Regular readers of our blog know that St. Anthony’s JEVA (Justice Education, Volunteer, and Advocacy) program has been working to promote policies that simplify the process for receiving food assistance at the same time that we have worked to promote fair local and state budget practices that don’t deepen poverty and hunger in our community.

Given our history of advocacy on these topics, it was exciting to see two stories in this week’s San Francisco Bay Guardian about hunger and food security.

One of the stories is about a topic we know well: California’s low participation rate in the SNAP program (SNAP is the federal program that used to be known as “Food Stamps” and is called “CalFresh” here in California). St. Anthony’s is proud to have been involved in the advocacy efforts that have resulted (finally!) in the lifting of some of the barriers that California had put in place with the passage of AB 6 this October. The policy changes contained in AB 6 (removal of the finger imaging requirement for CalFresh applicants and implementing 6-month instead of quarterly reporting for CalFresh recipients) have been a staple of St. Anthony’s anti-hunger advocacy work for many years.

The other story also concerns a topic that St. Anthony’s knows well: the “food divide” in San Francisco that results in hunger and poor nutrition among low-income people, people living neighborhoods without access to healthy food, and seniors living on fixed incomes. I am quoted in the article explaining about how lack of health care, food, and stable housing work together to promote negative health outcomes like malnutrition and obesity. I also discuss budget cuts at the state level that have reduced the income of seniors and people with disabilities who receive SSI (Supplemental Security Income) by $77 per month as compared to the benefit levels of three years ago. Currently, SSI recipients are forced to try to make ends meet at a sub-poverty income level. And, because SSI recipients are ineligible for CalFresh benefits in the state of California, they face an even greater risk for hunger and the negative health consequences associated with it.

The Congressional Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (commonly known as the “Super Committee”) has only one week left to develop its deficit reduction plan. Anti-hunger advocates from across the country are calling on our Congressional representatives to tell the Super Committee that deficit reduction should not be achieved by increasing hunger and malnutrition by cutting funding for nutrition safety net programs like SNAP (food stamps), the Emergency Food Assistance Program, WIC, the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, or child nutrition programs.

Our friends at Feeding America have made it easy to get in touch with our Congressional representatives to ask them to tell the Super Committee not to reduce the deficit by increasing hunger.

Here’s what you can do — take five minutes and call today (and don’t forget to share this post with a friend!)

1. Dial the toll-free number—1-877-698-8228

2. When prompted, enter your zip code.

3. Listen to the brief instructions, and you will be patched through to your Senator’s office automatically.

4.Once you’ve been connected to the first office, deliver this message:

“Please weigh in with the Super Committee personally and urge them to reject any proposals that would cut anti-hunger programs like SNAP, TEFAP, CSFP, or WIC or other child nutrition programs during the deficit reduction process. We cannot afford to increase hunger in America.”

After the call, stay on the line. You will be automatically connected to your remaining legislators’ offices.

As regular blog readers may recall, St. Anthony’s has been tracking the actions of the Congressional “super committee” that is charged with creating a plan to identify $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction strategies.

The deadline for the Super Committee to develop their plan is only weeks away (they must complete their plan by November 23). Some of the ideas that are being considered by the Super Committee include cutting vital nutrition assistance programs like:

• SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which is California is known as “CalFresh” — the new name for the Food Stamp program),
• WIC (the Women, Infants and Children program, which provides healthy food to pregnant and nursing moms and their young children)
• TEFAP (The Emergency Food Assistance Program, which provides fresh produce and other staples to food banks, which are distributed to community-based food providers like St. Anthony’s)
• CSFP (the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, which provides commodity foods to low-income seniors)

Today, I participated in a conference call with Massachusetts Representative Jim McGovern, an anti-hunger champion who urged those of us who are concerned about the fate of the federal nutrition safety net to reach out to our congressional representatives over the next three weeks to tell them about our priorities.

Our friends at Feeding America have made it easy to reach out to our legislators and inform them about our priorities.  To send an email to your representatives, click here and follow the prompts.

