This week we saw that use of food stamps (SNAP) has risen again, and is now at its highest level since President Obama took office in 2009. WNYC profiled a Bronx woman who, with a Master’s in psychology and a previous salary of $79,000, never imagined needing food stamps to get by. Also in the news, NYC will be piloting a new program that automatically enrolls children for free school meals based on their Medicaid participation and the New York Times called for clearer food labeling.

Food Stamp Use Rises To Record High...Again, Obama Foodorama, 3/2
The US Department of Agriculture just reported that the number of Americans using the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also called Food Stamps, hit a now-historic high of 46,514,238 beneficiaries in December 2011, an increase of more than a quarter million citizens from November.

On the Brink | The New Face of Poverty: Meet Yolanda, WNYC, 3/6
Only two years ago, Yolanda, a fiery mother of three with a Master’s Degree in psychology and a model resume, could never imagine being in this situation: unemployed, on public assistance and defaulting on maintenance fees for the two bedroom co-op on Seward Avenue she bought in 1982. After Yolanda Cotto was laid off due to budget cuts, she immediately started received unemployment benefits, $405 a week and $376 in food stamps. That largely helped cover her monthly maintenance fee, groceries, and other expenses such as transportation. But soon she had to dip into other resources. “I took everything out of my pension, I absorbed all resources,” Cotto said. “I have nothing.”

USDA Launches Program To Test Impact Of "Direct Certification" For Free School Meals, Obama Foodorama, 3/7
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vislack announced today that six states will participate in a pilot program, in partnership with USDA's Food and Nutrition Service, designed to study whether or not "direct certification" makes it easier for children to receive federally funded school meals. To begin on July 1 for the 2012-2013 school year, eligible children in schools in Alaska, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, New York and Pennsylvania will automatically receive free school meals based on information recorded with Medicaid.

Healthy Labels, Not Stealthy Labels, “Opinionator”, New York Times, 3/5
Research suggests that consumers spend only about one second looking at nutrition information when making myriad choices. A parent dashing through the grocery store aisles with kids in tow has to decide, in that one second, which brand is best among a multitude of choices for each product. The Times suggests that a simple, standardized and truthful label on the front of all packaged foods will help consumers make better choices and encourage food manufacturers to produce healthier packaged foods.

 
U.N. Special Rapporteur: Five Ways to Fix Unhealthy Diets, Food Politics, 3/7
Olivier de Schutter, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, has issued five recommendations for fixing diets and food systems: Tax unhealthy products; Regulate foods high in saturated fats, salt and sugar; Crack down on junk food advertising; Overhaul misguided agricultural subsidies that make certain ingredients cheaper than others; Support local food production so that consumers have access to healthy, fresh and nutritious foods.
 

Mirroring the the Food Bank's finding of a significant increase in the number of college graduates experiencing difficulty affording food, USA Today reports on the hunger problem within our nation's colleges. Providing further evidence of the rise of hunger in the United States, the University of Michigan and Harvard University report that the number of American families living on $2 a day per person has more than doubled over the past 15 years. Also in the news, a focus on added sugars and some encouraging news for fans of local agriculture in New York City.

More than 1.4 million families live on $2 a day per person, USA Today, 2/24
Government benefits blunt the impact of such extreme poverty, but not completely, says one of the researchers, Luke Shaefer, a professor of social work at Michigan. Because the study shows households in extreme poverty for a month, it is more reflective of people losing jobs, getting divorced or having short-term crises, Shaefer says. "We are trying to document the growth in deep poverty....Even one month living at this level is concerning."

Campus food banks help students through tough times, USA Today, 2/27
Julia Lyon, a student volunteer and chairwoman of the University of Arkansas's pantry, says that while the number of students struggling with hunger is "something that's kind of under the radar," it's clearly a problem on campus. Since it opened in February 2011, the pantry has met more than 800 requests for food and supplies from students and staff members, Lyon says.

