More on Food Stamps for Fast Food

by: Jill Richardson

Fri Feb 19, 2010 at 13:42:58 PM PST

Restaurants in the program include Domino's Pizza, Papa John's, and other pizza places, Subway, El Pollo Loco, Jack in the Box, California Donuts, a number of burger joints, Popeye's Chicken, Church's Chicken, and other fried chicken restaurants, some BBQ restaurants, Denny's, Wendy's, some Chinese restaurants, and really not much else.  

House Ag Committee Hearing on Federal Nutrition Programs, Part 2

by: Jill Richardson

Thu Jan 28, 2010 at 22:48:04 PM PST

Panel II:

Guillermo Valenzuela, MD
Arrowhead Regional Medical Center

Webster Wong, MD
Arrowhead Regional Medical Center

Matthew Sharp, Senior Advocate
California Food Policy Advocates, Los Angeles, California

Edie Jessup, Program Development Specialist
Central California Regional Obesity Prevention Project of Central California Center for Health and Human Services, Fresno, California

Mathew Marsom, Director of Public Health Policy and Advocacy
Public Health Institute, Oakland, California

Claudia Page, Co-Director
The Center to Promote HealthCare Access, Oakland, California

House Ag Committee Hearing on Federal Nutrition Programs, Part 1

by: Jill Richardson

Thu Jan 28, 2010 at 17:44:24 PM PST

Panel 1
Lisa Pino, Deputy Administrator
USDA's Food and Nutrition Service

Christine Webb-Curtis, Chief
California Department of Social Services, Food Stamp Branch

Nancy Swanson, Director
Human Services Transitional Assistance Department of San Bernardino, CA

Warrantless Home Searches for Food Stamp Recipients

by: Jill Richardson

Mon Apr 20, 2009 at 10:00:00 AM PDT

The San Diego district attorney adopted a policy in 1997 under which applicants for welfare benefits must agree to a "walk through" of their residence while they are present. The inspectors check on whether the applicant has an eligible dependent child and has the amount of assets claimed. They also check on whether a supposedly "absent" parent lives at the residence. If residents refuse to permit a home visit, they can lose their benefits.

So that's how you get the distinguished title of "lowest food stamp participation rate" in the U.S. And a judge ruled that this is legal because they aren't searching for evidence of a crime. Legal, perhaps - but smart? Definitely not. How many kids are going hungry because of this insane policy?

(Hat tip to Lucas for sending this story my way.)

Monday Evening Sampler Platter

by: JayinPortland

Mon Mar 23, 2009 at 16:00:00 PM PDT

• A new restaurant near the University of Texas at Arlington, which uses locally grown, organic ingredients as much as possible, has a no-set-price policy, and asks customers to discreetly pay (in an envelope) afterwards for what they thought the meal was worth.  The idea is based upon an existing Salt Lake City non-profit community kitchen's model.  Can it work for a commercial establishment?  So far, the restaurant is coming up just short, although it's only two months old and the business itself is always a rough one.

• The City of Berkeley, CA may soon transform all of its parks and open spaces into habitats for bees, in an effort to reverse the recent global decline of pollinators.

• If you're in Kansas, you can vote for the best food in the state from now until March 31.  Unfortunately, restaurants must be at least a decade old in order to be considered, so that rules out Lawrence's Local Burger for at least the next 7 years.  I'm sure there's something else worth considering in Lawrence, though...

• USDA will update its Plant Hardiness Zone Map later this year, for the first time since 1990, to reflect the climate-change induced shifts of planting zones northward.

More below the fold...

Tuesday Afternoon Sampler Platter

by: JayinPortland

Tue Mar 17, 2009 at 12:00:00 PM PDT

• An op-ed in today's San Francisco Chronicle takes on the way our government develops dietary guidelines.  Ouch -

  Here is a daily diet that meets [current] nutrition guidelines: Breakfast: 1 cup Fruit Loops; 1 cup skim milk; 1 package M&M milk chocolate candies; fiber and vitamin supplements. Lunch: Grilled cheddar cheeseburger. Dinner: 3 slices pepperoni pizza, with a 16-ounce soda and 1 serving Archway sugar cookies.

  This helps explain why 12-year-old schoolchildren develop thickening of their carotid arteries to the brain, and 80 percent of 20-year-old soldiers, dying in combat, are found to have coronary artery heart disease.

• Idaho may become the next state to change assets tests in order to allow more people to become eligible for food stamps.

• The Nature Conservancy purchased the 4,136-acre Shasta Big Springs Ranch in California, including the entire 2.2-mile length of Big Springs Creek, in an effort to restore salmon in the Klamath River system.

• A group of medical and fisheries experts in Canada are making a health and environmental argument to reduce fish consumption in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

• Is the Grocery Manufacturers Association part of a frightful (boo!) "socialist experiment", too?  Or are they just hypocrites?

  Although a spokesperson for the Grocery Manufacturers Association broadly welcomed the news that the legislation had been put forward, he criticized the proposal that industry should pay for plant inspections. He told FoodNavigator-USA.com: "We believe that food safety is a right that all Americans have...and that it should be paid for by Congress appropriating general funds."

  How about paying some taxes then, guys?

Bloomberg To City: Drop Dead

by: JayinPortland

Sat Mar 07, 2009 at 18:38:12 PM PST

A fight is brewing over federal money earmarked for food stamps.  Part of the stimulus package would bring about $155 million to the city to cover food stamps through September 2010.

But so far, Mayor Michael Bloomberg hasn't signed a waiver to extend those benefits to single adults who don't have dependents.

Because I guess if you lost your job due in large part to the shenanigans of many of Mayor Mike's own buddies, and you don't have any kids - it follows that you don't have to (or shouldn't be able to) eat.  At least, that's the case in his fantasy world.  The same one where wealthy New Yorkers would leave the City if they had to start paying their fair share in taxes.  Where would they move, New Jersey (I can say that, I grew up there)?  I doubt that.

Like many of his other friends who've largely put us into this mess in the first place, Bloomberg also doesn't seem to have much of a grasp on basic economic facts.  Either that, or he puts his cherished (and failed) conservative ideology ahead of all else -

Increased income support has been part of the federal response to most recessions, and for good reason: It is the most efficient way to prime the economy's pump ... Boosting food stamp payments by $1 increases GDP by $1.73 (see Table 2). People who receive these benefits are hard pressed and will spend any financial aid they receive very quickly.

So Bloomberg also apparently has something against food retailers and other businesspeople in the City, as well.  I have a suggestion, though - since Michael Bloomberg is worth roughly 20 billion dollars, maybe he can take all of those people he's denying food stamps for out to breakfast, lunch and dinner on his own dime (I mean, he's only got about 200 billion dimes...) until they find one of the numerous jobs he claims are out there just waiting to be filled?  

Or maybe he can stop being a giant Jindal-ian dick, and let struggling people eat while they continue to look for work in this terrible climate which was largely created by the greed and arrogance of wealthy conservatives like Bloomberg himself.

Why Don't San Diegoans Participate in Food Stamps?

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Feb 24, 2009 at 19:02:16 PM PST

Let's take a look at San Diego as a case study: Why aren't San Diegoans getting food stamps? And what can we learn from San Diego that might help us increase the participation rate nationally.