Food banks in Maine are struggling to keep up with demand as the Farm Bill remains stalled in Congress.

The bill is renegotiated every five years and contains the Emergency Food Assistance Program, which ensures food banks can help the 11% of Maine households facing hunger.

Vince Hall, chief government relations officer for Feeding America, said advocates for these families are asking Congress to double the program's funding as grocery prices remain high and supply-chain disruptions continue.

"That program moves food from local farms to local food banks," he said, "and it helps to close the gap between the food that's been donated and the food that's needed."

Hall said the current Emergency Food Assistance Program is still operating on a 2008 cost basis, which limits its impact. He said the consequences of not securing this additional funding are dire; one in five children in Maine is coping with food insecurity.

Feeding America is partnering with the Farm Bureau, International Dairy Farmers Association and the Pork Producers Council to raise awareness of the negative impacts of a delayed Farm Bill, but infighting within the GOP-led House has stalled legislative priorities. Hall said if the Farm Bill isn't updated soon, the current hunger gaps will only widen.

"We may have a crisis where not enough food is available to feed people in need," said Hall, "where distributions have to be closed or distributions run out of food."

Maine has had the highest rate of food insecurity in New England for nearly two decades. State officials hope to reverse that trend with their Roadmap to End Hunger by 2030, but there are significant structural challenges. Among food-insecure Mainers, more than 40% have incomes higher than the eligibility threshold for available relief programs, including SNAP and WIC.


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In observance of Hunger Action Month, a new statewide collaborative has launched to address food insecurity in South Dakota.

Nearly 14% of U.S. households struggled getting food last year, according to new U.S. Department of Agriculture data.

That includes over 100,000 South Dakotans, said Timothy Meagher, who's on the steering committee for the South Dakota Healthy Nutrition Collaborative.

Its members are looking to tackle food insecurity by integrating a network of resources - from healthcare groups and universities, to community foundations and food producers.

Meagher said the group aims to "align resources to actions."

"Because we believe we can improve nutrition," said Meagher, "decrease the disease, and provide every South Dakota citizen with an opportunity to be the best version of themselves."

Along with the new national data, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement that the high rate of food insecurity is "a direct outcome of congressional actions" - including blocking the expansion of the Child Tax Credit, and restricting access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

Meagher said the collaborative's one-year goals include assessing the landscape of organizations that deal with hunger and improving coordination among them, elevating voices of advocates, researchers and people experiencing food insecurity, and advancing policy to address the issue.

"Basically, we're putting on a whiteboard," said Meagher, "'Here's what we know collectively. What do we need to know, and how do we take action on it?'"

Nutritious diets can help prevent cancer and heart disease, which are the two leading causes of death in the state, according to the South Dakota Department of Health.


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By Kristi Eaton for The Daily Yonder.
Broadcast version by Deborah Van Fleet for Nebraska News Connection reporting for The Daily Yonder-Public News Service Collaboration

The links between climate change, farmers and nutrition in low-income countries is a matter of national security in the United States, said an official with the Farm Journal Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that released a new report.

"If you're hungry, you're going to do just about anything you need to do to feed yourself and your family, especially if you are a mom, and you will go hungry yourself to feed your child," Katie Lee, vice president of government affairs at Farm Journal Foundation, told the Daily Yonder.

"That leads to all sorts of challenging situations where that is more of an issue. We still have hungry people in the United States. But it is a far more dire issue in lower-income countries - just in terms of sheer percentage of populations of people who are dealing with either acute hunger where they're on the brink of starvation, or general hunger, where they're not having regular access to food, let alone nutritious food."

Lee was referring to a study that found weather events over the past several years have led to lower harvests, lost agricultural incomes and increasing food prices. All those factors contribute to increasing rates of malnutrition, according to the report by Ramya Ambikapathi and Daniel Mason-D'Croz, senior research associates at Cornell University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences' Department of Global Development.

About 3 billion people around the world are unable to afford a well-balanced, healthy diet that includes whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and animal-sourced foods, the study found. People in low- and middle-income countries, where farming is often the main source of income, are feeling the brunt of the impact.

