jim mcgovern: i'llcome back over here. so, we got alittle discussion, and much like theprevious panel, i'm going to kind of leadoff with some questions, and ask the paneliststo respond to it. but we'll beginwith dr. hassink. will you describe theproblem with hunger from a medical or healthperspective? in particular, why did aapdecide to focus on hunger,
and what is aap's new policyaround screening for food insecurity? sandra hassink:thank you very much, and it's an honor tobe here today with you, representative mcgovern, whoi -- who we know you're a fierce advocate forchildren, and a leader -- jim mcgovern: thank you. sandra hassink: --in child nutrition, and thank you.
and so, an honor to be here,and a privilege to be here with all of you, especiallygetting through all the snow that we had to getthrough to get here. i've spent my entirecareer in pediatrics, focusing on the connectionsbetween nutrition and child health. and also, on the universaltruth -- that no child should go hungry. and that the health of ourpopulation begins with the
health of our children. and i think we want to staywith those two truths today. sound nutrition, alongwith stable nurturing relationships, and safe andhealthy environments are the foundations of child health. and they are the foundationsthat guarantee that our population will be healthy,and that optimal nutrition, starting at infancy, setsa stage for a healthy childhood, anda healthy life.
and we know that childrenwho are well nourished early in life have healthierbrain development. they have to be wellnourished in those early years, when the brain isundergoing its most rapid developmentaland growth phase. they have higher i.q.s. they have strongerimmune systems. they have better educationalperformances than those children, those infants andchildren who
are not well nourished. and i know, asa pediatrician, that the best medicinein the world will not be effective if i am treatingan undernourished child. it will not be effective. so, for pediatricians,nutrition is health, and it's a corecomponent of health. and i think -- and for manyparents have -- it's a core component of how they areproviding health for their
children and families. good nutrition is alsochronic disease prevention. so, when i talk topediatricians about early infant feeding -- and we doa lot of counseling about early infant feeding. we have many early visits --22 visits before the age of five. early infant feeding ischronic disease prevention, in this day and age.
that's what this is. if you guarantee optimalnutrition for their youngest children. good nutrition preventschronic disease, and it also helps treat theeffects of chronic hunger. and we're learning a lotabout food insecurity and its impact on the child,both health-wise, and also through themechanism of toxic stress. and toxic stress means thatwhen you're undergoing
chronic, unremitting stress-- the stress, for example, not knowing where yournext meal is coming from, or the stress when you're ina family whose parents are highly stressed about food insecurity and having enough money. but that causesbiologic in the child. it causes changesin their hormones, changes in the way theirgenetics are read out. and this stress sets a childup, this toxic stress,
for adult cardiovasculardisease, diabetes, cancer, liver disease. in fact, next week, i'mmeeting with the cancer society, who is recognizingthat sound nutrition in childhood now is a corecancer prevention strategy. so, for many families,the stress caused by the inability to provide foodfor their family becomes worse at the endof the month, and it can be unremitting,month after month,
and causes family stress andbiologic stress in their children. now, i want to point outtoday that the picture food insecurity is increasingly apicture of a child who has overweight or obesity, whois consuming a poor quality diet. and you heard about some ofthis in the previous panel. and so, our children nowhave a double burden of both obesity and food insecurity.
and if you add togetheroverweight, obesity, and food insecurity, we'reapproaching a 50 percent rate of a -- of nutritioncrisis in our children. so, the double burden ofobesity and food insecurity coexists -- it's global. it coexistsnationally, locally, and even within familiesand individuals. so, there're individualsthat are stunted, don't achieve their growthpotential in height because
of early food insecuritywho later have obesity. and that is a double burdenthat's compromising health in our country. the connecting factor forthese -- this double burden is often poverty, and thehighest rates of obesity are often found in peoplewith the lowest incomes. and the challenge for a lowincome family in today's food environment isobtaining -- having access to high quality food.
high quality food. high quality food buildsand supports health. you can't make a healthybody if you don't have high quality food. so, recognizing the majorimplications of child hunger, last year, theacademy of pediatrics began recommending that allpediatricians screen children for food insecurityby asking two food insecurity questions, andbecome familiar with federal
and community resources thatthey connect the families and children to, and referthose patients in need of those services tofood resources. and thankfully, we haveprograms like snap and wic and school meals and summerfeeding to ensure that children in need are ableto access these programs, but they'reoften not enough. so, only -- as you heard,only 16 percent of children who qualify for free,reduced lunch have access to
summer meals, and that youngchildren may fall into the nutritional gapbetween school start, when they'retoo old for wic. but i just want to remindyou that thanks to the tremendous efforts ofsenator stabenow and senator pat roberts, we now have achild nutrition bill that address many ofthese issues. it keeps wic strong, andallows it to reach more children.
it protects the progresswe've made to give all students healthy schoolmeals and food options throughout the day, andcreates more opportunities to address hunger andmalnutrition during the summer. so, we're on the board,as the congressman said, we have a long road to go,but we are on the road. and i think we should spendsome time thinking not how we're going tofeed more children,
but asking ourselves thatwhy are we asking that question, and why are wesitting here as a country, saying basically, "how manymore children are we going to let go hungry this year? why are we doing that?" so, thank you very much. jim mcgovern: thankyou very much. you know what, the previouspanel talked about snap as an investment, which i thinkthat's the way we ought to
refer to it. this is an investment. and dawn, as a formersnap recipient, i thought i would ask youwhether you could tell us what led you toapply for snap, and what was yourexperience in the program? dawn phipps: not long ago,my son and i were the face of snap in idaho. i still vividly rememberjanuary 10 of 2010 at 5:30 p.m.