Study: Kids get more added sugar from foods than drinks, USA Today, 2/29
Kids are downing an average of 322 calories a day from added sugars, or about 16 percent of their daily calories. "Soda consumption is high, but we shouldn't lose sight of the added sugars in foods such as muffins, cookies, sugar-sweetened cereals and pasta sauces," says Cynthia Ogden, senior author on the report and an epidemiologist with the National Center for Health Statistics. "Many processed foods have added sugars. Those foods contribute more than the beverages.” Sixty-five percent of calories from added sugars are consumed at home, the report says. There was no difference in percent of calories from added sugars based on income level.

Regulating Our Sugar Habit, “Opinionator,” New York Times, 2/26
How do we regulate the consumption of dangerous foods? As a nation, we’ve accepted the need to limit the marketing and availability of tobacco and alcohol. And added sweeteners, experts increasingly argue, have more in common with these substances than with fruit. We need the government on our side. It must acknowledge the dangers caused by the most unhealthy aspects of our diet and figure out how to help us cope with them, because this is the biggest public health challenge facing the developed world.

Rooftop farms looking to expand in Queens and Brooklyn , New York Daily News, 2/26
A growing number of commercial farms housed several stories high throughout the city are producing crops year-round — in many cases without even using dirt. Swaths of Queens and Brooklyn with large expanses of industrial rooftops are prime candidates for the urban agriculture expansion. “It’s local produce, it’s better for the environment and it helps us create a sustainable economy,” Seth Bornstein, executive director of the Queens Economic Development Corp said.
 

This week, the New York Daily News profiled the Food Bank’s CookShop program, citing it alongside the Let’s Move! campaign as the type of nutrition education initiative that helped contribute to the city’s 5.5 percent decline in childhood obesity over the last five years — the biggest decline of any major city. CookShop “does much to shatter the myth that becoming a healthy eater means renouncing the food you enjoy and grew up with,” columnist Albor Ruiz wrote. This year, 35,000 New Yorkers will take part in CookShop workshops. The Associated Press reported that schools across the country are increasingly taking advantage of federal funds to provide dinner options for their neediest students. Recognizing how much children rely on school for their nutrition, the Obama administration is considering stricter rules on school vending machines. The New York Times invited experts to debate the redraft of the farm bill, which sets funding and policy for food stamps, emergency food and nutrition education programs like CookShop. And The Atlantic argued that access to good, healthy food is a basic human right.

The Food Bank For New York City’s CookShop program on the ‘Move!’ in battle against obesity, Daily News, 2/19
Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! Campaign against the country’s obesity epidemic is a great, urgently-needed initiative. But in New York, the First Lady’s program is not the only game in town. Actually, CookShop, a program established by the Food Bank For New York City that incorporates nutrition education into a child’s core curriculum in the city’s public schools, has been around for 18 years with great success.

More public schools dish up 3 meals a day, Associated Press, 2/18
With breakfast and lunch already provided for poor students, many children now are getting all their meals at school. The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, signed into law by President Barack Obama in December 2010, provides federal funds for the after-school dinner program in areas where at least half the students qualify for free or reduced price lunches. The Congressional Budget Office estimates there will be almost 21 million additional suppers served by 2015 and that number will rise to 29 million by 2020.

New Guidelines Planned on School Vending Machines, New York Times, 2/20
The Obama administration is working on setting nutritional standards for foods that children can buy outside the cafeteria. With students eating 19 percent to 50 percent of their daily food at school, the administration says it wants to ensure that what they eat contributes to good health and smaller waistlines. No details of the proposed guidelines have been released, but health advocates and snack food and soft drink industry representatives predict that the rules will be similar to those for the government’s school lunch program, which reduced amounts of sugar, salt and fat.

The Farm Bill, Beyond the Farm, “Room For Debate”, New York Times, 2/21
The Farm Bill, being debated in the Senate this month, is felt far beyond the cornfields of Iowa. It’s about what we grow, but it’s also about what we eat and how we live. On the potato chip aisle, Americans are seeing the farm bill’s market pressures. On the scale at the doctor’s office, we are seeing its health effects. It fuels the growth of agribusiness, and also sustains small farms. It dictates foreign food aid, school lunches and nutrition programs like food stamps. It can encourage stewardship of the land, or not.

