center for faith based and neighborhood partnerships

Nearly 17 million (14.6%) children in the United States live in households that are food insecure, meaning that at some point during the year, they do not get enough nutritious food to eat at home. Many Americans, especially those in rural, minority, and lower-income neighborhoods, have poor access to healthy, affordable foods like fresh fruits and vegetables. Through Let’s Move Faith and Communities, First Lady Michelle Obama has challenged community leaders to create 10,000 places—like gardens, farmers markets, and community supported agriculture sites—where communities can access fresh produce locally.

On May 26, I got to go back home to the Rio Grande Valley – the southernmost region in the continental United States – to help promote new sites for the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP). The SFSP provides free, nutritious meals and snacks to help children in low-income neighborhoods get the nutrition they need to learn, play, and grow, throughout the summer months when they are out of school.

My agency, the USDA Food and Nutrition Service, along with our state partner, the Texas Department of Agriculture, collaborated with local leaders from the Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley to bring SFSP feeding sites to the area, where unemployment figures are the highest in Texas and many families struggle to make ends meet.

Cross posted from the Let's Move! blog:

Most kids get excited about summer vacation. But for those who depend on school lunch and breakfast for their main meals of the day, they’re not as excited about summer. Unfortunately, hunger doesn’t take a vacation. Without cafeterias as the natural gathering point, congregations and community organizations are where kids can gather and get a meal this summer.

Food Banks across the country help millions of families in need keep their kitchen cabinets from going empty. Much of the food given out comes from donations; however USDA’s Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Program, or TEFAP, helps food banks stretch their donations by making USDA commodity foods available to local agencies. Those State agencies distribute the food to aid organizations like food banks who serve the public whether directly or via partners like churches.

This is just the dynamic in south San Antonio, Texas where low income families benefit from the strong long term partnership between the San Antonio Food Bank and South San Filadelfia Baptist Church.  The food bank supplies the church’s pantry—an integral part of getting food to families that need it the most.

Summer is just around the corner with most schools and school meal programs closing down for summer break.  Without school meals to depend on, too many kids don’t have access to a nutritious meal.  The Summer Food Service Program provides kids in low-income areas a free nutritious meal or snack each day.

An expanded partnership among USDA, Texas Department of Agriculture and Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley can potentially triple the number of kids served this summer through the Summer Food Service Program in the Rio Grande Valley.

More than 112,000 Rio Grande Valley moms, infants and children depend on the nutritional benefits provided by WIC - the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program Women, Infants and Children. The four counties that make up the Valley (Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr and Willacy) have done a good job of identifying and serving nutritionally at-risk households using innovative outreach methods. They have caught the attention of USDA Director of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships Max Finberg and USDA FNS Southwest Regional Administrator Bill Ludwig, who toured Hidalgo County’s main WIC clinic on April 11.

With one out of every four Latino families struggling to put food on the table, congregations and community-based organizations need all the help they can get in meeting this challenge. That is why USDA hosted Hispanic pastors in cities across the country for webinar watch events on the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP).

The National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC) partnered with USDA’s Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships and the Food and Nutrition Service to hold viewings in California, Florida, Arizona, Texas, and Washington, DC. The webinars are one of many ways USDA is engaging faith-based, Hispanic-serving organizations to participate in USDA’s nutrition assistance programs. Feeding kids through the Summer Food Service Program is particularly important: 21 million children receive free or reduced school lunches during the year, but only 3.4 million kids are fed meals over the summer through USDA summer feeding programs.

Matzah, the traditional flatbread eaten by Jewish people to commemorate Passover, decorated six circular tables, along with bitter herbs (maror), “mortar” for bricks (haroset), and green leafy vegetables (carpas).  Around the tables, USDA employees, Administration officials, and a host of guests from the non-profit and Jewish community gathered to celebrate the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Justice Passover Seder this week.

A traditional seder is a ceremonial Jewish meal commemorating the Passover holiday and Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt after being freed from slavery.  Held in partnership with Jewish Funds for Justice and the Progressive Jewish Alliance, USDA’s modernized symbolic seder was held after Passover and focused on issues where food and justice intersect.

Cross posted from the Let's Move! blog:

Spring is here and that means it is time to get your hands in the soil and start gardening!  As part of Let’s Move! Faith and Communities, First Lady Michelle Obama has challenged congregations and neighborhood organizations to plant gardens in their communities.

“So, how fortunate are you?  Are you free?  Can you eat?”
-Excerpt from JCPA Hunger Seder Haggadah

On Thursday, April 14th, US Department of Agriculture Under Secretary Kevin Concannon and several representatives from the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships joined Members of Congress and members of the anti-hunger community to observe an annual “Hunger” Passover Seder in an intimate gathering at the Capitol Visitors Center. Sponsored by the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA), this third annual Hunger Seder,  and over 40 others like it across 22 states, told the traditional story of oppression, struggle and ultimate liberation, but with a unique voice and group of participants.  Similar Hunger Seders were held across the country, coordinated by JCPA.  Collectively, the group reflected on an oppression still present in our communities today-- that of hunger and poverty -- and asked each person to renew their dedication to justice and pledge their efforts toward nourishing and protecting vulnerable people in our communities.