in the afternoon. my boss, who was abankruptcy attorney, called me into his office tolet me know that he had to eliminate my position. and i was terrified. i was a single mom with agrowing teenage son to take care of. while i did receiveunemployment, those benefits did not evencome close to replacing what
i was making. was relentlesslylooking for a job, applying everywhere thatthere was an opening. but the recession wasstill in full swing. and with unemploymentat 8.8 percent in idaho, jobs were farand few between. i knew that if i was goingto be able to take care of my son, i was goingto ask for help. and i felt like an absolutefailure, as a mother.
i'd always worked full timeand been able to support myself and my children. i tried to make ends meet. i stopped seeing mynurse practitioner, who helped memanage my diabetes. i delayed paying the powerbill as long as i could, but it wasn't enough, andthe food was dwindling. first, i decided togo to a food pantry. i was ashamed andembarrassed that i even had
to be there. the staff mademe feel welcome, and they gave me a bigbox of very healthy food. i was also relieved becausei could put food in the pantry, and fix somethingfor my son to eat for dinner. the food i received from thefood pantry was a big help, but it wasn't enough toget us through the month, and i was beginningto feel defeated. when i went to applyfor food stamps,
i sat in my car for an hourand cried before going in. it was very humbling,as a parent, to realize that you can't dosomething as basic as feed your children without help. i was nervous about whatpeople would think of me. i was so glad wheneverything went well at health and welfare, and iwas able to enroll in snap, and we got ourbenefits the next day. receiving snap meant that wedidn't have to go hungry,
though it was challenging toensure that we were eating healthy and nutritious food. my benefits for myself andmy son were $317 a month. that works outto $79.25 a week, or $5.60 per person per day. cans of chili, packsof frozen burritos, ramen noodles, are alot cheaper than meat, fresh fruits,and vegetables. what i was not prepared forwas how society would treat
me, or how other peoplewould look at me. at the grocery store, whenpeople saw i was using my snap card, they were rude. there was eyerolling, whispers. people pointed at my cart,even some hostility from the cashier. i started shopping late atnight so i might avoid all the judging people. i even consideredshopping in another town,
so no one would know me. many people think those ofus who need assistance are deadbeats and leeches, whodon't work and take no personal responsibility. when in reality, we'rejust like everyone else. many of us have jobs. we have children forwhom we want the best. we are trying hard to makeends meet, from day to day, but sometimes, lifethrows a curve ball,
and you need a helping hand. today, thingsare much better. in january of 2011, i founda full time job with the state that -- andi loved my job. in may of 2011, i receivedmy last disbursement with snap. i got married in 2014 tomy amazing and supportive husband. and my son isabsolutely thriving. i've since left myjob with the state,
and returned to nursing,and i couldn't be happier. i want to thank you forinviting me here today to share my story. and it's very hardto talk about. i meant, it --this was in 2010, and it's six years later,and it's still hard. but with so many stereotypesabout what hunger looks like, and who's on snap, ithink it's important for people to know that the faceof hunger looks like any one
of us, and snap is alifeline to families that fall on hard times. (applause) jim mcgovern: with that,i want to thank dawn, because i know it wasn'teasy to kind of relive all of that, but i do think thatone of the ways we're going to kind of change thepolitics of this is to -- is to expose people to reality. and that means having totell stories like this over
and over and over againbecause i think that some members of congress -- idon't think ever talk to anybody who's on snap. maybe if they all had tolive on $1.40 per meal per day, they might be a littlebit more sympathetic to all of this. but i -- there'sa disconnect, and i think that we need to-- we need to push back. and so, i really appreciate,very much, you coming here,
and you -- dawn phipps: thank you. jim mcgovern: -- giving this-- providing us your story. and mr. mitchell, can youtell us how you've seen hunger affect children'sability to learn? mr. clint mitchell:well, first, let me start by saying thankyou for allowing me to be here. it's a great honor to beable to share some of my work with the audience,and also with the panel.
before i answerthe question, and i was -- iwas just thinking, little bit aboutdawn's story. and i was listening to itand how powerful it is, and i immediately started tothink about my next level of work over the nextcouple of days. you know, we had a bigsnowstorm in this metro area. and i was driving, ireceived a text message from the superintendent sayingthat school is closed for
the next two days becauseof the snow in virginia. and i started to thinkabout my students. and we have a backpackprogram where we send food home on fridays. and as i listened todawn's story, immediately, i started to think, well,what's going to be my plan? to make sure that thesestudents get the food they were supposed to get onfriday in their backpacks to go home.
so, that's a little bitof a challenge for me, and i'm hoping thatas i finish here, i have a solution to that. but i'll go backyour question. so, as an elementaryprincipal, when i think abouthunger in our schools, two things reallycome to mind. one has to dowith discipline. not a lot was said todayabout the issue of
discipline, but i'm goingto spend some time talking about that. and also, the otherone is instruction. when children come to schoolhungry, they are tired. lack of sleep, thatcause them to be very, very irritable in schools. lack of focus. and this leads to severebehavioral issues at the school setting.
when they're not focused,these problems we see manifest daily. sometime, teachersdon't know why. they ask questions. the children are embarrassedto say why they are feeling the way they are feelingbecause they don't want to share the fact that theyare coming to school hungry because somehow, mom and dadwas not able to feed them. and when we see thosediscipline problems arise in
our schools, itleads, eventually, to in-school suspension. it also leads to outof school suspension, depending on theseverity of the issues. and then, in fact, put kidsat a disadvantage in what we called a tiered system. and when we put kidsin tiered systems, especially with discipline,as they move from elementary to middle schoolto high school,
we heard earlier the factthat there's an increased chance of them droppingout of high school. and with the dropoutrate, you know, that have a directcorrelation, in terms of what weheard about the economy. instructionally, when kidscome to school hungry, they're not ready to learn. they're not focused. instructionbecomes secondary.
when they gohome on weekends, homework becomes an issue. they can't focuson doing homework. they don't have the parentsto be able to spend time with them to get thehomework done because they're tryingto spend time, trying to figure out howthey're going to feed them. we ask kids to read daily. that becomes an issue.
