DLC | Press Release | February 24, 2010

UPDATE: Obama Administration Embraces DLC Idea of Targeted Anti-Hunger Grants to States
Key Strategy in Plan to End U.S. Child Hunger by 2015

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration’s just-announced strategy to meet the President’s goal of ending child hunger by 2015 included an idea, first proposed by Joel Berg and Tom Freedman in a DLC paper, to create a USDA grant program to reward states for innovative anti-hunger strategies.

In a speech at the National Press Club, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, a former DLC Chair, announced a new competition to help eliminate child hunger by 2015, saying: “We’ll provide competitive grants to Governors, working with stakeholders statewide, so that states can act as laboratories for successful strategies.”

In a 2006 policy paper for the DLC, Berg (the executive director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger and author of the book “All You Can Eat: How Hungry is America?”) and Freedman (President of the strategic consulting firm Freedman Consulting and a former senior advisor to President Clinton), proposed both that the next President set a five year goal for ending child hunger in America and that one tool of accomplishing goal would be creating a grant program to fund innovative state hunger-reduction strategies. Freedman and Berg reinforced those themes in a DLC memo to President-elect Obama in January of 2009.

In a subsequent DLC paper, Freedman and Share our Strength Founder Bill Shore further elaborated on how the federal and states governments could forge partnerships to end child hunger.

“By combining federal-level resources and accountability with state-level innovation and implementation, the administration’s new hunger proposal is perfectly in-line with the DLC’s agenda of responsibility and reform,” said DLC CEO Bruce Reed. “We are honored that Secretary Vilsack, a former DLC leader, is moving from theory to reality an idea similar to the one we proposed.”

While the nation’s bedrock anti-hunger programs (such the SNAP Program, formerly known as the Food Stamp Program, school meals, and WIC) are funded mostly by the federal governments, states have a great deal of flexibility in implementing them. “This is a smart step — leveraging federal programs and state innovation to reduce child hunger,” said Freedman, “this is a sensible approach by Secretary Vilsack to help our nation’s neediest kids.”

Said Berg, “The Obama administration is putting its money where it mouth is, funding new ideas to achieve its historic goal of ending child hunger in America. Too often, Washington decides how much money to hand to states based on how well they fill-out paperwork. By creating a new program based on how well states ensure proper nutrition for children, President Obama and Secretary Vilsack are taking a giant leap forward in both good government and good hunger fighting.”

For more information, or to speak with Bruce Reed, Tom Freedman, or Joel Berg, please contact Conor McKay at cmckay@dlc.org or (202) 608-1232.

The Democratic Leadership Council seeks to promote debate within the Democratic Party and the public at large about national and international policy and political issues. For additional information, web users may access the Democratic Leadership Council online at www.dlc.org.

From The Progressive Fix, PPI’s blog:

Tens of millions of Americans need more nutritious, more affordable food. Tens of millions need better jobs. Just as the Obama administration and Congress have supported a “green jobs” initiative to simultaneously fight unemployment and protect the environment, they should launch a “Good Food, Good Jobs” initiative. Given that large numbers of food jobs could be created rapidly and with relatively limited capital investments, their creation should become a consideration in any jobs bill that Congress and the president enact.

Our hunger, malnutrition, obesity, and poverty problems are closely linked. Low-income areas across America that lack access to nutritious foods at affordable prices — the so-called “food deserts” — tend to be the same communities and neighborhoods that, even in better economic times, are also “job deserts” that lack sufficient living-wage employment. A concurrent problem has been the growing concentration of our food supply in a handful of food companies that are now “too big to fail.” A Good Food, Good Jobs program can address these intertwined economic and social problems.

In partnership with state, local, and tribal governments, nonprofit organizations, and the private sector, the federal initiative would bolster employment, foster economic growth, fight hunger, cut obesity, improve nutrition, and reduce spending on diet-related health problems. By doing so, not only could government help solve a number of very tangible problems, but it could fuse the growing public interest in food issues with the ongoing efforts, usually underfunded and underreported, to fight poverty at the grassroots level.

