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With the deadline for registering new voters fast approaching, Just Harvest’s "Just Vote" project is in high gear. We’ve added more than 600 new registrants to the voter rolls, meaning we are over half-way to our goal of registering 1,000 new voters. Meanwhile more than 1,000 already registered voters have signed the Just Vote Pledge. We owe this success to the nearly 100 human service providers who have partnered with us to help their staff and clients get to the polls on November 2. Some of our notable achievements:
- Over 50 new registrants in two days at Mercy Hospital Free Clinic.
- Signed up nearly 100 new voters at the CCAC South and Boyce campuses.
- Worked with the Pennsylvania Department of State, Allegheny County Bureau of Elections
and the County Jail to register and provide absentee ballots for inmates awaiting trial or serving
misdemeanor sentences.
We’ve been active in surrounding counties, registering voters at a Spectrum Health Care facility in Washington, PA and at the Aliquippa Alliance for Unity and Diversity’s health fair. We also plan to do some targeted door knocking, but that hinges on volunteer support.
If door knocking isn’t your thing, there are still ways to get involved, because we have a heavy emphasis on getting out the vote. You already know why it is important this year’s election may be the most important in a generation. Do your part to see to it that the winners on November 2 are people who care about hunger and poverty.
ACTION: Call us (412-431-8960) to volunteer today! (see
related "Nuts and Bolts" on page 7).
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Back in the early ‘90’s Just Harvest led a community campaign to put the problem of hunger on the agenda for county officials. The County Commissioners sponsored private fund-raising efforts, developed Hunger Initiatives, and eventually assigned a county staffer to coordinate the county’s responsibility for administering state and federal hunger programs. Over time, as hunger increased and more federal and state resources became available, the county established a Bureau of Hunger and Housing Services.
Now, with government cutting back at all levels - from federal down to school districts and municipalities - Allegheny County is threatening to cut back its hunger services. A Hunger Specialist who retired will not be replaced. The article on page two describes the key role the county Bureau of Hunger and Housing plays keeping public and private anti-hunger agencies working together effectively as well as identifying funding opportunities.
We plan a campaign this fall, during the county’s budget discussion, to bring the issue to the county council and lobby for a budget line item to keep this office functioning. Joni Rabinowitz from Just Harvest and Joyce Rothermel from the Food Bank have already met with council members Bill Robinson and Brenda Frazier, as well as Joan Cleary and Jan Rea.
ACTION: Join us at County Council Meeting Tuesday, October 6, to ask Council to fund the county’s Hunger Office. Call us at 412-431-8960 for more info. And call your council member at 412-350-6490.
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Allegheny County's Bureau of Hunger and Housing Services is responsible for addressing hunger and homelessness in Allegheny County. The bureau - part of the Office of Community Services of the Department of Human Services - works closely with social service agencies, local, state and federal governments to identify, access and administer all available resources for reducing hunger throughout the county.
Since it's formation in the early 90s, the bureau has been critical to anti-hunger agencies and providers.
Since direct lines of communication among all the players are so important, the bureau convenes regular quarterly meetings with the anti-huunger providers in the community, county human service agencies, and adviocates. County agencies involved include Aging, Health, and Children, Youth and Families. These meetings discuss individual hunger issues and serve as a mechanism for identifying needs, sharing information about additional resources, organizing advocacy at all levels of governement, and streamlining efficiencies in the administration of the major hunger programs which are the responsibility of the county government.
The Bureau takes the lead in coordinating support for hunger activities from all county
Government offices, such as food drives, press releases, proclamations, speakers, legislative advocacy, printing and distribution of resource information, and recruitment of volunteers for special projects and much much more.
They meet regularly - and talk with - community members who are responsible for the day to day distribution of food through the emergency feeding network: front-line workers, including face-to-face meetings with administrators and volunteers from food pantries, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, congregate feeding sites, and after-school feeding programs. This communication is invaluable for county staff to learn first-hand about needs and about how to improve services.
It is also important that high level county officials understand how and why our vulnerable county residents experience hunger. The Bureau staff serve as the conduit for explaining the issues to county department heads, county council and the office of the Chief Executive, translating the issues from the agencies.
Since community-based emergency feeding networks must have the tools to distribute much needed food, the Bureau recommends to the County purchases of equipment such as refrigerators, freezers, shelving, forklifts, dollies, trucks and computer equipment. Staff from the Bureau hold leadership roles on several state and local committees including the Alleghenyt County FEMA Bord and the PA State Emergency Food Assistance Advisory Committee, and are able to effectively convey the hunger needs of the community so that all available funds are dedicated to addressing those needs.