if i'm hungryon the weekend, there's no way in the worldi'm going to read for 20 minutes to increasemy literacy skills. we also see at the schoollevel that students' reading levels eitherbecome flattened, or it drops overthe course of time. and that, in itself, have ahuge impact on retention. so, while i'm not aproponent of retention or social promotion, itdoes have an effect,
at the school level, becausewhat happens is when those childrens -- thechildren are retained, the chances of them droppingout of high school also increases. so, programs such as snap,(inaudible) from what we've heard earlier, they arenecessary for the survival of those students. their well-being,their health. and most importantly,for our future.
and we, as a nation, we are-- have an opportunity, we have an obligation tochange the course for some of those students, andwe have the right to do, and we need to do. thank you. carlos, as a director of afood bank in new jersey, can you describeyour clientele, and the breadth of theservices that you provide, and the role of the privatesector as a partner in
tackling hunger? carlos rodriguez:absolutely. so, first, thank you forinviting me to be here to talk about the criticalroles that not only snap play, but charitable foodassistance play in both alleviating food securityand helping families and individuals really getback on their feet. you know, as you mentioned,i'm executive director at the food bank of monmouthand ocean counties.
and my food bank is nearlyone of 200 food banks across the nation that are membersof feeding america. and together, we provideabout 3.7 billion meals to more than 46 millionpeople each year. while it's true that whenyou see one food bank, you've seen one food bank. as a network, there's a lotof similarities in who we serve and how we serve. you know, unlike in someparts of the world,
hunger in the unitedstates isn't obvious. and you've heard thatalready this afternoon. families that are strugglingwith hunger look just like anyone else. they exist in every state,every congressional district, and everycounty in america. they include people likenurse c., who i met a few years ago. a single mom whose part timeearnings weren't enough to
support hergrowing children. or m, an iraqi war veteranwho returned from serving our country, and wound uphaving to juggle not only her own health needs, butthat of her critical ill child as well. these are the facesthat we serve. and it's not hard to imaginewhy the need has spiked so dramatically. first, a recession, and inthe afternoon of super storm
sandy, both left ourservice area devastated. and we respondedwith service. let me quantify that forme, just a little bit. in 2007, we weredistributing just under four million meals a yearin two counties. last year, we distributednearly more than 10 million meals to nearly 10 percentof the population, 132, 000 people through a network-- an amazing network, of 125 agency partners.
these are idyllicsuburban counties. communities that you and ihope to live, and live in. the people who are facinghunger in my community, and around the country, arepeople just like you and me. they played by therules, they worked hard, but they ended upexperiencing economic or health circumstancesbeyond their control. in our community, 69 percentof our adult clients have a post high school education.
and 62 percent of thehouseholds we serve include at least one working member. in fact, nearly three outof 10 of those households, there are two or morepeople that are working. but so often, they'reexperiencing challenges with under-employment, limitedincome, and poor health. congressmanmcgovern is correct. people are workingthat we're serving. in many cases, our neighborsare facing heartbreaking
trade-offs that makeit very difficult, if not impossible, toget back on their feet. eighty one percent have tochoose between paying for utilities or foodin the past year. seventy eight percent haveto choose between paying for housing and food. seventy seven, betweenfood and transportation. and seventy seven percentbetween medical care and food. and we heard earlier thatthe mind comes second
when you're hungry. so, how do you work onfurthering your career, or improving thelife of your family? we knew -- at the foodbank of monmouth and ocean counties, we knew that itwasn't enough to provide food to thosethat turn to us. so, we also work on effortsthat we describe as shortening the line. we help to connect familiesto resources that can help
stabilize their lives andget back on their feet. our snap outreach andenrollment efforts, connecting families to theearned income tax credit and child tax credit. as healthcare navigators,connecting families to public and privatehealth insurance. through nutrition education,culinary training program. and partnerships --creative partnerships, like the financialsuccess center,
and soon to open b.e.a.t. center. these are some of the waysthat we offer -- that we go beyond emergencyfood assistance. we need a comprehensiveapproach. it's not an either/or. i'm really proud ofthe work that we do. not just in my food bank,but across our network. and i'm grateful for thegenerosity of volunteers, supporters, from foodcompanies, retailers,
farmers, restaurants,corporate funders, and generous individuals. this is a multi-sectorinitiative. and as the need grewexponentially during the recession and its aftermath,food banks rose to met the need. but let me be very clear. we didn't -- we couldn't,we can't do this alone. federal nutritionprograms, especially snap, did exactly what theywere created
to do in our community. they provided a lifelinefor millions of families -- children and seniors. not just in monmouth andocean counties in new jersey, butacross our nation. it's interesting. by design, if not by intent,at the same time that our food distributionincreased by 60 percent, we were doubling andtripling our efforts,
and working with our localcounties -- and guess what also increased? snap participation. and that's the wayit should work. things shouldwork hand in hand, if we even need thosethings altogether, as congressmanmcgovern mentioned. hunger is asolvable problem. we have food in mostof our communities.
we just need to create thefinancial access so that our neighbors canaccess that food. it can't be remedied throughemergency food alone. food banks and othercharities are critical to hunger relief efforts. but we are a supplement, nota replacement for a strong and accessible federalanti-hunger safety net. the evidence of snap's shortand long term impacts is clear.
we just heard from dawn. how clearer could it get? investing in snap and othernutrition programs isn't just the right thing to do. it's the smart thing to do. and we had a panelof academics, all with doctorsin front of them, who shared that with us. (laughter)
so, it's not justme saying it. it's the smart thing to do,from a health perspective, from an educationperspective, and definitely from aneconomic standpoint. it is, in fact, aninvestment in our future that has an impact in manyof the neighbors that we call -- those that we serve. so, thank you. you've done a lot ofwork in human services.