Access to Good, Healthy Food Should Be a Basic Human Right, The Atlantic, 2/22
A new food system is now emerging, as more Americans see what's happening, understand the consequences -- and start to take action. Perhaps the most important change is a new attitude toward food, a change in mindset. Instead of being passive consumers, eating the junk food marketed on TV, millions of people are educating themselves, changing what they eat and where they buy it. They are becoming empowered.
 

This week, Michelle Obama celebrated the second anniversary of the Let’s Move! Initiative, designed to end the nation’s obesity epidemic. In a special on CNN, Mrs. Obama recapped some of the program’s achievements, while The New York Times lauded how much the campaign has increased public awareness of obesity. Huge portion sizes are partly to blame for the country’s weight gain, and the Associated Press outlined some creative ways scientists are coaxing people to trim portions without feeling cheated. Congress announced an agreement to extend the payroll tax cuts through 2012 — without causing working families to lose their Child Tax Credit benefits — and New York City received an award from Harvard University for its pioneering approach to anti-poverty programs.

Working together for the health of America's children, CNN, 2/13
Michelle Obama writes: “Over the past two years, we have seen a new conversation in this country about how we live and eat and how that affects the health and well-being of our kids. Since we launched Let's Move!, people from every corner of this country who care about our children's futures have stepped up and proved the conventional wisdom [that kids don’t like healthy food] wrong.”

Let’s Move, She Said — and We Have, "Opinionator," The New York Times, 2/13
Most powerful of all, Mrs. Obama’s campaign has already begun to change the way the food sector — producers, restaurants and grocery stores — approaches its youngest customers. Companies are changing their business models, incorporating nutrition when they design and develop cereals, snacks, menus or school meals.

Trimming super-size with half-orders, plate colors, Associated Press, 2/14
Researchers infiltrated a fast-food Chinese restaurant and found up to a third of diners jumped at the offer of a half-size of the usual heaping pile of rice or noodles — even when the smaller amount cost the same. "We'll be seeing some very creative ways of down-sizing in the next couple of years," predicts Brian Wansink, author of Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think. But let's call it "right-sizing," says Duke University behavioral economist Dan Ariely. Right-size suggests it's a good portion, not a cut, he says.

Congressional leaders back deal on $150B economic package, The Washington Post, 2/16
House Republican and Democratic leaders publicly pronounced themselves satisfied Thursday with a deal reached by negotiators after midnight on an economic plan worth more than $150 billion that would extend a payroll tax holiday and unemployment benefits.

Harvard gives New York City award for poverty-fighting initiatives, The Daily News, 2/12
Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government gave the Innovations in American Government Award to New York City's Center for Economic Opportunity, Mayor Bloomberg announced during his Sunday radio address. The center housed within the mayor's office has come up with 50 different initiatives, Bloomberg said.

This week, the USDA released figures showing that the number of Americans using food stamps (SNAP) was down in October and November 2011, after near-steady increases since December 2008. But, as the Daily News illustrated this week with the story of a mother who resorted to desperate measures to feed her children, the federal safety net may not be strong enough to adequately support the very poor. In nutrition news, about half of public and private elementary students could buy unhealthy snacks at school during the 2009–2010 school year, according to survey results released Monday. This represents no change in the ability to get the snacks like cookies, candy and chips since the study began in the 2006–2007 school year. Also: the battle against trans fat appears to be successful, and a surprising finding on where the salt in our diets comes from.

USDA: Food Stamp Numbers Down, Obama Foodorama, 2/2
About 46.134 million Americans received aid in November of 2011, down 0.2 percent from USDA's revised 46.228 million for October. In August of 2011, after three years of increases in Food Stamp numbers, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack characterized the nutrition safety net as a "direct stimulus" for the economy that was creating and saving jobs.