The staff of the Bureau clearly understand that they must be responsive to the individuals, children and families who are faced with hunger. Thus recognition has lead to a very constructive relationship.
However, this relationship is currently in jeopardy, as the Office of Community Services (OCS) recently determined they no longer had adequate administrative funding to support the entire hunger staff. The OCS wants to claim an administrative allowance from major state or federal food programs administered by community groups. If the county does this, it would jeopardize funds available to the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank and other groups for huungry people.
We need to prevent this from happening. Join us on October 6. (See article on page one.)
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The debate over how long to extend the middle class tax cuts the Child Tax Credit (CTC), marriage tax provisions and the ten percent tax bracket and how to pay for them will be renewed when Congress reconvenes this month.
More fuel was added to the fire with the release of a Congressional Budget Office report verifying advocates’ claims that the burden of federal tax payments has been shifted from the wealthy to the middle class as a result of Bush’s tax cuts. The wealthiest 1/5 of Americans now pay 63.5% of federal taxes, down from 65.3% in 2001 while the middle 3/5’s have seen an increase of about 1.6% and the share of the bottom 1/5 remained the same.
The middle class tax cut extensions currently under debate would reinstate the 2003 tax cuts set to expire in 2005. The larger tax cuts for the wealthy have later expiration dates. The White House halted a Congressional Republican plan for a two-year extension and is leading the push for a five-year extension that would add another $130 billion to the
deficit.
Alternative bills were introduced in both the House and the Senate that would extend the middle class tax cuts for one
year and pay for them by closing corporate tax loopholes and extending customs fees. The House bill would also allow more low-income families to take advantage of the CTC and to simplify both the Earned Income Tax Credit and CTC.
ACTION: Contact your senators and representative and urge them not to support tax cuts that will put
essential public services at risk.
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Recent research and press coverage have called attention to the problem of so-called "food deserts" - areas in which consumers - especially poor people - must travel long distances to shop for food.
While grocery store abandonment of low-income communities is not news in cities like Pittsburgh, there is now more
recognition of rural "food deserts" as well. The emergence of Wal-Mart as a major force in food retailing has meant
the failure of many mom-and-pop stores in rural areas and small towns, making it necessary for rural families to travel long distances to food stores. The US Department of Agriculture reports that this trend has significant price impacts, as well, with groceries in "food deserts" costing an average of 10 percent more than in well-served suburban communities.
Mississippi State University sociologist Troy Blanchard has studied the food desert phenomenon and says that nearly half the population of the Western US and about one-third of people in the Midwest face poor access to food stores.
Here in Pennsylvania, the state government has begun to recognize this problem. The economic stimulus package passed by the state earlier this year included an unprecedented initiative proposed by the Philadelphia Food Trust and other advocates to help bring supermarkets into under-served urban and rural communities. The Department of Community and Economic Development is now finalizing guidelines for grants, loan guarantees and low interest loans for supermarket investments which, together with related agricultural and tourism development efforts, is expected to account for $150 million of the billion dollar stimulus package.
Hannah Burton of the Food Trust says the plan represents "a real opportunity to dramatically improve the food landscape."
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After all was said and done in Harrisburg, anti-hunger advocates heaved a huge sigh of relief. On July 4th weekend, the General Assembly added $1 million to the State Food Purchase Program (SFPP), bringing the the total to $17,450,000 for food banks in Pennsylvania. Allegheny County gets about $1.5 million of that.
They also added $603,000 to the Farmers Market Nutrition Program (FMNP) - coupons for WIC families and seniors - bringing that total up to $2 million.
Both the increases follow several years of cuts.
Thanks to advocates across the state, representatives of food pantries, and sympathetic legislators for making this happen.
With the economy still in the tank, these funds will provide some safety net for the growing number of working families
who need help. (Thanks to PA Hunger Action for help with this article).
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With federal welfare reauthorization still looming, the PA Welfare Coalition, including Rochelle Jackson and Joni Rabinowitz from Just Harvest, met in Harrisburg on August 13 with officials from the State Department of Public Welfare (DPW) to discuss the status/future of TANF(Temporary Assistance for Needy Families).
The Coalition had concerns about the possible scenarios that may play out between now and September 30 (the deadline for the current TANF extension). So we set out to see where DPW stood on the issues.