A Good Food, Good Jobs program could provide the first serious national test of the effectiveness of such efforts in boosting the economy and improving public health. The new initiative should:

• Provide more and better-targeted seed money to food jobs projects. The federal government should expand and more carefully target its existing grants and loans to start new and expand existing community food projects: city and rooftop gardens; urban farms; food co-ops; farm stands; community-supported agriculture (CSA) projects; farmers’ markets; community kitchens; and projects that hire unemployed youth to grow, market, sell, and deliver nutritious foods while teaching them entrepreneurial skills.
• Bolster food processing. Since there is far more profit in processing food than in simply growing it (and since farming is only a seasonal occupation), the initiative should focus on supporting food businesses that add value year-round, such as neighborhood food processing/freezing/canning plants; businesses that turn raw produce into ready-to-eat salads, salad dressings, sandwiches, and other products; healthy vending-machine companies; and affordable and nutritious restaurants and catering businesses.
• Expand community-based technical assistance. Federal, state, and local governments should dramatically expand technical assistance to such efforts and support them by buying their products for school meals and other government nutrition assistance programs, as well as for jails, military facilities, hospitals, and concession stands in public parks, among other venues. Additionally, the AmeriCorps program — significantly increased recently by the bipartisan passage of the Edward Kennedy Serve America Act — should provide large numbers of national-service participants to implement nonprofit food jobs efforts.
• Develop a better way of measuring success. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) should develop a “food access index,” a new measure that would take into account both the physical availability and economic affordability of nutritious foods, and use this measure as another tool to judge the success of food projects. All such efforts should be subject to strict performance-based outcome measures, and programs should not be expanded or re-funded unless they can prove their worth.
• Invest in urban fish farming. Given that fish is the category of food most likely to be imported, and given growing environmental concerns over both wild and farm-raised fish, the initiative should provide significant investment into the research and development of environmentally sustainable, urban, fish-production facilities.
• Implement a focused research agenda. The government should enact a focused research agenda to answer the following questions: Can community food enterprises that pay their workers sufficient wages also make products that are affordable? Can these projects become economically self-sufficient over the long run, particularly if they are ramped up to benefit from economies of scale? Could increased government revenues due to economic growth and decreased spending on health care and social services offset long-term subsidies? How would the cost and benefits of government spending on community food security compare to the cost and benefits of the up to $20 billion that the U.S. government now spends on traditional farm programs, much of which goes to large agribusinesses?

For a community to have good nutrition, three conditions are necessary: food must be affordable; food must be available; and individuals and families must have enough education to know how to eat better. This comprehensive proposal accomplishes those objectives. Moreover, in the best-case scenario, it could create large numbers of living-wage jobs in self-sustaining businesses even as it addresses our food, health, and nutrition problems. But even in a worst-case scenario, the plan would create short-term subsidized jobs that would provide an economic stimulus, and at least give low-income consumers the choice to obtain more nutritious foods — a choice so often denied to them.

Download the full report.

Turning Food Deserts Into Jobs Oases, by Joel Berg

This holiday season we note the sobering reality that more than 49 million Americans live in households that can’t afford enough food. Locally, according to a new study by the organization that I manage, New York City Coalition Against Hunger, there was a 21% jump this year in people forced to use food pantries and soup kitchens.   Soaring unemployment and underemployment are exacerbating the problem.

Even worse, many New Yorkers also live in “food deserts” - neighborhoods in which, even if they could afford them, the healthiest foods are scarce or non-existent. These areas also tend to lack living-wage jobs.

For instance, in the 16th Congressional District in the South Bronx, from 2005 through 2007, the official unemployment rate was 13.9 percent, and 35 percent of able-bodied adults remained outside of the workforce. Bronx Community Board District One had a poverty rate of 45 percent - and did not contain a single supermarket of 2,500 square feet or more. Yet convenience stores, bodegas, and fast food restaurants were plentiful. In the 10451 zip code there were three McDonald’s. It’s no wonder that hunger and obesity are flip sides of the same malnutrition coin.