The ‘poor’ that Mitt Romney ignores, Daily News, 2/7
Margaret Deming crossed the line on Saturday when she entered the Pathmark in Coney Island, asked the deli man for a pound of ham, turkey and cheese, and then grabbed a box of yeast “to bake my own bread” and dropped the items in a shoulder bag. She was nabbed by a female store detective as she left. “I did something I will have to live with for the rest of my life,” she says. “I shoplifted food for my family because I was pushed up against a mental wall of despair of seeing my kids hungry.”

Access to unhealthy snacks at school unchanged, CNN, 2/6
"Given increasing attention in recent years to the problem of childhood obesity, we would have hoped to see decreases in the availability of junk food in schools over time," said study author Lindsey Turner, health psychologist at the Institute for Health Research and Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago. "Our hope based on these data is that the guidelines that are developed will be comprehensive and will consider all venues," Turner said. "Also that those regulations will be strong and that they will be specific- that they will address things like fat content, energy content and portion size."

Blood Levels of Trans Fats Are Declining in Americans, "Well," New York Times, 2/8
The intense battle that public health advocates have waged against trans fats appears to be working: A new report shows that since 2000, levels of trans fats in Americans’ bloodstreams have plummeted nearly 60 percent. The study was financed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and carried out by scientists there and at the National Institutes of Health. The decline in trans fatty acids “shows substantial progress that should lower cardiovascular risk in adults,” said Hubert W. Vesper, a CDC scientist and lead author of the study.

CDC: Bread beats out chips as biggest salt source, Associated Press, 2/7
Bread and rolls are the No. 1 source of salt in the American diet, accounting for more than twice as much sodium as salty junk food like potato chips. That surprising finding comes in a government report released Tuesday that includes a list of the top 10 sources of sodium. Salty snacks actually came in at the bottom of the list compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Breads and rolls aren't really saltier than many of the other foods, but people tend to eat a lot of them, said Mary Cogswell, a CDC senior scientist who co-authored the report.
 

In his third State of the Union address, President Obama warned the nation that the decades-old promise of a secure and rising middle class is under threat because of growing disparities between the rich and everyone else in America. In local news, Governor Andrew Cuomo reiterated his call to stop finger-imaging food stamp applicants. Meanwhile, in Washington, the U.S. Conference of Mayors met to launch a food policy task force that will share information on urban food policy initiatives and make sure that federal policy supports these local efforts. Other encouraging news this week: Federal unemployment claims continued to drop, and the USDA announced extra aid to farmers affected by this year’s extreme weather.

In State of the Union, Obama warns economic disparity threatens middle class, Washington Post, 1/24
In an election-year State of the Union message that will likely serve as the template for the months of campaigning ahead, Obama outlined a series of steps that he believes will reinforce the tentative economic recovery, including proposals to eliminate tax incentives for companies to move jobs overseas, to make college more affordable and to expand help for credit-worthy homeowners looking to refinance mortgages at historically low interest rates.

Mayor Bloomberg Hasn’t Persuaded Governor Cuomo To Keep Food Stamp Fingerprinting, "Politicker NY," The Observer, 1/19
Governor Cuomo said, “My position is this: there are many ways to detect fraud, especially nowadays, you don’t need fingerprinting.  If fingerprinting is stopping people from applying for food stamps so children are going to bed hungry, let’s do away with fingerprinting and let’s do away with fingerprinting now. Let’s make sure no child goes to bed hungry in New York.”  He went on to describe the fingerprinting process as “intrusive, and frightening, and just unknown and threatening” for many people.

Big-City Mayors Dig In To Food Policy, The Salt, NPR, 1/19
Big-city mayors are starting to see local food policy as a key step in getting healthy, affordable food to their constituents. "One of the conversations we'll be having is wanting to work with USDA and grocery retailers to overcome the policy barriers and technology barriers to online SNAP benefits," says Holly Freishtat, director of Baltimore's Food Policy Initiative. Urban dwellers might think that the USDA doesn't have much to offer them, but cities nationwide reap billions in benefits associated with the federal farm bill. Lobbying to make sure that the 2012 farm bill reauthorization works for the benefit of urban food initiatives is the next step, Freishtat said.