Representing DPW at this meeting were Deputy Secretary Kathy Yorkievitz, Stefani Pashman and Niles Schore. DPW was in total agreement with advocates on most of the issues, including:
- The proposed increased "participation rates" are too high. (The state’s participation rate is the percentage of the state’s cash assistance caseload which must be working, in order to avoid a federal penalty);
- The increase in hours of required work activity for the recipient, beyond 30 hours per week, is unreasonable for single parents with little family support;
- States need flexibility in defining the kind of activities that will help people reach self-sufficiency;
- Education and Training need to be countable towards meeting the participation rate;
- Additional flexibility is needed to work with clients with significant barriers to employment.
- More child care funding is crucial.
Furthermore, DPW joined advocates in full support of extending TANF for at least two more years. Overall the meeting
was a success, with the Coalition and DPW working together for results that benefit all clients.
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New census data reveals that the number and percentage of Americans living below the poverty line, and of Americans without health insurance, grew for the third consecutive year in 2003. And more than 1/3 of poor people are children.
At the same time the number of people living in extreme poverty - below half of the poverty line - jumped by 1.2
million. Over 15 million people, including 65,000 in Pennsylvania, live below half the poverty level, or $9,425 for a
family of four!
Pennsylvania poverty levels increased from an average of 9.2 percent of Pennsylvanians to 9.9 percent.
The increase in poverty stands in stark contrast to the decline in the number of families receiving cash welfare assistance(TANF). If TANF was helping to soften the blow of the weak economy on very poor families, the number
of people receiving the benefits would increase as poverty increased. Instead the Bush Administration is touting
decreased welfare caseloads as a sign of successful "welfare reform".
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Summertime is supposed to be a time for fun and leisure for children, but for many children across our nation hunger
is a very real part of their summer vacation. Children, parents, and advocates alike know that hunger doesn’t take a vacation.
Tina Wiley is the mother of 7 children - 2 girls and 5 boys. She’s used the Summer Food Program for years to help stretch her food dollar. "It’s a program that is very helpful and appreciated", she says. "The program helps me get through the summer when our food is low. My children have gone to the recreation centers for years and have been able to eat and have fun. Lunch programs help families like ours all the time", she said. Of course the closing of the recreation centers and pools affected her plans for the summer. "If the pools and rec centers hadn’t re-opened this year my children would have had a hard time finding a safe place they could get a meal and have fun", Wiley stated.
Last year Pennsylvania ranked 3rd best in participation of children in the national Summer Food Service Program
(SFSP), according to "Hunger Doesn’t Take a Vacation", the national report released by Food Research and Action
Center (FRAC) on July 22, 2004.
On an average day, Pennsylvania served 16 percent more kids in 2003 than in 2002. But in Allegheny County, the
number of sites decreased by 25 in 2004. And this year more sites chose to serve only children enrolled in their summer
camps. This made it harder for low-income kids to get meals.
What can we do to improve Summer Food access for all kids?
- We can ensure that every neighborhood has at least one open enrollment site.
- We can work closer with the City and County sponsors to make sure that the neediest kids have access to nutritious meals.
- We can educate local community groups about how important it is for children to have nutritious meals during the summer.
- We can work with our local and state governments to ensure that they know how important summer food is for Pennsylvania’s children.
Just Harvest doesn’t serve meals, but each year we open our Summer Food Hotline to help children and parents find a site in their area. This year, staffer Shauna Ponton and volunteers Rachel Rose-Sandow and Sarah Orgass answered over 400 calls. Thanks to all the agencies and school districts that distributed our summer food information to their clients and students. Thanks to Marc Gura and Equitable Gas for including our information in their bill inserts for over 15,000 customers. Thanks
to all of the communities who welcomed us to their community day festivities.
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Teen parenthood rates, violent crimes and substance abuse are declining among America’s youth despite the rising poverty rates. The number of children living below the poverty level increased from 11.2 million to 11.6 million between 2001 and 2002, but these other aspects of children’s well-being improved, according to a recent report by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics.
In fact, the number of children born to adolescents in 2002 - 23 births per 1,000 - was at a record low. Violent crimes perpetrated by youths declined by 73% between 1993 and 2002. Smoking and illicit drug use were at their lowest
since the early 1990s for 8th through 12th graders, too.
Unfortunately, the report does not address food insecurity but we can hope that these statistics indicate a brighter
future for all kids.
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Our Annual Dinner is fast approaching and we are looking for exciting donations for our highly anticipated Silent Auction.
We need your help in getting some fresh new donations. Can you donate something? It can be a weekend at a country home, a painting, knitting lessons.
Do you know a local sports figure who would be willing to give lessons, or maybe a local television or radio personality who might tape an outgoing message on someone’s answering machine? No matter how big or small it will help us raise
money to fight hunger in our communities.