To tackle our interconnected food, nutrition, and poverty crises, the federal government should launch a “Good Food, Good Jobs” initiative.

Modeled after the “green jobs” concept, “Good Food, Good Jobs” would create jobs through projects and businesses that bring healthier food to low-income areas. Food and job deserts could become new oases of economic recovery and healthy living. I detail my proposal in a new paper published today by the Progressive Policy Institute:

This effort should build upon the burgeoning community food security movement, which is strengthening regional food connections with projects that are effective, but are currently too far small-scale to feed the masses. My home borough of Brooklyn, New York is a hotbed of such activism, with numerous food-related businesses and projects - ranging from fish farm experiments in a basement of Brooklyn College to a company trying to entice landowners to allow others to garden on their land in exchange for a cut of the produce grown and cash collected.

Citywide in New York, the Speaker of the City Council, Christine Quinn, has just launched a visionary Food Works plan to help further build upon such efforts (click here).

The federal initiative I am proposing should begin by increasing funding for food systems projects of proven effectiveness, such as community and rooftop gardens, urban farms, food co-ops, farm stands, community supported agriculture (CSA) projects, and farmers’ markets. Other important policies should include: expanding community kitchens that combine rescuing excess food with training people food-service jobs; helping new supermarkets locate in low-income areas and existing supermarkets thrive; and hiring unemployed youth to grow, market, sell, and deliver nutritious foods, while teaching them entrepreneurship skills.

The initiative should also take bold new steps. It should provide wage and even commuting subsidies to help current U.S. residents find living-wage work at regional and local farms, reducing the impetus for growers to exploit immigrant farm laborers. Since there is far more profit in processing food than in growing it, the initiative should focus on supporting food businesses that add value year-round, such as neighborhood food processing plants; businesses that turn produce into ready-to-eat salads and sandwiches; healthy vending-machine companies; and affordable and nutritious restaurants and caterers.

In contrast to making inconvenience a virtue in food preparation, this initiative should help working families by creating new types of ready-to-eat or easy-to-prepare foods that are nutritious, sustainable, and convenient. It should also support the construction and maintenance of community exercise and nutrition education centers, which would provide free or low-cost services to low-income community members, and subsidize those activities by charging more for higher-income families. And given the growing concerns over the world’s fisheries, it should also provide a significant investment into the research and development of environmentally sustainable urban fish-production facilities.

The Obama Administration should forge a partnership with state, local, and tribal governments, nonprofits, and the private sector to scale up such projects. Just as the federal recovery bill invested in the idea of “green jobs,” a new “food jobs” agenda could spur not just economic stimulus but fight hunger, cut obesity, improve nutrition, and help reduce health costs.

The President, the First Lady, and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack have pledged to end U.S. child hunger by 2015 while also tackling obesity. Those objectives, combined with the need to jump start the still sluggish jobs market, make a “Good Food, Good Jobs” initiative a promising idea. In the best-case scenario, it could create large numbers of living-wage jobs in self-sustaining businesses even as it addresses our food, health, and nutrition problems. But even in the worst case, it would create short-term subsidized jobs that would provide an economic stimulus, and at least give low-income consumers the choice to obtain more nutritious foods - a choice so often denied to them.

…

I have read All You Can Eat and in my view it is one of the most important and insightful books on poverty and hunger in America since Michael Harrington’s landmark work, The Other America, which was published in 1962 and often credited with helping to provide part of the intellectual underpinnings for Medicaid, Medicare, and expanded federal nutrition programs. Joel Berg’s book reviews the recent history of hunger in America–with several important passages dealing with hunger in the Mississippi Delta region in the 1960s, when Martin Luther King, Jr., Robert Kennedy and other leaders dramatized the plight of the hungry in our region. The book combines a superb intellect, political experience at a national level in the Clinton administration, leadership of a major nonprofit in New York, and a deep commitment to helping the neediest of the needy.

