As 2015 comes to a close, we wanted to send you one last thank
you for your continued support of our mission to end hunger through community
partnerships.
You can help us make 2016 a brighter year for the 1 in 7
children, families and neighbors in need in our area.
And because every $1 you give provides FIVE meals, imagine
the impact you can make on the lives of so many.
If you haven't already, please consider making one final tax-deductible gift before the end of 2015.
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Thank you, and Happy
New Year.
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Thursday, December 31, 2015
Last chance for your 2015 tax deductable donation!
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
Happy New Year
On behalf of Second Harvest
staff, volunteers and all whom we serve please accept our sincere thanks
for your support of Second Harvest North Central Food Bank.
Because of your contributions
we were able to distribute 4.5 million pounds of food through our member
agencies to thousands of children, families and low income seniors in
north central Minnesota. While we are proud of all that we accomplished in
2015, our work continues.
Please consider a 100% tax-deductible year-end gift to Second Harvest North Central Food Bank and help us feed hope in 2016.
Again, we would like to thank you for your support of our mission to end hunger.
Happy New Year,
Susan Estee, Executive Director
Second Harvest North
Central Food Bank Tuesday, December 15, 2015
Jaden Hebeisen – Feeding Hope for the Holidays
Jaden Hebeisen – Feeding Hope for the Holidays
Jaden Hebeisen didn’t
get any presents on her birthday. Jaden won’t get any at Christmas this year
either.
Instead, Hebeisen, who
just turned 9, took the gifts she would have received and, with her dad Jared’s
help, Jaden brought them to Second Harvest North Central Food Bank and donated
them to the Itasca Holiday Program. “I just heard a similar story on the radio
and I ran to my dad and told him that I wanted to do that too, help others.” Jared thought that the idea would quickly
fade and become forgotten but when Jaden got up the next day, they made a plan
to give her presents away. Not only did Jaden give her gifts but on Monday,
December 14th, Jaden and her dad dedicated several hours packing and
distributing gift bags to those in our community that are in need.
“On my birthday, other people get my presents,
so it helps families,” she said.
For her 9th birthday,
she said, “I didn’t need anything, and I wanted to donate. It’s important to
help others.” “I couldn’t be more proud
of her, said Jared.
Jaden with Second Harvest Board Member Diane Skelly |
Second
Harvest North Central Food Bank serves 115 hunger relief agencies in
Koochiching, Itasca, Cass, Aitkin, Crow Wing, Mille Lacs and Kanabec counties. Just
over 4.8 million pounds of food and grocery products were distributed through
those agencies in 2014. For more information regarding Second Harvest North
Central Food Bank, visit www.secondharvestncfb.com
or call 218.326.4420.
Tuesday, December 8, 2015
SNAP REPORT FROM THE WHITE HOUSE
FACT
SHEET: Council of Economic Advisers Releases Report Highlighting New Research
on SNAP’s Effectiveness and the Importance of Adequate Food Assistance
A new report
released today from the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) finds
that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as
Food Stamps, is highly effective at reducing food insecurity—the government’s
measure for whether households lack the resources for consistent and dependable
access to food. The report highlights a growing body of research that finds
that children who receive food assistance see improvements in health and
academic performance and that these benefits are mirrored by long-run
improvements in health, educational attainment, and economic self-sufficiency.
The report also features new research that shows benefit levels are often
inadequate to sustain families through the end of the month—resulting in
high-cost consequences, such as a 27 percent increase in the rate of hospital
admissions due to low blood sugar for low-income adults between the first and
last week of the month, as well as diminished performance on standardized tests
among school age children.
Each month, SNAP helps
about 46 million low-income Americans put food on the table. The
large majority of households receiving SNAP include children, senior citizens,
individuals with disabilities, and working adults. Two-thirds of SNAP benefits
go to households with children.
Today’s CEA report draws on a
growing body of high-quality research about food insecurity and SNAP, finding
that:
SNAP
plays an important role in reducing both poverty and food insecurity in the
United States—especially
among children.
·
SNAP benefits
lifted at least 4.7 million people out of poverty in 2014—including 2.1 million
children. SNAP also lifted more than 1.3 million children out of deep poverty,
or above half of the poverty line (for example, $11,925 for a family of four).
·
The temporary
expansion of SNAP benefits under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of
2009 (ARRA) lifted roughly 530,000 households out of food insecurity.
SNAP
benefits support vulnerable populations including children, individuals with
disabilities, and the elderly, as well as an increasing number of working
families.
·
Nearly one in
two households receiving SNAP benefits have children, and three-quarters of
recipient households have a child, an elderly member, or a member with a
disability. Fully 67 percent of the total value of SNAP benefits go to
households with children as these households on average get larger benefits
than households without children.
