to provide the full spectrum of services that clients require.   Helaine Barnett Resigns:  LSC President Helaine Barnett has announced that she will step down in January.   She has served in this role for the last six years, longer than any other person.   During her tenure, she was able to increase the LSC budget by more than $90 million and raised the profile of the crisis in civil justice through the Justice Gap report.