Emergency funds to create more robust child feeding programs

Hunger Solutions Minnesota and Senator Franken today announced a new $1 million grant opportunity for Minnesota food shelves to create new nutrition programs that focus on children living at or below 200% of poverty. The program will reach an estimated 400,000 children. One in 3 Minnesota school-age children rely on free or reduced school food for 2/3 of their calories. Summer means no school and low quality meals for these students. Hunger Solutions hopes to bridge the summertime hunger-gap this year with this new funding.

“During these difficult economic times we need to do a better job ensuring that children in Minnesota don’t go hungry,” said Sen. Franken. “I’ve introduced the Expanded School Meals Act in the Senate because hungry children perform worse on achievement tests, have trouble concentrating, and are more likely to act out. Hunger Solutions Minnesota is doing important work and this program is a major step in getting children of low-income families the nutritious meals they need during the summer. I’m proud to be working with Hunger Solutions Minnesota to eliminate childhood hunger and I’m glad these funds will help them achieve that goal.”

The funding for this initiative is made available via the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in emergency funding for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. This new Emergency Fund, established by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, helps states serve more families seeking assistance during the economic downturn. Hunger Solutions was able to leverage a generous, local match grant from Open Your Heart to the Hungry and Homeless to be eligible for Federal funding.

“We are delighted that Hunger Solutions could gain additional resources to fight hunger this summer as a result of our grant,” said Yoji Shimizu, president of Open Your Heart to the Hungry and Homeless. “This initiative will greatly help school-aged children and their families get nutritious meals daily throughout the summer.”

Food shelves will be able to create new activities that expand service to children this summer such as distributing backpacks filled with kid-friendly nutritious food, adding a produce distribution that serves families with children this summer, or hosting nutrition fairs that will help families with children find out about the food shelf and the services that it provides.

Colleen Moriarty, Executive Director of Hunger Solutions Minnesota said, “We are thrilled to offer this generous grant opportunity to our statewide food shelf partners. The constant demand for a more robust emergency food response is a major strain on our neighborhood-based food shelf system. These funds were granted to assist Minnesota at a time when the need to help feed our children is the greatest.”
One in 10 Minnesotans relied on food shelves for 60 million pounds of groceries in 2009. That translates to a 24% statewide increase over 2008. During the summer of 2009, there were nearly 370,000 food shelf visits that provided emergency food to children in our state. A 2010 first quarter review shows that child visits to food shelves are up 10% over 2009.
According to a Gallup survey, Minneapolis/St. Paul had a food hardship rate of 13.9 percent in 2008-2009. The average was higher for households with children, with 18.6 percent reporting food hardship. Seven out of the 8 Congressional Districts in Minnesota had more than one in ten residents reporting food hardship in 2008-2009.

“Food shelves have a unique ability to address the food needs of children in our communities. Each summer, Minnesota food shelves help families fill this nutritional gap, but this is during the season when donations are at their lowest. We are so grateful for the funding that Hunger Solutions orchestrated for food shelves to help Minnesota children.” Said Elizabeth Johnson, Executive Director of PRISM. PRISM, in Golden Valley, one of the food shelves that will qualify for the funding, is where the announcement was made today. The service area for the PRISM food shelf responds to the needs of over 5,000 needy children.

To be eligible, food shelves must currently distribute TEFAP product (USDA commodities) in Minnesota and serve families with children. Grants will range from $5,000 up to $50,000, and can be used for food, personnel costs, outreach materials, and/or costs associated with new activities that will increase service during the grant period. Grants will run from July 1 through September 30th, 2010

ABOUT HUNGER SOLUTIONS MINNESOTA

Hunger Solutions Minnesota is a comprehensive hunger relief organization that works to end hunger in Minnesota. We take action to assure food security for all Minnesotans by supporting over 300 agencies that provide food to those in need, advancing sound public policy, and guiding grassroots advocacy. HSM advocates for the maximum use of all federal public nutrition dollars available and works to improve low income Minnesotans’ access to all nutrition programs. The HSM Minnesota Food HelpLine (1-888-711-1151) helps enroll low-income Minnesotans in the Food Support (Food Stamps) program and helps callers find emergency food assistance in their area. For further information, visit http://www.hungersolutions.org/ or call 651-789-9843.

ABOUT OPEN YOUR HEART TO THE HUNGRY AND HOMELESS
Open Your Heart to the Hungry and Homeless (OYH) is the only grant provider in Minnesota working exclusively on the issues of hunger and homelessness. Founded in 1986, it funds food shelves, food banks, on-site feeding programs, emergency shelters, and transitional and permanent supportive housing. In addition, OYH dedicates 15 percent of its grant funding to support the school-related needs of homeless children and youth.

ABOUT PRISM

People Responding In Social Ministry is a community-funded social service agency that provides families in need with food, financial assistance, transportation and other services in times of financial hardships. For over 35 years, the volunteers and staff at PRISM have helped families stabilize their immediate crisis and then continued to work with them; counseling, educating and goal-setting to empower them to take an active role in their own solutions. ###