Unemployment claims at 352,000, fewest since 2008, Associated Press, 1/19
December marked the sixth straight month in which the economy added at least 100,000 jobs, and the number of people seeking unemployment benefits plummeted last week to 352,000, the fewest since April 2008. When weekly applications fall consistently below 375,000, it usually signals that hiring is strong enough to push down the unemployment rate.

USDA announces $308 million in aid to help agriculture in disaster-stricken states, Associated Press, 1/18
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is adding more than $300 million to the massive amount of financial assistance federal agencies have doled out in response to an unusually intense year of natural disasters, officials announced Wednesday. In New York, which is set to receive $41.8 million — including about $37.8 million in watershed funds — money is earmarked for repairing erosion and other damage left behind by back-to-back late summer tropical storms Irene and Lee.

Newt Gingrich's labeling of President Barack Obama as the "best food stamp president in American history" drew a sharp rebuke from the White House this week, underscoring how the federal food assistance program has again become a flashpoint in national politics. The New York State food stamp program received a boost from Governor Cuomo, whose executive budget would increase funding for food stamp outreach by $1 million, consistent his pledge to eliminate barriers to access. Also this week: Congress returned to session and prepared to discuss the yearlong extension of the payroll tax cut, with both parties hoping to avoid the partisan squabbles that marked the end of 2011. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released data showing that obesity levels remain unchanged over the past decade, a finding that suggests national efforts at promoting healthful eating and exercise are having little effect on the overweight.

Campaign Renews Scrutiny of Growing Food-Stamp Program, Wall Street Journal, 1/17
Newt Gingrich continued his attack on the White House and SNAP, saying President Obama had boosted the rolls by opposing "American jobs" and failing to spur economic growth. The program's supporters say SNAP is efficient and effective. Kevin Concannon, the USDA's undersecretary for food, nutrition and consumer services, said the program has grown, as it was supposed to, because of the economic downturn, not because the Obama administration had adopted policies to expand its rolls, as Mr. Gingrich has suggested. 

The 311 on Food Stamps: What You Need To Know, MetroFocus, 1/18
It's an undeniable fact that millions of New Yorkers are hungry and need assistance to feed their families. More than 3 million a month, to be exact. But just how to help is a contentious issue. Here's what you should know about Food Stamps in New York.

Parties Confident of Extending Payroll Tax Cut, New York Times, 1/17
Republicans and Democrats say passage of a yearlong extension should go smoothly, and they vowed not to have another 11th-hour crisis before the temporary extension expires at the end of February. "We feel all the concessions going forward need to come from them," said one senior Senate Democratic official.

Obesity Rates Stall, But No Decline, New York Times, 1/17
After two decades of steady increases, obesity rates in adults and children in the United States have remained largely unchanged during the past 12 years, signaling that the country will be dealing with the health consequences of obesity for years to come.

Farmers want agriculture bill to keep safety net: Reuters survey, Reuters, 1/13
Farmers think Congress should seek cuts in agricultural spending but protect growers from volatile prices and low yields by retaining a safety net when it writes a new farm law this year, a Reuters survey released on Wednesday found. Almost half of the survey participants supported shifting the emphasis of the farm program to protecting farms from revenue loss rather than setting prices.

The Food Bank released its annual research report this week, NYC Hunger Experience 2011: Support and Sacrifice, which revealed a startling increase in the number of middle-income and college-educated New Yorkers struggling to afford food. “The fact that education is no longer a buffer against poverty and hunger is antithetical to conventional wisdom and a blow to everything we’ve ever been told,” Food Bank President and CEO Margarette Purvis said. In other news, the mayor and the governor disagreed on finger-imaging of food stamp applicants and the NYC Health Department launched a new campaign to warn New Yorkers against super-sized portions.

More College-Educated NYers Struggle To Afford Food, Report Finds, NY1, 1/11
The Food Bank's NYC Hunger Experience 2011 report finds that between 2010 and 2011 the number of college-educated New Yorkers concerned about affording food or needing assistance getting food increased by 25 percent. The Food Bank says the study shows that higher levels of education don't always provide a safety net against hunger.