and maybe, can you discusswhy the probable hunger could become worsein the summer, and the role of the summerelectronic benefits program, for helping children toaddress this problem? and i want to thank thisadministration in particular for their championing ofthat particular program -- so (inaudible), and audrey rowe, and tomvilsack and -- i mean, this has beena great effort.
wendell kimbrough: and also,the state of missouri and area resources for communityand human services would also like to thank theadministration for their investment with thisparticular program. at area resources forcommunity and human services, or archs,as we call it locally, in st. louis, we'reresponsible for designing, managing, evaluating education and social service programs. and when we got word fromthe governor's office that
the state of missouri was toparticipate in the summer ebt card program, we werethrilled because we knew that there was a great need,not only in the urban areas in our state, but also therural counties as well. and so, the summer ebtprogram operated in missouri during the yearsof 2011 to 2013. then, there wasa hiatus in 2014, and then the program resumedagain this past year in 2015. now, the sebtc program,as we refer to it,
explores alternate methodsto feed low income children so, it's not aredundancy of benefits. it's an add-on. the program is a benefitdesignated for children who attend pre-kthrough 12th grade, and also receive free orreduced meals under the national school breakfastand free lunch program. the households chosenreceive extra funding per child, monthly, loadedonto an ebt card.
and as a pilot, the programwas only administered to less than approximatelyone fifth of the eligible children and familiesacross the districts. now, in missouri, we had areally -- what i would refer to as a uniquecollaborative effort. of course, we had theapproval of the governor's office. but then, also thegovernor's office decided to add additionalpartners to the table,
which involved thecollaboration of three state agencies, which included thedepartments of elementary and secondary education,health and senior services, and then also the departmentof social services. so, you have three stateagencies working in tandem. along with that, there werethree community partnerships working in the localcommunity as boots on the ground. they were -- the localinvestment commissioner,
link, out of kansas city,area resources for community and human services,archs in st. louis. and then, also, mississippicounty community partnership, which isa rural partnership in missouri, operating outof the -- near the ozark mountain area. now, in the fouryears of the program, year one was considered theproof of concept year in 2011. and the initialdemonstration pilot served
approximately 2,500 childrenin three school districts in kansas city. and in that particular -- inthat -- in that first year, the proof of concept year,there was great success, and also great need. information was beingcommunicated across those school districtsabout the program, and there was aneed to do more. and with those2,500 students,
over the four yearperiod, expanded to 12,700 children representingnow five school districts, includingmississippi county, and a large urbandistrict in st. louis. and just so youknow, in st. louis, the one urban districthas approximately 21, 22,000 students. and over 80 percent of thosestudents qualify for free and reduced meals.
so, that's huge, interms of the need. and the program also added-- and this is, i think, worth mentioning, $4,645,000in additional food stamp benefits to familiesin local communities, and serve more than 22,500households across the state of missouri. and also worth noting isthat the benefit redemption -- the redemptionrates were very high, seeing somewhere between 90and 94 percent
utilization rates. and just to give you anexample of how effective the program was, and howtimely the program was in st. louis, archs wasresponsible for the on the ground communication andsending information directly to families aboutthe program, frequently asked questionswere developed and then submitted to families sothat they could understand better how toaccess the program.
now, in some cases, familieswere not responsive. we were trying tofigure out why. so, we had staff, in termsof boots on the ground, calling families, askingthem about -- did they receive informationabout the program. one such householdthat we called, it was a -- actually agrandmother who told us that her daughter had just -- itwas -- had been hospitalized over several weeks, andwas going to experience an
extended stayin the hospital. and as a result, she wouldnow be responsible for feeding her grandchildrenover the summer, in addition toher own child, who was alsostill school aged. so, now she had tobear that burden, and she had no idea howshe was going to do that. our staff person explainedthe program model, explaining the specificsof the program,
the mother startedcrying and saying, expressing to the staffperson at archs that this was a program that shedid not know that it even existed. and to receive a call likethis at this time was very crucial andcritical for her. because now, she has away to feed her family, and then she was goingto immediately go to the grocery store and identifytransportation services to
get her there so that shecould make this necessary purchase. so, we saw it as a realexample of kind of a way for government to intervene,provide timely intervention, and then also not creatingan additional burden of identifying this personas a person in poverty, using the ebt card, so thatthat family could maintain its anonymity, and also therespect in the community, so saw it was a real plus,and we appreciate the
investment that wasmade on the part of u.s. department of agriculture. dr. hassink, asa pediatrician, how have you seen firsthandhow snap programs help children or familiesin your practice? what do you do when a childshows up in your office who you know is from afood insecure family, but they don't -- maynot be enrolled in snap, do you refer them?
and just oneadditional question. i talk to a lot of medicalstudents all the time, and when i ask them how manycourses they've taken on nutrition, they don't,often times, say very many. do you think we ought tourge our medical schools to put more of afocus on nutrition, given the fact thatfood is medicine? female speaker: let me --let me take that one first. yes.
jim mcgovern: okay, good. female speaker: yes, i do. yes, we should. we are -- so, let me tellyou about a family -- i ran an obesity -- a weightmanagement clinic, and i was followingthis family. i had met the mom and dad,and the two children for obesity. and the father had fairlysignificant obesity himself.
