Report kicks off campaign urging more food for poor

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by nancy hicks

In a state that produces enough food to feed 7 million people for a year, an estimated 185,000 people lack money to buy enough nutritious food, according to a report released Thursday by the Nebraska Appleseed Center.

Many find meals, thanks to local food banks, food stamps, churches and other charitable groups, said Jen Hernandez, a community outreach worker for the center. Those groups ensure people's most basic needs are met, she said.

The report and a Thursday news conference began an educational campaign to build awareness about nutrition needs.

The campaign also aims to encourage new public policies, said Milo Mumgaard, executive director of the Nebraska Appleseed Center for Law in the Public Interest. The center plans two more reports on hunger this summer.

Appleseed held Thursday's news conference on Food Hunger Awareness Day at one of four community gardens, with straight rows of growing cucumbers, potatoes and tomatoes as a backdrop.

The gardens, tended by low-income residents, are one way for low-income residents to provide their own food.

"It's not a mystery that there are needy people," Mumgaard said. "Most Nebraskans have donated to a food bank.

"But what is vexing is the lack of any real strong, affirmative policies coming out of our state and local governments about what to do about it."

Most of the report's recommendations from "Portrait of Hunger in Nebraska" relate to state policy on food programs, including expanding the school breakfast program for needy children to encouraging state government to promote the food stamp program so more families know they are eligible.

"We want policy-makers, who we have found to be uneducated about what they could do, to start thinking about these food policy issues and to act," Mumgaard said.

Advocacy groups such as Appleseed would like to see a more inclusive and generous food stamp program, with the state taking advantage of options offered that make food stamps available to more people.

The governor and others have consistently said they view expanding the food stamp program as an expansion of welfare, Mumgaard said, adding that they don't want to see an expansion of welfare.

Appleseed, though, plans to talk soon about food policy in relation to self-sufficiency, he said.

"How do we help families become more self-sufficient? Not having to worry about food needs is part of self-sufficiency,"he said.

The report outlined reasons for "food insecurity," defined as having limited availability of nutritionally adequate and safe food.

They include not enough jobs, low wages that don't pay parents enough to sustain a family and a complex bureaucratic system that "discourages people from asking for help and dampens their spirits along the way," it says.

Appleseed solutions include promoting living wage laws so families can afford adequate food.

"Many people are working very hard, very hard just to get by," said Scott Young, director of the Lincoln Food Bank.

His agency sees the growing problems of the working poor, he said.

Solutions also include better use of federally funded food stamp programs. Some working families qualify for food stamps but don't know it, Mumgaard said.

Only about 60 percent of eligible Nebraskans receive food stamps, according to the report.

Appleseed recommends that the Health and Human Services System expand its outreach efforts, so more Nebraskans understand that they are eligible for food stamps by taking advantage of a federal program that offers a 50 percent match.

HHS provides outreach but hasn't applied for the federal match, which requires spending more state money, said Marla Augustine, an HHS spokeswoman.

The report also recommends expanding food stamp eligibility to more low-income families by raising the eligibility income to 130 percent to 150 percent of the poverty level. Eight states have raised the levels.

Mumgaard said he hopes the summer reports will spark debate and dialogue.

Reach Nancy Hicks at 473-7250 or nhicks@;journalstar.com.