NY Gov. Cuomo sets aggressive agenda for 2nd year, Associated Press, 1/5
While outlining an aggressive agenda to boost New York's economy during his second year in office, Gov. Andrew Cuomo advocated several measures to help the poor and dispossessed, such as better access to food stamps. He said 30 percent of New Yorkers eligible for food stamps, about 1.4 million people, don't get them — leaving more than $1 billion in federal funds unclaimed annually. The state should help remove barriers and stigma and end fingerprinting as a requirement, he said.

Bloomberg Says He Will Fight for Fingerprinting Rule, New York Times, City Room, 1/5
A day after Gov. Andrew Cuomo vowed to end New York City’s policy of requiring food stamp applicants to be electronically fingerprinted, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg defended the policy and said he would try to convince the governor to keep it in place.

In New Ads, Health Department Offers Super-Sized Warnings, New York Times, City Room, 1/10
In a new set of posters in English and Spanish, the health department depicts the steady increase in sizes of soda cups and French fry sleeves against backdrops of unhealthy people, including a diabetic man who is missing most of one leg. The ads, which began appearing in the subway system on Monday, warn that obesity and diabetes have become more common as the average size of food servings has risen.

Break‘fat’ club, New York Post, 1/8
A study led by Department of Health official Gretchen Van Wye compared kids who ate breakfast in class with kids in control schools where breakfast is served only in the cafeteria. It found that about one in five kids who ate in class were eating breakfast twice. “Special care should be taken to ensure that children are not inadvertently taking in excess calories by eating in multiple locations,” she writes in the research paper. Some of her colleagues fear that the controversial study could lay the groundwork for scrapping part or all of city’s free breakfast program.

This week, local nonprofits continued to report that they are seeing unprecedented demand for services, including from people who until recently lived comfortable lives.  “There are so many needy New Yorkers who are totally hidden,” Food Bank President and CEO Margarette Purvis told Crain’s New York Business.  In Albany, the state government approved an overhaul to New York State’s income tax that will reduce the rate for millions of middle-class workers.   But Congress has yet to reach agreement about extending payroll tax cuts and unemployment benefits – two issues that could impact the household budgets of millions of Americans.  We also learned that a Twinkie has less sugar than some children’s breakfast cereals.

Number of needy New Yorkers growing at alarming rate, Crain’s New York Business, 12/4
The recession has technically been over for more than a year. But social services workers say the situation is getting worse for a growing segment of the city's population. In a city filled with the fabulously wealthy, there's a growing undercurrent of dire need. In fact, food pantries have so many new customers they can't feed them all.  Many of the people who were laid off during the recession were living on unemployment benefits or savings, which have since run out.

Bronx food pantries run by Muslim Women’s Initiative will close as funding vanishes, demand rises, Daily News, 12/8
The Muslim Women’s Initiative for Research and Development has been distributing halal groceries to needy Bronxites since 1997. The tough economy has shrunk donations at the same time that residents’ need is surging, says Executive Director Nurah Ama’tullah.  Triada Stampas, director of government relations and public education for The Food Bank for New York City, which supplies food to MWIRD, said the group is facing the same problem as many other pantries and soup kitchens citywide.  “Their operating expenses really became insupportable within their budget, which is a tragic situation, Stampas said.

Albany Tax Deal to Raise Rate for Highest Earners, New York Times, 12/6
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and legislative leaders announced on Tuesday that they had reached an agreement to overhaul New York State’s income tax, creating a higher tax bracket for the highest-income residents and reducing the tax rate for millions of middle-class residents.  The agreement drew praise from an unlikely combination of business groups, which applauded the governor for devoting himself to job creation, and labor unions, which said the new revenue would help ensure that Mr. Cuomo would follow through with his promise to increase education and health care spending in the budget next year.

Congress edges toward a compromise on spending, Washington Post, 12/11
The payroll tax fight will continue this week as the House votes on a GOP-authored proposal that would link the extension of the tax cut sought by Obama with Republican priorities, including a measure to speed the construction of the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline.  Before concluding work for the year, Congress must tackle other major issues as well, including figuring out how to avert a scheduled deep cut in reimbursement rates paid to doctors under Medicare and whether to extend benefits for the unemployed.