and he -- while i wasfollowing this family, he passed away from thecomplications of obesity in his mid-40s, and i didn'tsee the mother for a little bit of time. and then, she showed atclinic, and she was crying. they had been thrown back,economically, and you know, touching upon your story,they couldn't afford the healthy food. at that time, she had notbeen aware of what programs
might be available, and thekids were gaining weight. and so, they were -- theywere experiencing the same problem as their father. it was exacerbating becauseof the father's death, and their economicsituation, and she couldn't --and she came in crying, and we began to link herwith food programs and other assistance. so, in that scenario-- in that scenario,
you often find out aboutfood insecurity in ways that you don't expect, by peoplejust -- as you begin to uncover problems,you uncover it. and we now -- this is whywe're recommending that we ask, up front. i also want to tell you astory about a colleague. and this -- dawn, youmade me think of this. i was lecturing last summerin a big educational venue for medical providers, and ihad been speaking about --
i'd just finished giving alecture about obesity and food insecurity. and a woman stood upat the microphone, and she began -- shesaid -- she began to cry, and she said, "i" -- shewas an attendee at the conference, and she said,"i have experienced and am experiencing foodinsecurity." and she began totalk about that. and i'm at the podium, andi'm feeling very stuck
because i'm up here, she'sdown there, and i said, "somebody please takeher information." but she was so upset, sheran out of the conference. and i tracked her -- we-- i tracked her down, and we -- i emailed her andasked her if she needed help. and she was in a situationwhere she was nursing student. she had a child. she was working as amedical assistant in a pediatrician's office, andcould not get enough food by
the end of the monthto feed her child. and we did connecther with resources. but it's a very powerfulexperience when your own colleagues are standing upnow and telling you they're food insecure. i'll also tell you one laststory about a grandmother who -- she had broughther grandchild in -- the grandchild/daughterwas overweight. and we were talking aboutgetting healthier food,
and that would require someshift of the budget to get healthier food. and she said, "no, i'm notgoing to do that because i buy extra food. because by theend of the month, i am feeding all thechildren in my apartment complex because they'rerunning out of food." so, she's compromising herown food budget so she can feed the restof the children.
so, i tell you those threevignettes because -- just to expound upon the story thatit's not always what you think. hunger has many, many faces. so -- dawn, how did yourexperience with hunger and receiving snap changeyou as a nurse? and you talked about howyou -- that you -- you've transitioned off of snapand now you're, you know, doing the thingsthat you really like.
but did -- can youtell us -- i mean, were there -- what kind ofassistance did you get to make that transition off? dawn phipps: i -- the onlyassistance i received to transition off ofsnap was a job. that's pretty much it. a job -- i worked for theattorney general's office in idaho as a paralegal. recently -- i've beena nurse for 25 years.
i blew out my knee, couldn'twork as a nurse for a while. got the knee fixed, wentback to work as a nurse. so -- and it was just a job. so -- and it almost -- itwas weird because the snap is figured, you know, youqualify for six months. you re-certifyevery six months. so, they calculated my fivemonths of income from the a.g.'s office forthe six months, and i still qualified.
and i don't know that ourattorney general would've liked that very much. but as a nurse -- jim mcgovern: pay better. female speaker: yeah. he need -- yeah. dawn phipps: he'sa very nice man. you know, as an rcs, i didtake nutrition in school, and i know that you don'tgive gravy to somebody who
has high cholesterol, orsalt for somebody who's got congestive heart failure. and you know, give themsherbet if they're diabetic. but one thing i've learned-- and i'm the oversight nurse for seven smallassisted living homes. and residents, uponadmission, stop eating, because they'velost their home. they've lost their car. they've lost theirdriver's license.
grandpa can't drive anymore. grandpa's going todrive off the road. and the only thing they cancontrol is their food and their pills. so, i -- you know, now,instead of waiting for my r.n. supervisor to email me oncea month the weights so i can let the doctor know, getthem on insure, whatever, i now monitorweights weekly. and you know, if somebody'slost a half a pound,
i know it, and i'm on that. i am faxing a doctor. i'm calling somebody. i'm texting somebody. (inaudible) ineed something. and it affects theircongestive heart failure, their dementia. they're -- are hostile. but they're hostilebecause they're hungry,
but they're hungry becausethey -- they lost control. and it's just horriblelittle cycle. and so, i reallywatch their weight. you know, and i now havehome administrators call me and say, "so and so didn'teat dinner for two days." and i said, "well, youask them what they want, and we will fix themwhatever it is. i don't care what it is. just get them toeat something."
mr. mitchell, you know,we've heard a lot of discussion about how thebenefit -- the snap benefit is inadequate. doesn't lastthe whole month. often times, families endup going to food banks, and food pantries,and churches, and synagogues or mosques,to get, you know, additional food. you talked about -- becauseof the relationship between
this discipline of behaviorand food insecurity and hunger. i mean, have you-- do you notice, toward the end of the month,that the behavioral issues get more intense? mr. clint mitchell:absolutely, yes. i work at a school where80 percent of our students qualify for freeand reduced lunch. so, we are very thankful tothe administration for the work that they put in, inreference to providing the
ebt cards, the --snap, and also, just increasing the supportto provide the free and reduced meals atthe school level. i will say to you thatat the end of the month, a couple of things arise. one has to dowith attendance. this is something that wereally don't speak a whole lot about, you know, butattendance is absolutely critical, when it comesto the school setting.
children -- at theend of the month, they don't come to schoolbecause they didn't get a chance to eat thenext -- night before. and so, therefore, theparents, somehow, some way, are afraid to sendthem to school, even though we dooffer free lunch, which i'll talk a littlebit more about later, some of the things that wedo creatively to address that issue.
but attendance isa huge problem. if they are notthere, we can't there. if the parents can't getthem out of bed to get them school, we can't feed them. if the parents are not intheir homes to make sure that they get on the schoolbus, we can't feed them. so, attendanceis a huge issue. the other issue that i see,as a school level principal, i mentionedearlier, briefly,
is the issue of discipline. but discipline in referenceto the volume of referrals at the end of the month,which lead to classroom teachers referring studentsto what we call the intervention team. and for those of us who have-- who've gone to -- maybe part of -- i don't know howmany educators we have in the room, but atthe school setting, a fully intervention team,that is when we provide
services, and we look atsupport for students. and when those supportturns out to be inadequate, we try to lookat other avenues, such as special education. and it gets a verynegative connotation, but the fact of the matteris that teachers tend to refer children more so atthe end of the month to the special education process,which then allows us, whether it's right orwrong, in a lot of cases,
over qualifying students,especially minority, especially boys, especiallyafrican american and hispanic boys, in terms ofthese special education process. that, in itself, have adirect correlation to the fact that these children arecoming to school hungry. their discipline referralsare increased exponentially. the other thing that we seeat the school level is we are responsible -- we livein a nation where we test, and we test, and wetest a lot of students.