·
Over the past
20 years, the overall share of SNAP recipient households with earned income
rose by 50 percent. Among recipient households with children, the share with a
working adult has doubled since 1990.
SNAP’s
impact on children lasts well beyond their childhood years, providing long-run
benefits for health, education, and economic self-sufficiency.
·
Among adults who
grew up in disadvantaged households when the Food Stamp Program was first being
introduced, access to Food Stamps before birth and in early childhood led to
significant reductions in the likelihood of obesity and significant increases
in the likelihood of completing high school.
·
Early exposure
to food stamps also led to reductions in metabolic syndrome (a cluster of
conditions associated with heart disease and diabetes) and increased economic
self-sufficiency among disadvantaged women.
SNAP has
particularly large benefits for women and their families.
·
Maternal
receipt of Food Stamps during pregnancy reduces the incidence of low
birth-weight by between 5 and 23 percent.
·
Exposure to
food assistance in utero and through early childhood has large overall health
and economic self-sufficiency impacts for disadvantaged women.
The majority of
working-age SNAP recipients already participate in the labor market, and the
program includes important supports to help more recipients successfully find
and keep work.
·
Fifty-seven
percent of working-age adults receiving SNAP are either working or looking for
work, while 22 percent do not work due to a disability. Many recipients are
also the primary caregivers of young children or family members with disabilities.
·
SNAP also
supports work through the Employment and Training program, which directly helps
SNAP beneficiaries gain the skills they need to succeed in the labor market in
order to find and retain work. During fiscal year 2014, this program served about
600,000 SNAP recipients.
Even
with SNAP’s positive impact, nearly one in seven American households
experienced food insecurity in 2014.
·
These
households—which included 15 million children—lacked the resources necessary
for consistent and dependable access to food.
·
In 2014, 40
percent of all food-insecure households—and nearly 6 percent of US households
overall—were considered to have very
low food security. This means that, in nearly seven million
households, at least one person in the household missed meals and experienced
disruptions in food intake due to insufficient resources for food.
While
SNAP benefits allow families to put more food on the table, current benefit
levels are often insufficient to sustain them through the end of the month, with
substantial consequences.
·
More than half
of SNAP households currently report experiencing food insecurity, and the
fraction reporting very low food security has risen since the end of the
temporary benefits expansion under ARRA.
·
New research
has linked diminished food budgets at the end of each month to high-cost
consequences, including:
o
A drop-off in
caloric intake, with estimates of this decline ranging from 10 to 25 percent
over the course of the month;
o
A 27 percent
increase in the rate of hospital admissions due to low blood sugar for
low-income adults between the first and last week of the month;
o
An 11 percent
increase in the rate of disciplinary actions among school children in SNAP
households between the first and last week of the month;
o
Diminished
student performance on standardized tests, with performance improving only
gradually again after the next month’s benefits are received.
Administration
Efforts to Build on Progress
To reduce hunger and improve
family well-being, the Obama administration has been and remains dedicated to
providing American children and families with better access to the nutrition
they need to thrive. These investments make a real and measurable difference in
the lives of children and their families, and ensure a brighter, healthier
future for the entire country.
Through the Recovery Act, the
Administration temporarily increased SNAP benefits by 14 percent during the
Great Recession to help families put food on the table. Reports indicate
that food security among low-income households improved from 2008 to 2009
amidst a severe recession and increased unemployment; a significant part of
that improvement is likely attributable to SNAP.
The Administration has also
developed several initiatives to improve food security and nutrition for
vulnerable children. Through the Community Eligibility Provision, schools
in high-poverty areas are now able to offer free breakfast and lunch to all
students with significantly less administrative burden. Recent revisions to the
Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)
added a cash benefit to allow participants to purchase fruits and vegetables, a
change that substantially increased the value of the package. The
Administration also has expanded access for low-income children to nutritious
food during the summer months when school meals are unavailable and the risk of
food insecurity is heightened. The results of these efforts have been
promising. In 2014, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) delivered 23
million more summer meals than in 2009. And the Administration has
successfully implemented Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer for Children
(SEBTC) pilots, which provide additional food assistance to low-income families
with children during the summer months. These pilots were found to reduce very
low food security among children by 26 percent. The President’s 2016
Budget proposed a significant expansion of this effort.
Finally, this Administration has
provided select states waivers to test ways of reducing the administrative
burdens of SNAP for elderly households, a population that continues to be
undeserved. After seeing positive results in participating states, including
an increase of elderly participation by more than 50 percent in Alabama, the
President’s 2016 Budget included a proposal to create a state option that would
expand upon these efforts to improve access to SNAP benefits for the elderly.
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