Women farmers were a centerpiece to the report.

Ambikapathi, one of the report authors, said women feel the impacts of climate change more severely than men due to higher exposure and sensitivity. She pointed out that a crop loss or a small pest infestation can have devastating effects because they cannot address it as easily because of lower access to information and financial services compared to men.

"I think one of the more classic (impacts is that when women are primarily responsible for getting water, and the more you see drought-like conditions, (they) have to go further and further," Ambikapathi said in a Zoom interview with the Daily Yonder. "There's also a lot of new reports that come out that gender-based violence increases with climate change."

Study co-author Mason-D'Croz echoed that sentiment. Vulnerable groups have less access to resources, he said.

"When you do have some sort of an external shock, whether climate, pests and disease, economic shock of some sort - these groups almost always are the ones who get hit the hardest, because they have the least capacity to absorb it," Mason-D'Croz said in a Zoom interview.

The report makes recommendations for what U.S. policymakers can do to support global nutrition security. The recommendations include supporting investments in agricultural research and development; investing in programs that benefit women's nutrition and womenwho work in agriculture and food systems; and increasing support for programs that improve farmers' access to finance, among other recommendations.

Lee said the study points to policy actions the U.S. could take. "We have lots of opportunities through appropriations and funding and the Farm Bill to support ag development and innovation, and address challenges like climate change, global hunger and malnutrition and things like high input costs that hurt farmers, bottom lines, and more," she said.

In addition to global nutrition being a U.S. national security issue, Lee said there are also concerns about pests and health risks, including animal diseases. Thirdly, there are economic and trade angles that suggest a focus on climate change and global nutrition should be a U.S. priority.

"If we're looking at where the trade opportunities are going forward, it's in places like Africa," Lee said. "And there are huge markets and a huge rapidly growing population, where, through working with smallholder farmers to try to build up incomes in those countries, there's a huge opportunity for U.S. agriculture."

Finally, she added, it's simply the right thing to do.

"We should be taking a view that anyone who is hungry in this world, any child or a mother, who is hungry, is not acceptable," she said.


Kristi Eaton wrote this article for The Daily Yonder.


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As Colorado's fall harvest kicks into high gear, people participating in SNAP, the program formerly known as food stamps, can now get up to $60 per month added back to their EBT cards when they purchase fruits and vegetables at participating outlets, including farmer's markets.

MacKenzie Sehlke, executive director of Boulder County Farmers Markets, said the new pilot program makes it easier for more families to bring home locally-grown fruits and vegetables, and strengthen local food systems.

"These programs really allow families to access fresh produce," Sehlke explained. "It gives them some more parity in the market so that they can shop for those staples that their families want and need. And it also really supports local producers."

Colorado is one of three states to win U.S. Department of Agriculture grants to launch the pilot program, known as Colorado SNAP Produce Bonus. SNAP participants do not have to sign up, they just have to purchase healthy foods to get reimbursed up to $20 per transaction. So far, 34 farmers markets, food hubs and retail locations across the state offer the program directed by the Colorado Department of Human Services and Nourish Colorado.

The Valley Roots Food Hub based in the San Luis Valley connects local farmers and ranchers to SNAP and other customers through Colorado Supported Agriculture subscriptions, wholesale distribution and an online grocery store.

Al Stone, markets manager for the Valley Roots Food Hub, said SNAP participants can get produce, eggs and other staples, and tap Produce Bonus EBT dollars at their Mosca warehouse without paying a membership fee.

"You can buy from us as often or as little as you want," Stone noted. "Some folks buy from us on a weekly basis, and we're their main grocery store. They really love our service because we also offer home delivery."

Sehlke pointed out farmers markets allow customers to meet and build relationships with the people who grow the nutrient-dense fruits and vegetables they take home. She added they are family friendly events with lots to see, do, smell and taste.

"We offer local music at our farmer's markets," Sehlke emphasized. "We offer a variety of kids and family programming, including art-focused programming."


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