i am very thankful with theessa legislation that we'll have some reduction there. but when we test studentsat the end of the month, we don't get the resultsas we should get, because the childrenare not focused. they are not giving us theirbest effort because their minds are someplace else. so, what we try to do at myschool is we try to test students at the beginning,towards the first or the
15th of the month, to tryto do things a little bit differently. so, that way, we addressthose instructional needs. so, i would say those arethree things that really kind of arise for me. carlos, in your work, whathas been the most effective way to improve a family'sfinancial health? carlos rodriguez: i thinkone of the key things in our community is that many ofthe families that we serve,
especially duringthis time of spike, find local pantries andemergency food providers first. and part of the reason isthat that's where they used to volunteer and donate to. and so, what we foundeffective is yes, you meet someonewhere they are. it's the oldsocial work saying. but you quickly learn alittle bit more about them, and introduce them toresources that will have
more long term stability and-- or short term stability. and simply put, that's justconnecting families to food stamps -- snap program,during the tax season, which is startingfor us now, making sure we invite themback because most of them are all working to filetheir taxes for free. and figure out differentways to really just engage them. and it's interesting becausewe -- one of the things that we have to do -- and so manyfolks have mentioned it
today is we really haveto stop demonizing these programs. we really have to startdescribing them in a way that shows the asset and theresource and the value for themselves. having the opportunityto run both a free tax assistance program to thevita program and doing snap outreach and enrollment, ifind it interesting that no one ever cries when they goin and ask the irs
for a refund. but when you applyfor snap, they do. and what is the differencein the transaction? they're both giving afamily resources that they desperately needto stabilize, or move themselvesup further. that's what we have to do. let's stop demonizingthe program. let's start describingit, not just in these
environments for -- toreally paint the picture, but let's make sure that weunderstand that the audience is also the neighbors thatwe're trying to serve as well. jim mcgovern: andthe final question, before we go toaudience questions. so, turning your cards, canyou describe key barriers in the traditional summerfood service program, and if you could share withus some stories about how the summer electronicbenefits pilot program is
more effective inhelping children? wendell kimbrough: sure. for families who qualifyfor free and reduced meals through the nationalfree lunch program, for some families, this isthe best meal that the -- or for the children, it's thebest meal that they'll receive for that day. let me repeat that. for families who rely onthat free lunch program and
the -- may qualify forfree and reduced meals, for those children whoparticipate in the program, that's probably the bestmeal that they will receive during that day. so, when we move andtransition into the summer months, they don't haveaccess to the -- to those feeding programs. when they don't access tothose feeding programs, children go hungry.
children can't advocatefor themselves. they can't call the schools. they're not able to calla social worker and say, "i need assistance." so, this program, the ebtprogram, was very intuitive. it was a very proactive. it allowed for families toreceive benefits that would carry them throughthe summer months. in some cases, when wewere looking at the data,
the aggregate data ofindividual household data identifying how much fundingwas still left on the table because it wastime specified, in terms of we had tospend all the funding, because it wasa pilot program, by a certain time period. we looked at someof the families, and staff madecalls and say, "hey, you've got a balanceremaining on your ebt card."
and they're saying, "butwe're trying to budget. i don't want try to spendall the money this month. i'm budgeting. i'd like to transfer thatbudget or that balance forward to the next month." and so, contraryto popular belief, these families areintentionally looking at their budgets for the month,looking at where the gaps are, in terms of theirhousehold needs,
and making very consciousdecisions on how to spend that money. and i thinkthat's excellent. and i think we shouldapplaud our families, and i think we underestimatethe level of sophistication at which they operate. one example, real quickly,in terms of a boots on the ground example, from one ofthe parents that we were servicing -- the motherreceived the letter in the
mail that she would bereceiving the benefit. she called to say -- again,another situation where she called to say that hersister passed away suddenly. no life insurance benefitsor death benefits involved. and then now, she would bearthe burden of having to care for her sister'schildren, adding, again, to the need of a household,and adding on to their food insecurity needs. and so, this program wasable to provide real time --
load cash onto the benefitand so that mom could then provide for hersister's children, and her own children. and so, when theprogram ended, we received all -- a lot ofphone calls from families, because other families inthe community found out about the program. we were utilizingtexting services, a 24 hour communicationscustomer care center to
reach out to parents,explain to them the customer care center wasalso able to make outbound and receive inbound callsfrom families to learn more so, we'd done such a greatjob at marketing the program on behalf of thestate of missouri, on the behalf of thefunder, the usda, that parents werenow saying, "hey, i need this assistance, too. and why is this onlyavailable to a small
demonstrationor pilot group, and not theentire district?" so, that's beyond ourexperience in missouri. so, i think we're at thepoint where we're ready for audience questions. and so -- male speaker: sure, great. all right, then. thanks for your questions.
please keep them coming. we'll pick them up. and i should'venoted, you know, in addition to you all here-- a full house here in south court auditorium, wehave folks watching from across the countryon wh.gov/live. and so, hello to everyone. female speaker: helloto all the world. we didn't know youwere watching us.