Back in June, St. Anthony’s partnered with anti-hunger organizations and advocacy groups from across California to help educate people about the SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) Restaurant Meals Program. The Restaurant Meals Program is part of the the CalFresh program (the new name for California’s food stamp program) and it allows CalFresh recipients who live in a place without a cooking facility (a Single Room Occupancy hotel room, for example), or who are homeless, elderly, or disabled to use their CalFresh benefits at a restaurant.

We talked to our Dining Room guests about their use of the program and its importance in helping them obtain healthy meals. Some of their stories were recounted here. After hearing the stories of our Dining Room guests, we realized how important both the Restaurant Meals program and our Dining Room are to low income people who can’t afford food and who don’t have the ability to cook their own food at home.

We are proud to have helped with the making of this video, which does a great job of telling the stories of some of the Californians who benefit from Restaurant Meals. Please check out the video and the SNAP Restaurant Meals website to learn more about this important program.

St. Anthony’s has supported AB 828, the Nutritional Assistance for Families Act, and its goal to lift the lifetime ban on CalFresh (the new name for California’s “food stamp” program) assistance for people with prior low-level drug convictions. We have testified in support of the bill in front of both the Assembly and Senate Human Services Committees. because we believe that CalFresh benefits are critical for successful community re-entry and economic self-sufficiency. Denied these benefits, individuals who have already paid their debt to society are unable to secure nutritious food for their families.

AB 828 is currently stuck in the Senate Appropriations Committee on the “suspense file”.  We need to ask the Chair of this committee, Senator Christine Kehoe, to support the passage of AB 828 out of the suspense file so that it can be voted on by the entire Senate.

Please join St. Anthony’s in supporting AB 828 by writing to Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Christine Kehoe.  Hand written snail-mailed letters pack the most punch, but email is OK, too.

To send snail mail to Senator Kehoe, use this address:
The Honorable Christine Kehoe
Chair, Senate Appropriations Committee
State Capitol, Room 5050
Sacramento, CA 95814

To email the Senator, use this address: senator.kehoe@sen.ca.gov

Not sure what to say?  Feel free to use our sample letter, below.

Dear Senator Kehoe:

I support Assembly Bill 828 (Swanson) and its goal to lift the lifetime ban on CalFresh assistance for people with prior low-level drug convictions.

Access to CalFresh benefits is critical for formerly incarcerated people to successfully re-enter their community and stay self-sufficient.  Since people have already served their time, I think they deserve to qualify for CalFresh like any other individual.  When formerly incarcerated people are unemployed or underemployed with no food assistance, it makes it harder for them to feed their family.  Thirty-seven states and the District of Columbia have already restored nutrition benefits to this vulnerable population (USDA, June 2009).

For these reasons, I strongly support AB 828 and urge you and your colleagues to pass it out of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Sincerely,
(Your Name)

As St. Anthony’s Advocacy intern, today in the Dining Room I began outreach around a new issue, the Restaurant Meals Program. This service allows people who are homeless, disabled or seniors to use their food stamps (called CalFresh in California) in participating restaurants. (CalFresh benefits are stored on EBT cards, as pictured above.)  This is an incredibly necessary program because as one can imagine, being homeless, living in an single room occupancy hotel with no kitchen or not being physically able to cook presents serious hardships around fulfilling the basic need to eat. There has been talk at the federal level, however, that this program should be cut because of its lack of nutritional value, as many of the participating restaurants serve fast food.  (In my conversations with beneficiaries of the program, it was suggested that the government should be working to expand the program by getting more local, nutritious restaurants on board rather than cutting it. )  In response to the proposed elimination of the Restaurant Meals Program, a group of activists have started work on video testimony of people who use the program and don’t want to see it perish, in the hopes of educating the public and providing policymakers with a face behind the issue.

My job today was to find people who use the Restaurant Meals Program who are willing to commit to being videoed next week. I knew this was going to require a different approach than my previous Dining Room outreach, which had consisted of the much lighter task of passing out flyers for budget hearings and demonstrations. I was sensitive, therefore, to the fact that having a stranger carrying a notepad come ask if you used food stamps wasn’t exactly the most comfortable situation for either of us.

