Children’s Hunger Alliance recently released Hunger in Ohio: State of the State 2007. The report details the state of hunger in Ohio, concentrating on the endeavors that policy makers could pursue to end childhood hunger. The report also details the consequences of hunger, the link between hunger and poverty, and how hunger is related to childhood obesity.

In Ohio, almost a half million children are hungry or at-risk of hunger. Hunger causes health, social and academic problems in children, including more frequent hospitalizations, difficulty interacting with other children, and impaired cognitive development and school performance. There are many avenues, such as USDA meal programs, that, if fully utilized, would significantly aid hungry children. Children’s Hunger Alliance provides support to and recommendations for the implementation of such programs in the Hunger Report.

For a copy of the Hunger Report please contact Brie Jaquette at 614-341-7700 ext 240.

The number of working families in Ohio who were using food stamps more than doubled from 2000 to 2006. One of the reasons for the increase is the state of the economy. While Ohio added more than 21,000 service jobs in 2006, it lost more than 17,000 manufacturing jobs. Most of the added service jobs were lower-paying, often paying minimum wage. Even with the increase in the minimum wage, a single parent who makes the minimum wage will most likely still qualify for food stamps.

Beyond increased need, the rise in working families utilizing food stamps is caused by growing awareness of food stamp benefits and decreased stigma, which is often cited as a barrier to program expansion. According to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, outreach efforts are being increased to let people know what benefits are available to them. In addition, some employers are now notifying employees who may qualify for food stamps. T.J. Maxx is one employer doing so nationwide. People are more inclined to use the benefits because increased awareness decreased the stigma associated with food stamps. Electronic benefit cards (EBT), which are similar to debit cards, also have contributed to the destigmatization of food stamps.

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The Barberton Area Community Ministries (BACM) in Barberton, Ohio has recently seen increased need in its clientele. The program has expanded to feed about 350 households a month with each household averaging about 3 people. BACM has experienced such an expansion that, in the last 5 years, the program went from using one floor of their building for storage to the current usage of three floors to stock food.

What worries Cathie Finn, the director of BACM, the most is that many people who have been coming to the pantry recently have never been to a food pantry before. She sited an example of an elderly woman who lives alone on Social Security benefits who after paying her real estate taxes realized that there was no money left over for her to buy food. Finn says that she is glad the pantry is available to help those in need and stresses that hunger affects a wide variety of people. She says the pantry’s clients include the elderly, single parent, college students and many others.

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The Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) released recommendations for standards for summer food sites. The Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) provides funds to organizations so they can serve nutritious snacks and meals to low-income children during the summer months. SFSP is very similar to the School Breakfast Program and the National School Lunch Program, but it is not as widely utilized. For example, only 7% of low-income children participate in SFSP. FRAC’s standards were devised to increase participation and awareness of summer sites by evaluating and acknowledging quality sites.

The goals of FRAC’s standards are to increase both “the quality of food served and the site environment so that participation increases and more hungry children receive healthy and nutritious meals when school is out.” The standards include information to: evaluate the success of local summer food sites, distribute checklists to site coordinators to perform a self-evaluation, conduct city-wide or county-wide evaluations, determine and recognize high quality sites, identify areas of improvement, and encourage sites to reach new levels of excellence.

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In Andover, Massachusetts students will soon purchase lunch and breakfast with a debit card system. The system will allow parents to add money to their children’s accounts via check or through an online system. While many school districts have used such a system in the past, there was not great need for it in Andover until the food service department was overhauled this year. This year the school started serving healthier meals with more fresh food. They district also expanded its breakfast program. The school has seen a dramatic increase in participation since these changes were made. There are now 44% of students buying lunch compared to 28% before the menus were changed.

The administration is also welcoming this change because it may help reduce the negative stigma associated with free and reduced-price meals. The debit cards of the students receiving free and reduced-price meals will work in the same way as the cards of the children who are paying full price. The administration hopes that this step will help protect the confidentiality of students.

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A fifth grader at Bucyrus Middle School, Samantha Lohr, won a contest sponsored by the NFL and the American Dairy Association. The contest was designed to encourage children to make a healthy breakfast part of their daily routine and involved contestants identifying what they had for breakfast everyday for a week onto an electronic form. Then the students submitted their forms and were eligible to win NFL related gear.

Samantha won Cleveland Browns collectibles and a Browns themed breakfast for her whole class. On hand at the breakfast party was a dietitian, Liz Smith of OSU-Extension, who explained to the children the importance of eating breakfast. Smith told the children, “A lot of research has been done that show[s] the importance of having a good breakfast each morning. Kids do better in school when they eat breakfast.” The principal of the middle school Todd Roll echoed the sentiment and also noted that one of the easiest and most affordable ways for the Bucyrus students to eat breakfast is to participate in the school’s breakfast program. Roll says, “We do our best to provide kids with every advantage we can, and our breakfast before school program is an important part of that goal.”

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