Bonbons For Breakfast? Most Kid Cereals Pack Enough Sugar To Be Dessert, NPR, 12/7
A new report by the Environmental Working Group finds that the vast majority of popular cereals marketed to kids — 56 out of the 84 EWG looked at — don't meet the voluntary guidelines proposed earlier this year by the federal Interagency Working Group on Food Marketed to Children.  The top offenders, including Honey Smacks, Apple Jacks, Froot Loops, and Quaker Cap'n Crunch, all contain more than 41 percent sugar (by weight). The guidelines, meanwhile, for ready-to-eat cereals recommend no more than 26 percent added sugar by weight.
 

Last week, the Super-committee failed to reach agreement on a deficit reduction plan, which will result in over one trillion dollars in federal budget cuts across-the-board, including an estimated five billion dollars out of the New York State budget over the next ten years. Although substantial components of the hunger safety net will be exempt, deep cuts in other areas are likely to increase the need for emergency food. With emergency food organizations already struggling to meet need this holiday season, Governor Cuomo announced $1 million in grants to New York State’s food banks and launched a state-wide initiative urging businesses to give directly to food banks during the holidays. The New York City Council held its annual oversight hearing on hunger in New York City, focusing on finger-imaging for food-stamp applicants, which only New York City and the state of Arizona require. And the Census Bureau released sobering statistics indicating one in five U.S. children now live in poverty.

For Deficit Panel, Failure Cuts Two Ways, The New York Times, 11/21
The latest Congressional failure to agree on a plan for balancing the government’s books could yield a surprising result: a sharp reduction in annual federal deficits, larger than anything contemplated by the special panel that reached its fruitless finale on Monday. But the absence of an agreement also threatens to significantly slow growth in an already ailing economy by raising taxes on almost everyone while reducing government spending on almost everything.

Soup Kitchens and Pantries Struggle to Feed Hungry New Yorkers, DNA Info, 11/21
Many soup kitchens and food pantries across the city have been struggling to meet expanding demands while their budgets are shrinking. They’re bracing for the possibility of more cuts on the horizon. The Food Bank for New York, which distributes food to a network of roughly 1,000 local programs citywide, said this summer saw several emergency food providers having to temporarily close their doors. The organization is worried that food assistance could be slashed even more by a special Congressional committee on deficit reduction, which is supposed to vote Wednesday on ways to cut $1.2 trillion from the federal government over 10 years.

NY launches food bank funding drive, Associated Press, 11/24
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is launching "Help Your Neighbor," a statewide initiative to urge businesses and New Yorkers to give directly to regional food banks this holiday season. Cuomo also says $1 million in grants will be given to eight food banks across the state and an additional $620,000 in grants for emergency food relief organizations in communities hit by recent flooding and storms. The "Help Your Neighbor" initiative encourages New Yorkers and businesses to donate resources to help restock and fill the shelves of food banks. As a result of bad weather this year, some New York farms have struggled to provide to food banks. Additionally, Cuomo says, some donors have scaled back their giving due to tough economic conditions.

The city defends a finger-imaging requirement for food-stamp applicants, Capital NY,11/22
The Bloomberg administration's practice of requiring food-stamp applicants to be fingerprinted isn't a common one. The only other jurisdiction in America that imposes the same requirement, at the moment, is the state of Arizona. The application process for food stamps In New York City isn't terribly simple to begin with. And the finger-imaging requirement is being imposed as the need for food stamps increases, with one in five New Yorkers, and one in three children, now living in poverty.

More than 1 in 5 U.S. children poor, Census says, Reuters, 11/18
The number of children in the United States considered poor rose by 1 million in 2010, the U.S. Census said on Thursday, with more than one in five of the youngest Americans now living in poverty. "Children who live in poverty, especially young children, are more likely than their peers to have cognitive and behavioral difficulties, to complete fewer years of education, and, as they grow up, to experience more years of unemployment," the Census said.