I found myself quickly engaged in deep conversations with people about how they came to use food stamps, why the restaurant program is important to them and their fears if the program ceased to exist. I was also surprised to discover the high number of people that were active food stamp receivers but also frequent Dining Room guests, highlighting the importance of both services for the community.

I heard from a young woman who loves using the Restaurant Meals Program because it allows her and her boyfriend to go for a date night once in a while (even if the date is at Carl’s Junior) because it gives her the privacy, service and luxury of escape that reminds her she’s just like everybody else.

Then there was an older African American man that had the most compelling  eyes and carefully chosen words who asked me if the program is being proposed to be cut because the restaurants don’t want homeless people like him taking up room from other guests.

There also was an elderly Caucasian woman who told me how she gets hungry at night waiting in line for a shelter bed, but using her EBT card at McDonalds allows her to get a hot meal after she’s checked in for a bed.

The stories went on and on and with each one my heart clenched up a little bit more. I didn’t even take a break for three hours straight because for the first time since working at St. Anthony’s, I finally felt like I was understanding poverty in a different way and finding a whole new level of meaning in the work I was doing. I don’t know how else to explain it, except that it hit me like a ton of bricks. Hearing from others the stories of people who one day were big executives and the next day were homeless is one thing, but it’s something very different to hear it first hand, only me and that person. The  equality of all people became much more real to me today; we are all on our own paths in life, experiencing suffering and worthy of the same rights, justices and simple pleasures afforded to us by our common humanity.

It’s moments like these that are why I’ve so enjoyed my time spent interning here at St. Anthony’s this summer. Advocacy is something I would like to make a career of and my time here has certainly afforded me some great lessons.  Advocacy isn’t just about policy-making, demonstrating, educating or community organizing, it’s about the people with their different faces, different stories and different things that make them smile. They are the ones that make you chant a little louder in that protest or provide testimony despite your fear of public speaking and fulfill you with the passion to keep up the good fight, no matter how many times people might say it’s not worth it.

At St. Anthony’s we’ve seen significant increases in the amount of food we’re serving in our free dining room: our numbers are up 10% compared to last year.  As the numbers of people in need of free meals at St. Anthony’s dining room increases, we realize that speaking out about hunger is more important than ever.  We will be holding a training for our guests, volunteers, and community members to prepare for Hunger Action Day by learning about anti-hunger issues in California.  The training will be on Wednesday May 11, 2011 at 2:30 pm at 150 Golden Gate Ave.  If you’re interested in attending, please contact Celina Sutton at 415-592-2728 or csutton@stanthonysf.org

Hunger Action Day is an opportunity for regular Californians to talk to policy makers about hunger issues affecting their communities.  This year, we’ll be discussing:

If you’re interested in joining us in Sacramento on May 17, please contact Celina Sutton at 415-592-2728 or csutton@stanthonysf.org to reserve a seat on our bus.  Thanks to support from California Hunger Action Coalition, transportation is provided free for all participants.

Through this bill, California would “opt out” of the lifetime federal ban on CalFresh (the new name for California’s food stamp program) for people with prior low-level drug convictions.  Thirty-seven states and the District of Columbia have already restored nutrition benefits to this vulnerable population.

I used my visit to the Fr. Alfred Center house meeting as an opportunity to tell the program participants about AB 828.  I told them that AB 828 is going to be heard by the Assembly Human Services Committee on Tuesday April 5, and the bill needs support from the community in order to make it through the legislative process.  Today, I received the most wonderful gift that the St. Anthony’s Advocacy Coordinator could ever get: an interoffice envelope filled with hand-written support letters for AB 828 from our Fr. Alfred Center participants!

Next Tuesday, April 5, 2011, I will travel to Sacramento with four of our Fr. Alfred Center participants to tell the Assembly Human Services Committee that we support AB 828.  While we’re there, we’ll hand-deliver all of the AB 828 support letters that we’ve received.