male speaker: again,some great questions. i wish we couldread them all. this question is to dawn. thank you forsharing your story. dawn phipps: you're welcome. male speaker: foryou, and for, really, all the panelists, how doyou -- how do you work with families, and how did youwork with yourself and your family, in dealing with kindof the shame and stigma and
stereotype aroundfood insecurity, and the federal safety net? dawn phipps: ishopped at night. our walmart, and our localhuge grocery store is open 24 hours. so, there's nolines at 2 a.m. so, nobody has to look at mycart at the beginning of the month, because you know, youshop for the whole entire month. and the eye-rolling comeswhen you've got this packed
cart full of food,and that's, you know, that tells them exactly howyou're paying for your food. that's just whatpeople know. i mean, it's idaho. so, you know, and i actuallywent over to another town to shop a couple of times. i was verbally accosted atthe grocery store one time by a woman who was verydisgusted that she had to stand in line between people-- behind people, you know,
using their qwest card,because she works for a living, and she pays taxes,and she can afford all the kinds of foodsthey're affording. and all i can think of isit's for the whole month, lady. she comes to the storethree times a week. i go to the storeonce a month. it's -- shouldn'tbe -- i mean, i learned a new word today. demonized.
i didn't realize it --that that's what it was, but it is. you know, i have friendswho talk about, you know, "my boyfriend walked outand he was paying half the bills, and now i can'tafford to buy food and pay the power bill." and i take them down tohealth and welfare and say, "we're going to do this." it helps people.
it shouldn't bea horrible thing. sandra hassink: thanks. so, i'll just say -- so, oneof the things that we've done by asking pediatriciansto address it, and we do teach themmotivational interviewing and techniques to askquestions is to sort of normalize the questions, soit becomes just part of what people expect to be askedwhen they come into the office. and that's one of the wayswe're trying to just sort of
make it routine. female speaker:so, dr. hassink, just a follow on to that. what happens next? you ask aboutfood insecurity. and then what steps arepediatricians being instructed to take? and related, are there toolsthat would make that easier and more effective for youand other pediatricians?
sandra hassink: so, we'veasked them to be aware of their local communityfood resources, and there are websites. and we don't have a foodinsecurity toolkit yet. usually, we do roll one outafter we've asked them to do this. but we do know that they'reoperating out of medical homes, and they do haveconnections to the community, butinterestingly,
the connections they haven'tmade are to the food banks. so, we've asked them to sortof put that in their mind about this is anotherreally important community connection. we also have asked themspecifically to make sure that eligible families areenrolled in federal food programs, and are takingadvantage of the food programs. and we have already askedthem because we've been working a lot on obesity,just about basic counseling
about optimizing healthynutrition and eliminating high risk nutritionalbehaviors that would compromise health. so, we're on the road. i don't think wehave it solved, but we have takenthe first steps. carlos rodriguez:just to add to that, we're kind of meetingfrom the other side, and working to that --to that common middle.
one of the things that we'vedone is -- with one of our hospitals is we had asimilar kind of food security forum acouple of years back, and it was an "ah ha!" moment. yeah, none of our residentsasked those two basic food insecurity questions. and since then,they've started. and we've started working oncollaborations that go as far as looking at wherecommunity health assessments
point to certain issues, andwhere our food distribution goes, and where we canstart targeting more heart friendly, healthyfriendly types of food, or connecting familieswith resources. again, in this particularcommunity that i serve, there is a vast needto really increase participation in some ofthese federal programs. many families were justsimply not eligible before. this is a foreign concept.
suburbia does not havethe infrastructure for processing human servicesthat we may come to expect in different areas. so, i think, to your point,we have to introduce the conversation, do it in away that's more accepting, that normalizes it, and thenfigure out very practical ways to createthese linkages. female speaker: i'll gowith another question. this room is inquisitivethis afternoon.
mr. mitchell, i have acouple of questions that are both related to making sureschools really make use of the full suite of federalnutrition programs. so, as a principal, couldyou provide any perspective on effective ways tocommunicate with schools and make sure that they reallydo make use of the full suite of federalnutrition programs? clint mitchell: sure. well, as you know, virginiais one of the states where
some -- a lot of familiesreceive those direct snap benefits. earlier, we heard from thesecretary about the piece in reference to medicaid, andas part of a direct way of qualifying for free andreduced lunch services, i think that is going to becrucial, moving forward, beside just the snapand the (inaudible). you know, the childrenautomatically qualify, at the school level.
but the message theprincipals need to keep in mind, not just virginia,but across the country, is that we have to make surethat we reach out to those families, in terms ofensuring that their application processdoes not lapse. that is absolutely,absolutely critical, to make sure that things aredone in a timely manner, and so that thebenefits can continue. at the school level, it'salso very important for you
to be creative, in terms ofthe way in which you provide breakfast and lunchservices to students. when most of us wentto school, typically, we went through a line. we get a tray. we go through the line. we get our tray. we go to a table, where weall sat and we had lunch. well, what we'redoing at my school,
and also at thestate -- in virginia, with the governor'sinitiative, is to find alternate modelsof serving breakfast and lunch to students. and so, one model isthat we implemented, and we did some workwith no child hungry, and we call it -- well,we call it grab and go breakfast, where studentsgo in through the line, they grab their breakfast.
it comes in theform of a bag. they grab their drink, andthey go directly to the classroom. that has asignificant impact, in terms of instruction,because we can start our day immediately, besideswaiting 15, 20, 30, sometimes 40 minutesfor kids to eat in the cafeteria. that's one model.
but the other thing thatwe do that's absolutely critical is we do breakfastin the classroom, family style, especiallyfor our youngsters, our head start kids,our kindergartners. so, that way, they get theopportunity to get the feel, to really have breakfastas a family, as a group, in the classroom. and for the high schoollevels -- but we do that in the elementary, too.
kids come to school late. attendance is an issue,especially at a high-low socioeconomic school. so, we provide secondchance breakfast. so, if you come inat 10 a.m., you eat. you come at 11a.m., you eat. you come at 9 a.m., you eat. regardless of whether ornot breakfast is over. and that's what we tryto do at our school.
