The Wisconsin Food Bank

During my second week of my community health hours, I was placed at River City Food Bank. River City Food Bank’s main goal is to lessen hunger in the Sacramento region by offering healthy food and assistance to vulnerable populations. They do not only provide healthy food but they also provide nutrition education and counseling. In addition, they provide diapers for babies and the older population. They also provide health services for mothers and assist them with contraceptives and other important education for their women daily life. Their mission is to help people from all ages, from homeless to the working poor and families who are struggling.

Resources needed to accomplish this project included permission and approval by the University of Minnesota director of public health, which included meetings and interactions with data system personnel to initiate the first roll-out of SNAP information in an email. Met with personnel at Second Harvest Food Bank and received information on the SNAP program, phone conversations with MDH to further clarify the SNAP process. The public health student that started the Nutritious U Food Pantry was contacted and interviewed. Internet services to explore grocery stores within walking distance of the campus were needed, along with investigation into public transportation availability. Spreadsheet to perform side-by-side food costs and comparisons were

Food stamps are an important component of low-income families’ monthly resources, increasing the chances that families are able to meet basic needs (Ratcliffe, McKernan & Finegold, 2008). This form of food relief dates back to the Great Depression when many Americans lost their jobs and did not have money to feed their families. People were starving while farmers produced abundant crop that could not be sold due to a lack of consumers with buying power (Dorsch, 2013). The Federal Surplus Relief Corporation which was a part of the Agricultural Adjustment Act, bought basic farm goods at low prices and distributed the among hunger relief agencies in different states and local communities (Congressional Digest, 2013).

Food Stamp is a government-funded program in the United States. This is a program that helps people buy food for their families; in other words, it is a very important program to families living in poverty. It is the nation’s most important program in the fight against hunger. This program was developed in the 1960’s; it is made to improve the nutrition level and food purchasing power of people with low-income. This program is offered to people who cannot afford to buy groceries for their families, regardless of age, color, sex or religion. Food Stamps can only be used to buy food items not hygiene or household items, and it’s offered only on a monthly basis.

Specific Purpose: To inform the audience of the workings of the Houston Food Bank and the concepts discussed during the course which were demonstrated through our volunteer experience.

SNAP is the foundation of nutrition assistance programs. This program provides over 47 million individuals in nearly 23 million low-income households. The eligibility is not restricted to certain groups of individuals, and because of this, SNAP serves a vast amount of families with children, elderly people, and individuals with disabilities. Others eligible for SNAP include families with adults who work in low-wage jobs, unemployed workers, and those with a fixed income. The SNAP Program assists about 72 percent of people who live in households with children. Nearly 25 percent of households with seniors and individuals with disabilities, are also assisted (Rosenbaum, 2013).

On Tuesday evening, over fifty of our leaders from Auto, Innovation, and Recovery came to fight hunger and feed hope at the San Antonio Food Bank. Collectively they sorted through 20,330 pounds of food which resulted in 16,264 meals for the city of San Antonio and it's surrounding counties. It was an evening of camaraderie and fun that will never be forgotten.

Did you know that 17% of Americans in rural areas live below the poverty line, and out of those 17%, 15 million of those individuals are children? (Hunger In America 2014). The month of September was Hunger Action month and many individuals helped raise awareness by taking the Food Stamp (SNAP) Challenge. This challenge consists of an individual living on the SNAP balance of a $6-7 per day budget for food. Many individuals came to the realization that this is a difficult budget, and does not meet the nutritional needs for a family.

My family and I did well on food stamps because we went grocery shopping prior to this assignment, and we generally keep our groceries stocked. We are a family of three who had an allotted amount of $511 for the month, which was a total of $18.25 per day, and we were on food stamps for six days. We spent approximately $50 within those days on mostly unnecessary items because of not being prepared for dinner. However, had we not went grocery shopping and did not have many groceries on hand, this assignment would have been extremely challenging.

Also many of the impoverished people have SNAP benefits, but they do not have a grocery store near them to use these benefits at. The Social Work and Social Welfare textbook states that, “The average SNAP grant per household was $287, or $4.30 per person per day.” This means that most people really could not fully feed themselves while using SNAP. The researchers that conducted the study in this article interviewed and observed various different kinds of people in a rural county. The people they interviewed were of all different ages, had lived in the county for different amounts of time, and had different incomes. The researcher spent a long period of time volunteering at the rural food pantries to make relationships with the community members and to observe what challenges they are facing. After spending that time volunteering, they got volunteers to be interviewed using open-ended questions so that they could have a more complete understanding of the challenges of this food desert. A major finding in the study was that people with strong social ties in the communities did not have problems feeding themselves and keeping themselves

Has your welfare benefits been shut down? Food stamps are a stimulus to people who are unemployed and homeless. It’s also a way for people who are working part time making low wages to receive additional assistance from the government. Hardships like this affect our communities with low income or no income. The city of Atlanta, for instance, is rapidly growing. The United States Census Bureau says, “19.2% of Georgians are in poverty today.” Increased from last year, although there are many factors that contribute to poverty today. Atlanta’s efforts rise in poverty, as food stamp cuts and backlogging shortens local incentives in the Atlanta community, which needs to reform policies as spending, and enrollment responsibility. To help those struggling in our community to actively be aware of what is going on in the community.

Poverty is an issue that can affect anyone. One of the biggest struggles for those living in povery is obtaining and affording food. Thankfully the United States has a food assistance program for people who are living in poverty. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formally known as Food Stamps is a monthly budget specifically for food. While it has not eliminated hunger in the United States, it is a step forward and is also a prevention to hunger in poverty stricken families.

Previous funds were used to pay the pantry’s one employee, Program Director Stephani Nichols. Her resume is attached. She has brought great value to Project 66 Food Pantry and has provided assistance well beyond her wages. Stephani has enabled the pantry to meet their previous goals (find and purchase a building, buy, and implement computers) and has created new goals that meet the needs of the Edmond community.

Food is something precious and is a need to all living beings. Food stamps are given by SNAP formerly called the Food Stamp Program, is the nation's largest nutrition assistance program and a key automatic stabilizer of family well-being during economic downturns. It also provides important nutritional support for low-wage working families, seniors, and people with disabilities living on fixed incomes. Food stamps are beneficial to low income families because it provides food for those cannot afford it.

There are so many people in this world today, that are not aware of the huge storage in our local food bank community. Per the Houston food bank the goal of the Feeding America program is to make food accessible to feed hungry people in their greatest times of need. Therefore, our team is gear up to break the food shortage in defining the problem, analyze the cause, identify criteria, potential solutions and selecting the best solution.