If you’d like to lend your voice of support for AB 828 and for the other anti-hunger bills being heard by the Assembly Human Services Committee on April 5, please visit our advocacy alert page, where we have an easy to use customizable letter that can be automatically emailed to the members of the committee.

Here is the text of the letter in the photograph:

I think it would be in the best interest of all that this bill be passed so that drug offenders can have a better chance to reform and make amends for past transgressions and it seems that putting road blocks in the way only leads to problems so please give people a chance and give them a way to step up.

Here are some quotes from the other letters I received:

“People like myself who strive for a new life, a new chance to become a contributing member of siciety, we all need a helping hand sometimes.”

“I believe that people trying to reintegrate into society should have assistance to facilitate reentry.  I don not believe families should go hungry because of this outdated law!  People should not be denied eligibility for past mistakes.”

“I was convicted 15 years ago for selling drugs… I’m on the right side of the law now, and trying to get my life in order.  It’s hard times, and those food stamps would come handy in a time of need.  And that time of need is now.”

“Ten years ago I was convicted of possessing drugs, and now I can’t receive food stamps.  I have since changed my life and I am still being punished for my foolish actions of a decade ago.  I have repaid my debt to society and would appreciate the chance to receive help when I need it.  It would help me feed my daughter and be a responsible father.”

When we look at the number of meals we’ve served between February 15 - March 1 of 2011, we see a 15% increase over the in the number of meals we served over the same period one year ago.   What we see at St. Anthony’s isn’t a phenomenon specific to San Francisco or to the Tenderloin: hunger continues to be a problem in communities across the nation.   Recent  reports from the Food Research and Action Center and Feeding America show that large numbers of households across the country are having trouble affording enough food. 

An article in the March 28, 2011 San Francisco Chronicle explains more about the specific issues that are related to hunger in California.  One of the factors related to hunger in our state is the burdensome and unnecessary barriers to the federal Food Stamp program (named “Cal Fresh” in California) that are  in place in California.  Only 50% of the people who are eligible for Cal Fresh actually participate in the program, and burdensome administrative requirements like mandatory finger imaging and quarterly reporting requirements contribute to California’s low participation rate.

St. Anthony’s is working with anti-hunger groups from across the state to cut through the red tape and improve California’s Cal Fresh participation rate, and you can join us!   We’ll be bringing a busload of advocates to Sacramento for Hunger Action Day on Tuesday May 17, 2011.  We’ll talk to our legislators about hunger issues in our communities and legislation that can help reduce hunger statewide.  If you’re interested in participating, please email Colleen at crivecca@stanthonysf.org

In order to answer that question, you have to talk about SSI/SSP (Supplemental Security Income / State Supplemental Program) benefits and how they relate to hunger and poverty for low-income seniors and people with disabilities.

Here in San Francisco, there are about 45,000 low-income seniors, blind people,  and people with disabilities who receive SSI/SSP benefits.  SSI/SSP provides a very basic standard of living for people who are unable to work because of age, blindness, or disability.  Single SSI/SSP recipients receive $845 per month (93% of the federal poverty level), and couples receive $1,407 per month (115% of the federal poverty level).

SSI/SSP recipients in California are ineligible for the Food Stamp program (which has recently been renamed “Cal Fresh”).  As a result of recent budget cuts, SSI/SSP recipients have seen their benefit levels cut three times over the past two years, have lost their yearly “renters rebate” of $347.50, have had the cost of living adjustment to the state-funded portion of their grant eliminated, and have received no cost of living adjustment to the federally-funded portion of their grant in either 2010 or 2011.

Seniors and people with disabilities who receive SSI/SSP have also seen their out-of-pocket contributions to Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program increase and have lost access to dental benefits altogether.

Here at St. Anthony’s, we see many seniors who are able to afford rent in the small rooms in the single room occupancy hotels of the Tenderloin, but being able to afford food is a struggle. This struggle is explained in more detail in a recent report from San Francisco’s Food Security Task Force.

Unfortunately, Governor Brown has proposed a further reduction ($15 per month) to SSI/SSP benefit levels. If you’d like to speak out against this cut, visit our advocacy alert page.