Joel Berg presents a series of ideas on how to eradicate the shame of hunger in our wealthy country. He is admirably objective, criticizing or commending the contributions of politicians of both parties based on the merits. While obviously a Democrat who gives credit where it is due to the likes of George McGovern, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, he also praises the anti-hunger work of Republican leaders such as Bob Dole and even Richard Nixon (GASP!!!). Contrary to cynical views of politics that it makes no difference which party or which leader is in power, Mr. Berg skillfully demonstrates that there indeed have been profound differences in leadership, policies, and their impact upon poverty and hunger in America.

Joel Berg does not shy away from facing the most controversial issues facing our society today, so you may not agree with all of his conclusions, but his ideas are always thought-provoking and creative.
In the Delta, we are all too familiar with the dilemma that in many areas, the most accessible food is a convenience store or a similar place where lower-income people buy fattening, artery-clogging fast food. So many of our problems in the Delta are related to poor nutrition and illnesses that are related to bad nutrition, such as diabetes, obesity and heart disease. We are also all too familiar with the unpleasant reality that the media and many politicians “discover” about once a year around Thanksgiving that we still have many people who do not have access to an affordable, nutritious diet. Our levels of food insecurity in the Delta are among the highest in the country, and Joel does a great job of challenging the public and the powers that be to make hunger eradication a top national priority and not just a once-a-year photo op.

We have many nonprofit organizations in our grassroots coalition, and I can assure you that Joel’s practical advice on how to be an effective advocate in the trenches of anti-poverty work is highly valuable. Based on his many years of experience, he provides wise counsel on how to be an effective nonprofit advocate. I know I have profited from his advice on that score, as well as from his many insightful ideas about hunger in America. If you buy a copy of his book on the website you will also be contributing to a worthy cause, because part of the proceeds go to the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, a coalition of anti-hunger organizations in the New York City area.

– Lee Powell, Executive Director, October 9, 2009

Nov. 20: The New York Times, “A Would-Be Volunteer’s Good Intentions Meet Cold Reality,” by Ariel Kaminer

Nov. 3:  NPR The Takeaway, “Americans Using Food Stamps More Than Ever Before”

Oct. 28:  The Pocono Record (Stroudsburg, PA), “Political, Economic Choices Lead to Hunger,” by Dan Berrett

Oct. 21: The Pocono Record (Stroudsburg, PA), “Challenge of Subsisting on Food Stamps Opens Eyes at NCC,” by Dan Berrett

Oct. 21:  The Aquinian (St. Thomas University, New Brunswick, Canada), “Activist Says If You Want Change, Know the System,” editorial by Steve Graham

Oct. 8:  Valley Advocate (Northampton, MA), “Hunger Summit at Mass Mutual: An Author, a Mayor, and a Plan,” by Mary Nelen

Sept. 24 and 25:  The Springfield Republican (MA), “Springfield Food Policy Council Being Formed to Combat Hunger in Western Mass, Largest City,” by Peter Goonan

Sept. 22:  Valley Free Radio (Springfield, MA) Farm2Fork with Mary Nelen, “Interview with Author, Joel Berg”

Sept. 15: Working-Class Perspectives (blog, Youngstown State University, PA), “Growing Food, Growing a Movement,” by Sherry Linkon

Sept. 14: Postbourgie (blog), “Book of the Month Discussion: Interview with Joel Berg,” by Shani-O

Sept. 13: The Springfield Republican (MA), “Author to Headline Hunger Summit,” by Kathryn Roy

July/Aug:  Rockland Jewish Reporter (Rockland County, NY), “Hunger Still Prevalent in US, Expert Says,” by Dylan Skriloff

July 5: The Oregonian (Portland), “Eating Healthy: Fresh Vegetables and New Skills,” by David Sarasohn