If you have a donation contact Shauna at Just Harvest at (412) 431-8960 or mail it to us at 16 Terminal Way, Pittsburgh,
PA 15219, attn: Shauna Ponton.
Among the donations so far:
- NBC’s hit soap opera Passions donated a cast-autographed script and a Passions pack.
- The Tonight Show donated an autographed picture of Jay Leno.
- Arnold Palmer donated an autographed magazine.
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Help Just Harvest Raise Money By Selling the Enjoy Coupon Book Available now.
Call us at 412-431-8960.
Sell them for just $25 and help us raise funds.
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The Welfare Rights Handbook
Revised Edition, June 2004
Published by Welfare Justice Project
Just Harvest
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Town Meeting: The Politics of Hunger
Panel and discussion
WQED, 4802 5th Ave., Oakland
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Join Just Harvest as we honor long-time respected activist Molly Rush who will receive the 2nd Annual
Seeds of Justice Award
Thursday October 14
at our Harvest Celebration Dinner.
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For the second consecutive year, Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank has been chosen as the local recipient
of the prestigious Victory Against Hunger award. Victory Wholesale Grocers of Springboro, Ohio and the D.C.
based Congressional Hunger Center teamed up for the past twelve years to recognize organizations that have worked
effectively to fight hunger in their communities. Giant Eagle will also be in the spotlight as they receive the Regional
Retailer of the Year Award from America’s Second Harvest, the national network of food banks.
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Hunger Services Network (HSN), a key anti-hunger partner and Just Harvest’s sister organization from our origins in the old Hunger Action Coalition, has ceased operations effective September 1, 2004.
Fortunately for our hungry neighbors, however, HSN’s core services continue without interruption as part of a larger agency. Details are being finalized.
According to HSN’s long-time Executive Director Ann Mason, the closure was due to growing financial difficulties
amid continuing high demand for emergency food services. For many years, the agency has operated an Emergency Food
Assistance phone line, directing people in need to one of more than 300 food pantries in its referral network. In addition,
HSN’s Food Stamp Hotline helps callers determine if they are eligible for food stamps and guides them through the application process.
Hunger Services Network was formed in 1986 at the same time as Just Harvest when the direct services programs
of the Hunger Action Coalition, founded in 1975, were separated from the public policy advocacy and community education programs that became Just Harvest. Hunger Action Coalition also created the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, which became a separate agency in 1980.
"We appreciate the support of the Greater Pittsburgh Food Bank, the Lutheran Service Society of Western Pennsylvania, the Parental Stress Center, and of course, Just Harvest", said Mason, who added that anti-hunger agencies must continue to work together to provide help where it is needed.
The services can still be reached at: Emergency Food: 412-681-1121; Food Stamps: 412-681-1943 or 1-866-395-FOOD.
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Community support for Just Harvest’s work stayed strong this summer with generous gifts from individuals, organizations, and corporations.
Just Harvest Education Fund is grateful to the East End Food Co-op for choosing us in July for their "1% Wednesday" program, donating one percent of their July 28 sales to our anti-hunger efforts. We are grateful to Dominion, Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, Jewish Healthcare Foundation, and LaRoche College for signing on as sponsors of the upcoming Harvest Celebration
Dinner. Special thanks for recent grants for the JUST VOTE! campaign from the Funding Exchange, the Ms. Foundation for Women and the Public Welfare Foundation. The Public Welfare Foundation also renewed its grant support for our Welfare Justice Project.
The faith community also showed its strong support with recent gifts from the Bethany Community and Westminster
Presbyteryian Church.
And Just Harvest appreciates the recent donations from all the following: Iron And Glass Bank, Candy Aiden, Mary Arenth, Andy Beckerman, Glenrose Bradford, Suzann Brindle, Lynn & Marc Brodie, George Brownell, Rege Burdelsky & Pat O’Malley, David Caldwell, Beth Daponte & Tony Smith, Robert Foley, Mary Gilligan, Alexandra Gruskos, Jane Harter, Howard & Eva Havlicsek, Anne Hawkins, Philp Hayes & Louise Kaczmarek, Laura Jenkins, Judith & Richard Kasdan, Anne McGough, Joann Narduzzi, John Oesterle, Frances Pacienza, Phil & Rhonda Peters, Pat & Don Rampolla, Barbara Pavuk Recker, Susan Richmond, Bernard Roberts, Joyce Rothermel & Michael Drohan, James & Louisa Rudolph, Lorraine Sauchin, Anna Jane Shally, David Smith, Gerald Sokolow, Alma Speed Fox, Marjorie Spenser, Eugene Sucov, Lowell & Rachel Swarts, Elizabeth Toor, Maureen Watson & Dorothy Sloan, Derek & Kathleen Whordley, and Gina Wilson.