male speaker: okay, thanks. so, i think we have timefor about two questions. so, maybe i'll doone, and you do one? deal? okay. so, one question rightlynotes that you all are clearly leaders in yourrespective fields. what is -- what's next? what are you trying to do inthe next year, or two years?
again, to support kids andfamilies battling food insecurity? sandra hassink:so, i'll start. we have -- thenext big issue, and we will shortly issue apolicy statement on poverty, and the healtheffects of poverty, which i think will help tiedirectly into this issue. it will address a lot of thefactors that we talked about today.
and again, put healthrelated effects of poverty on the radar screenof the pediatricians. so, that's oneof the things. we will continue tospeak about the combined nutritional burden ofobesity and food insecurity in this country, sort ofhighlighting the magnitude of the problem. so, i think ourconversations will continue to highlight this isn'tproblem here that's siloed
over here with hunger, orover here with obesity and overweight. this is one problem. and it's the one problem ofnot being able to feed the children, and continue totrain the pediatricians in communications techniques. the other thing we'readdressing aggressively around obesity, and itsounds like we need to sort of address it aroundfood insecurity,
are teasing andbullying that go on. and we have a bigeffort around that. clint mitchell:from my perspective, at the school level, i thinkwhat's next for us is one, is to continue to expandour backpack program, to provide childsopportunities during the weekend. but i think the biggerpicture, really, is to continue to work withour elected officials so
that they can workcollaboratively with secretary vilsack to makesure that 100 percent of our students in schools -- weshould have a model in place in this country whereby 100percent of students should be allowed to get a freeor breakfast program, especially in schoolswith high poverty. i think it's a necessity. so, whatever work that weneed to do as educators, that is, you know, to getwith the policy makers,
i think that's definitelywhere the next step needs to be, to make sure that allkids have access to free male speaker: i think fromthe archs's perspective, you have to look atpublic-private partnerships to address not only hunger,but also work development -- workforce developmentstrategies. one way to pull families outof poverty is to identify evidence-based workforcedevelopment strategies. and in order to dothat, it takes money.
it takes an investment. it takes an investment fromthe department of labor. it takes an investment fromthe department of -- the bureau of justice, andlooking at those persons that have criminal recordsthat may be -- and that may be one reason why they'renot able to enter into the workforce. and then, looking at some ofthe policies impacting folks as they transitionfrom welfare to work,
and not penalize thoseindividuals as they attempt to transition fromunemployed to employed. and that would go a reallylong way in helping to at least begin to deal withthese issues in a very real fashion. female speaker: all right. our last questionof the day. we're going to breakprotocol a little bit, if mr. mcgovern is willing,because we have a question
for you. jim mcgovern: oh, okay. jim mcgovern: theanswer is yes. whatever you want. female speaker:that's awesome. female speaker: fromeverything we've heard today, we have great data,and we've heard a lot of stories. and so, the question we haveis what can we -- coming
from the audience, what canwe do to enable you to more effectively convince yourcolleagues about the importance and effectivenessof the full suite of federal nutrition programs? jim mcgovern: well, first,everybody in the first and second panel canrun for congress. that would make it -- -- but you know, look. we need to build abipartisan consensus around
these issues. and there are people on bothsides who i think can -- we can bring together. you know, i work -- i'm theranking democrat on the subcommittee on nutrition. in agriculture, jackiewalorski is the chairwoman. when you talk about theissues that we have talked about here today,i think she's very, very sympathetic.
lynn jenkins is a republicanfrom kansas -- is the co-chair of thehouse hungry caucus. she's going to invite me outto kansas to look at some of the challenges thatthey're dealing with, and i'm going to invite herto massachusetts so that she can see some of the issuesthat we're dealing with. and hopefully, we can learnfrom each other and maybe, you know, startto, you know, form a partnership wherewe can move some stuff.
but i -- you know, i begankind of harshly in my critique of some of theconversations in congress that i think areindifferent, and sometimes even based onignorance is because if you listen to someof the debates, they seem driven not by therealities, but by, you know, something else. i don't know whether it'sideology or whatever. but the reality is whenpeople talk about snap in
congress, you would thinkit's the most wasteful program in the historyof the united states of america, when it is probablythe most efficiently run program we have, with one --with the lowest fraud rate of any otherfederal program. it works, and it's being runthe way we all want it to be run! but that is not whatyou hear on the floor. so, we need to -- we needto -- we need to respond
to that. you know, dawn's story hereis important because there is a perception thatonce you get on snap, you never ever wantto get off of snap. or that no one ever does. you know? that's not the reality. it's not the reality. it is an investment.
and you know, and investingin dawn was worth every cent. and there are, you know,countless stories like this where people, you know,have graduated off of snap, and they're doing great. everything's wonderful. and we need totell those stories. we also need to remindpeople what the benefit is. i'm on the agriculturecommittee, and i think if i asked --put everybody on the spot on
the committee: what isthe average snap benefit? they would have no idea. they wouldn't know it's$1.40 per meal per day. they would say it's a lot. they'd say -- or it'sadequate, or whatever. but they don'tknow what it is. it is not -- itis not adequate. and i want to thank thewhite house, by the way, their -- the council ofeconomic advisers who did a
report, actually, you know,emphasizing that fact. and i also saw some peoplehere today from the national hunger commission. i want to thank them forespecially focusing on children, and therecommendations in their report kind of complementwhat the white house is announcing today. but look, i also would say,invite your congress people to a food bank.
invite them to a school. have them learn about theschool feeding programs. bring them on tours to seethe summer feeding programs. and while we're at it, can ijust -- sort of one thing? you know, one -- being ona lot of tours of school feeding programs, ihave one recommendation. we got to make luncha little longer, so that kids canactually eat their food, and not have tobreathe their food in.
male speaker: i agree. i agree! jim mcgovern: it takes awhile to eat an apple, and if i don't have enoughtime, i won't do it. but anyway --but part of it, it just -- we needmore advocacy. so, that's -- so,that's what we need.
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