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street roots
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Jan 3Í, 2014
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FOOD, from page 1
M ULTNOM AH, from page 1
SNAP (which is about the combined impact of
the November cuts with the current
legislation) will lead to a $15 billion increase
for diabetes alone. People who have diabetes
have to eat a very specialized diet and eat very
regularly, particularly if they are on
medication. On the other hand, if they’re only
able to afford what is called high glycemic
index foods like soda pop, chips and bread,
potatoes — you can fill yourself up for not a
whole lot of money but they tend to make your
blood sugar race up and down and there are
more complications to diabetes.
If you’re trying to save society money, that’s
riot how to do it. What you’re doing is
increasing all kinds of impairments, learning
ability, hospitalizations, behavior problems,
and .ending probably with a wash or worse in
health care and education cost And SNAP in
particular: It’s the only kitchen table program
in that it feeds all members of a family. You
can’t gó to a fast food restaurant and spend
your SNAP there. All of the other programs
(that provide food), they only feed people in
congregate settings. So when you have a
blizzard and those kinds of situations, they’re
closed.
The dose is too low and it’s going to get
lower.
Few people have viewed this issue from as many
angles as Liesl Wendt, who is serving as interim
County Commissioner for the campaigning Deborah
Kafoury. Wendt is on leave from her work with the
state’s self-sufficiency programs at the Department
of Human Services. She is also a former policy
advocate for the Oregon Food Bank. She was also
the executive director of 211Info, the statewide
reference center, which manages more than
250,000 calls for assistance each year.
“The potential of roughly $9 trillion over 10 years
will have an even more significant impact to Oregon
and Multnomah County,” said Liesl Wendt “These
are dollars going directly to support people’s
nutrition and the local economy. The ripple effect is
significant, and the nonprofit sector, while an
incredible system, cannot make up for the loss of
such support from a public structure such as
SNAP.”
Oregon is one of the states that participate in
the so-called heat-and-eat program, which is being
targeted by the cute. That program leverages low-
income energy assistance benefits to bolster SNAP
benefits for low-income families. The legislation
now in the pipeline would limit that program, and
other bills would further restrict payments based
on energy assistance.
“In that program alone, more than 18 percent of
families benefit from the program and are still
struggling to make ends meet,” Wendt says.
Oregon’s SNAP usage soared in the second half
of 2009 with the impact of the Great Recesssion. It
has remained high under the pall of high
J.Z.: A n d according to the statistics, S N A P
cuts could have a disproportionate affect on
com m unities o f color.
D.F.: It affects impoverished communities.
IPs hot a racial or an ethnic issue. It’s a
poverty issue. I’m sure you can make a strong
argument that if you’re concerned about social
mobility, depriving children’s bodies and
brains, and also making their mothers hungry
and sick, pushes them further back from the
starting line. There are people who can
overcome it. But we can do much better. We
took it as a national public health measure and
Hg g o a l t o m a k e s u re , a l t t
D.F.: It’s a human rights issue, the fact that
it transcends the U.S. Constitution. In fact,
stuff like the Universal Declaration of the
Rights of the Child, the right to adequate food
is one of the rights. I come at this from a very
medical perspective, but if you talk to people
twhQ eti^rn ^ re^hilosophicak from their .
people in the United
States have access to
an adequate diet and a
healthy life.
"The ex.peri.eae» o tb e la g
repeatedly h n a g r j Im pairs
d illire a ^ s a b ility t®
la a feaewledge^based
society."
1.2,.’. I n economic
terms, sicker children
need more health care
resources; The average
Pediatric hospitalization
costs $11,000. I t seems that there’s a passing o f
the buck in costs here. Who picks up the tab?
D.F.: If you’re interested in saving health
care costs, the dumbest thing you can do is
cut nutrition. Food is the cheapest; medicine,
someone told me once. Bad food keeps you
alive but it also has toxicity. The long-term1
costs are in the degradation of human capital.
J.Z.: From the context o f the fu tu re 1
generation’s potential fo r “life, liberty a n d the
p u rsu it o f happiness, ” in a sense, this sounds as
m uch like a constitutional issue as a fiscal policy
matter.
c r e a tin g c o m m u n ity ,
c r e a tin g c h a n g e , t o g e th e r
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perspective it is a huge human rights violation.
J.Z.: W hat should people do? I t seems both
sides seem ready to compromise a t this p o in t on a
$9 billion cut.
D.F.: It’s $9 billion for the Farm Bill, plus
the wholesale cute in November after the |
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
expired. So essentially, It’s like a $20 billion
c u t You can tell your state senators:. Do not
compromise this budget. Do not accept the $9
billion cut. And make it an issue in the next
round of elections. How many more hungry
children do you want in Oregon?
Oregon is an example of a state that had
one of the worst child hunger issues. ! would
think people would be very worried about
what’s going to happen next.
This isn’t a partisan issue. Fixing hunger is
one place that people ought to be able to get
together without partisan issues.
It’s very hard to work if you’re sick and cold
and hungry and worried about where you’re
going to-sleep tonight. If all your time and-
energy goes into survival, it’s very hard work.
Also the experience of being repeatedly
hungry impairs children’s ability to function in
a knowledge-based society. .
J.Z.: S o i t ’s more vital now than if was, say,
50 years ago?
D.F.: Absolutely! Today we’re in a
knowledge-based economy. You can’t just go
out on a farm or into an industrial setting and
get a decent wage. I don’t think it was so
important when cognitive skills were not
basically the only pathway to economic
participation.
What used to happen was kids were very
nourished until they got to the army and got
to school, and then they would have some
physical “catch,” an environment that
improved their diet.
5.2;. There are a lot o f issues that the federal
governm ent has trim m ed back on - housing a n d
other social services am ong them. In this case,' ,
where do you see the line between federal
responsibility a n d social obligation?
D.F.: I think it’s at all levels of society. It is
in our country’s self interest I t is a federal,
state and local, nonprofit and individual <
responsibility. But really and truly, just like
protecting the borders of our country is a
priority of our federal government, so should
be protecting the brains of our kids.
SISTERS
OF THE
ROAD
£
We ore—
}
Hospitality & Friendship
}
Community 4 change through
If"
the Homeless
Bill of Rights Campaign
Working together for
nonviolence 4 justice
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And don’t forget: fun!
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unemployment and low-wage options in the
recovery. In November, when the boost from the
federal stimulus package expired, the reduction was
the equivalent of losing $1.2 million per month for
Multnomah County SNAP recipients, according to
county figures.
Locally, Wendt says, both nonprofit and
government agencies will have to adjust as people
fell through the cracks.
“In the short-term, support for local food
pantries and programs such as energy assistance
are going to be critical,” Wendt says. “In the longer
term, the city, county and state, along with our
partners in the private sector, are going to need to
ramp up training and skill building efforts so that
those who are underemployed, unemployed
especially including the long-term unemployed,
have an opportunity to build skills that match what
employers need.”
According to the Oregon Department of Human
Services, in 2012,112,000 Oregonians worked part-
time involuntarily due to business conditions - two
and a half times more than in 2007. And the vast
majority of the jobs lost in the Great Recession, 88
percent, were middle-wage positions paying
between $25,000 and $50,000 salaries. Most
current and former SNAP recipients work less than
full time, according to the state Department of
Human Services.
“It’s clear that the way the economy is rebuilding
is still leaving far too many people on the sidelines.
In many ways these cuts are a canary in the
mineshaft and a call to focus in a more concerted
way on creating a path to living-wage jobs.”
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