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Just Harvest extends a warm thank you to the enthusiastic volunteers who helped out so much at the office this summer.
Rachel Rose-Sandow returns to school after ably handling so many of our summer food hotline calls, keeping our "Just Vote" campaign database up-todate, and many other tasks. Thanks to Sarah Orgass for lots of help with the Summer Food Campaign Outreach in the community and to Lashaundra Peeples for her efforts with the Welfare Justice Project.
We’re glad to welcome back to the JH team long-time friend Pat O’Malley, who will be consulting on the "Just
Vote" campaign until November. We also welcome our newest intern, Victor Moore, a student at Pitt’s School of Social Work starting this fall with our Welfare Justice Project.
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A series of tips for citizens on how government operates and how you can participate.
In this issue . . .
Help Get Out the Vote
On November 2, one Senate seat, one U.S. Senate seat, 21 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania, and several state offices will be determined, in addition to the office of the presidency. Although low-income citizens have been registering to vote in record numbers this year, fighting poverty and hunger have not occupied a front-row seat on any candidate’s agenda. Bread for the World suggests writing letters to the editor, raising these issues. If you feel any candidate(s) would do a better job of meeting these needs, you may write about them, also.
Here are some other ways you can help get people to vote:
- Volunteer with our voter registration campaign or register people in your own
agency, family, neighborhood. Turn in the completed forms to Just Harvest. (see page
Registration deadline is Monday, October 4.
- Help people secure absentee ballots if they plan to be out of town November 2,
including students who are going to school out of town. If they don’t have an official
application, they may write a letter requesting the ballot (go to
www.county.allegheny.pa.us).
- If you are connected with a neighborhood agency, help them organize/fund rides
for clients for election day.
- Consider volunteering where you live and vote – can you or some neighbors offer
rides? Then figure out how to contact neighbors who might need rides. (Are there many
senior citizens or people with disabilities? Are there hills, or long distances to walk, or
wide streets to cross?)
- Make lists of all your friends, neighbors, acquaintances—especially people who
might be infrequent voters — and send them post cards, or call or e-mail them the day
before the election.
- If you’re volunteering on your own you may work on behalf of any candidate you
chose.
If we all work together we can really maximize turn-out in this election.
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Recently, the New York legislature became the 13th state to raise their minimum wage above the federal level by an overwhelming majority in both houses (to $6.75/hr). Gov. Pataki promptly vetoed the measure, though the veto has already been overridden in the House and the Senate is likely to follow suit. Hopefully, Pennsylvania will follow the example of our neighbor to the north and make it a bit easier for people who work for a living to make a living when they go to work.
On the federal front, there is pressure in both Houses to raise the minimum wage, at least nominally. Whether President
Bush takes Gov. Pataki’s lead and tries to keep working people in the depths of poverty is unclear at this point. According to his campaign website, the President is for raising the federal minimum wage but allowing states to ignore it, which would seem to make the whole idea pretty useless.
Meanwhile, there is some evidence that American voters are losing patience with half-step solutions to the problem
of downward pressure on wages. A recent poll conducted for The Ms. Foundation by renowned pollsters Lake Snell Perry & Associates found that 77% of likely voters in this year’s election favored raising the federal minimum
wage to $8.00/hour. Now we’re getting somewhere!
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Corporate profits have increased 62% since the peak of the last recovery while labor compensation has risen only
2.8%, simultaneously marking the sharpest increase for profit growth and the slowest for labor since World War II. The
increase in labor compensation is primarily due to increased health care and pension benefit costs, and has not been translated into improved living standards. Take-home pay in the private sector has actually decreased by 0.6%.
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The United States is one of only 5 countries which does not provide paid leave to women after childbirth, ensure
workers paid leave to recover from shortand long-term illnesses, and guarantee working women’s right to breastfeed,
according to a recent study of 168 countries by the Project on Global Working Families at Harvard University. The primary
author, Dr. Jody Heymann, notes that the study proves that U.S. companies can afford to provide more for working families and still compete in the global market because many countries already are already doing it.
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Signaling the final conversion from food stamp coupons to nationwide Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) distribution
of Food Stamp benefits, the US Department of Agriculture is seeking ideas for a new name for the Food Stamp Program. The move to electronic swipe cards has helped reduce stigma, increase privacy, reimburse grocers faster, eliminate the need for participants to pick up their benefits in person and reduce fraud. Three states have already renamed their programs. The USDA is currently reviewing the 300 suggestions they received during the comment period.