June 4: Maine Public Broadcasting Network on Speaking in Maine, “Joel Berg, How Hungry is America?” (speech at Muskie School of Public Service at the University of Southern Maine, Portland)  (podcast can be downloaded here)

May 26: Maine Center for Economic Policy’s State of the State (Time Warner Cable, talk show), “Hunger on the Rise in Maine and America”

May 21:  WCSH-6 (NBC affiliate, Portland, ME) 207 (evening news magazine), “Hunger in America” (show no longer available online)

May 17: The Press-Herald (Portland, ME), “Food for Thought: Joel Berg is in town this week to talk about his book, All You Can Eat,” by Ray Routhier (no link available)

May 1:  Streetroots (Portland, OR), “Talking Food in the New World,” by Mara Grunbaum

Apr. 29: KPBS (San Diego) Envision San Diego, “Poverty and Recession in San Diego,” by Joanne Faryon

Apr. 22: Real Change News (Seattle, WA), “The Locavores Dilemma,” by Rosette Royale

Apr. 21:  KUOW (NPR affiliate, Seattle) Weekday with Steve Scher, “Can We End Hunger in America?”

Apr. 13:  The Oregonian (Portland), “On the Front Lines of Student Hunger,” by David Sarasohn

Apr. 7:  KERA (NPR affiliate, Dallas) Think with Krys Boyd, “How Hungry is America?”(podcast here)

Speakers Forum

Joel Berg: ‘All You Can Eat’

08/20/2009 at 8:00 p.m.

In his 1964 State of the Union address to Congress, President Lyndon Johnson declared “unconditional war on poverty in America.” Johnson’s call led to the passage of the Economic Opportunity Act and billions in government antipoverty spending. Joel Berg is head of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, advocating for more than one million low–income New Yorkers who rely on the city’s food banks and soup kitchens. He says America ultimately lost the war on poverty — not because the programs didn’t work, but because the country surrendered the fight. Joel Berg’s book on how the government can get back to the business of moving millions out of poverty and into the middle class is “All You Can Eat: How Hungry is America?” He spoke at Seattle’s Elliott Bay Books on March 22, 2009.

Listen here or click on the following link:

http://www.kuow.org/program.php?id=18227

March 12:  WEOS (NPR affiliate, Geneva, NY), Out of Bounds with Tish Pearlman, “Joel Berg, Author and Executive Director of NYC Coalition Against Hunger”

March 16:  KGO-TV 7 (ABC affiliate, San Francisco), “Stimulus Plan Brings Aid to Local Food Banks”

March 17:  KPFA (Pacifica affiliate, Berkeley, CA), Letters from Washington: The First 100 Days, “Democrats vs. Democrats”

March 18:  KPBS (NPR/PBS affiliate, San Diego), “Author Blames County for Low Participation in Food Stamp Program”

March 19:  Beverly Press (West Hollywood, CA), “Expert on Hunger Speaks in West Hollywood,” by Amy Lyons

March 20:  KPFK (Pacifica affiliate, LA) Uprising with Sonali Kolhatkar, “How Hungry is America?”

March 23:  Willamette Week (Portland, OR), “The War on Hunger: This Man Thinks Its a War We Can Win” by Ryan Fleming

March 27:  NPR Religion and Ethics Newsweekly, “Food Banks and the Recession”

March 28:  Washington Post, Op-Ed, “A Tax Plan Charities Should Back”

By China Millman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“President Obama has promised to end child hunger in the United States by 2015. But you haven’t heard about it. The media is writing about what Michelle Obama is wearing. Or what kind of dog they’re going to get,” Joel Berg almost shouted.

Fifty people showed up to hear Mr. Berg, executive director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, talk about his new book, “All You Can Eat: How Hungry is America?” at WPXI last night.

While the subject was grim — more than 36 million Americans currently live in a state of food insecurity — the mood was surprisingly optimistic.

Mr. Berg marshaled plenty of statistics, but he also spoke about the progress that has been made and would continue to be made as long as people commit to ending hunger, rather than just mitigating its effects.

“Hunger is a problem that needs to be solved by the government, not by food banks or soup kitchens,” Mr. Berg explained in an earlier interview. “If you doubled all the private food banks, it would knock a few million people out of hunger, [but] you could entirely end the problem almost overnight by just increasing funding and increasing eligibility to existing programs,” such as food stamp programs, WIC and school meal programs.

In 2007 more than 10 percent of households in Pennsylvania experienced hunger at some point. In 2009 those numbers are undoubtably worse. Just Harvest and the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, which co-hosted the talk, have firsthand knowledge of how much worse. The latter organization, a nonprofit that distributes food through outlets such as soup kitchens, Meals on Wheels and after-school programs, has been serving an average of 2,000 new households each month since August 2008.

But these circumstances have also created an unusual moment of opportunity for advocates such as Mr. Berg and other anti-hunger organizations to press for dramatic, substantial change, some of which has already started.

The federal government is about to release food-related stimulus funds that include money to help Americans who don’t have enough money for basic necessities. According to Just Harvest and the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, Pennsylvania alone could receive an estimated $754 million in additional food stamps funding over two years.

On a smaller scale, Michael Peck, food services director for Pittsburgh Public Schools, expanded the free meal program so that 66 schools and 18 early-childhood centers offer free breakfasts to all students and 41 schools and centers with the highest poverty rates offer free lunches to all students. He was able to get increased federal subsidies to support these expansions.

But Mr. Berg wants more than just increased funding. “As of two years ago, it would take about $24 billion to end hunger,” Mr. Berg explained, pointing out that was only 2 percent of the bailout funds. “But unless you significantly reduce poverty, you’re going to have to keep pumping money into [federal programs] every year.”

Follow China on Twitter at http://twitter.com/chinamillman. China Millman can be reached at 412-263-1198 or cmillman@post-gazette.com.

First published on April 7, 2009 at 12:00 am

You can read this article on the Post-Gazette website here.

January 8:  Huffington Post, Joel Berg blog, “Dr. King’s Other Dream: Ending Poverty”

January 16: WNYC (NPR affiliate, NYC), Leonard Lopate Show, “Hunger in the Land of Plenty”

January 16: Huffington Post, Joel Berg blog, “Progressives Should Stop Carping and Start Fighting.”

January 26: Metro NY, “Feeding the hungry halfway,” by Neil deMause.

January 27:  Grit TV/The Nation Presents, “The Politics of Hunger,” with Laura Flanders.

February 3:  The Brooklyn Rail, “How Hungry is America? VERY.,” by Eleanor Bader.

February 3:  Philadelphia City Paper, “Just Do It: All You Can Eat: How Hungry is America?” by Natalie Hope McDonald.

February 4:  Alternet.com, excerpt, “Hunger in the U.S.: A problem as American as apple pie.”

February 6:  Center for American Progress, “All You Can Eat?  How Hungry is America in Good Times versus Recession?”

February 9:  Philadelphia Inquirer, “Hunger expert says government must lead the fight,” by Alfred Lubrano.

February 11:  WHYY (NPR affiliate, Philadelphia), Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane, “Food Insecurity” episode.

February 11:  Daily Pennsylvanian, “Berg discusses ‘food insecurity’ in America,” by Matt Grady.

February 12:  Philadelphia Inquirer, “Nutter backs anti-hunger efforts,” by Alfred Lubrano.

February 13:  WILL (NPR affiliate, Urbana, IL), Focus 580 with David Inge, “All You Can Eat: How Hungry is America?”

February 18:  NY Times, “Despite U.S. offer, city stands firm on food stamps,” by Julie Bosman.

February 18:  KTBC-7 (Fox affiliate, Austin, TX), Good Day Austin, “Solving the U.S. hunger problem.”