Finally Revealed: Processed Food Rebates Dominate School Cafeterias

Chartwells gets big rebates serving meals like this

By Ed Bruske

aka The Slow Cook

When  I first started writing about the food being served in my daughter’s elementary school cafeteria, I figured there had to be a reason children  were being fed Apple Jacks cereal, strawberry milk, Pop-Tarts, Giant Goldfish Grahams and Otis Spunkmeyer muffins for breakfast.

I was  right. The manufacturers of those sugar-laden products pay hefty rebates–some call them “kickbacks”–to giant food service companies as an inducement to purchase their highly processed goods. But  I have now learned it’s not just the lousy food that’s  fueled by rebates. Just about everything that goes into running a public  school cafeteria comes with a rebate check that helps make sure the industrial version of food wins out.

In what may be the first ever detailed  look into how industry rebates dominate school food service, documents I  obtained under the Freedom of Information Act indicate that more than  100 companies paid rebates in recent years to the food service  management company hired by D.C. Public Schools–Chartwells–for  everything from breakfast cereal, hamburger patties and canned green  beans to paper cups, armored car services and drug counseling for  employees.

Far and away the biggest contributor to the rebate  dollars collected by Chartwells was a company I had never heard of, but  one that apparently plays an oversized roll in feeding our city’s  children–Performance Food Group. According to an itemization released by D.C. Public Schools, Performance Food Group  paid more than $400,000 in rebates for goods and services supplied to  the city’s schools over the last three years.

Based in Richmond,  Va., Performance Food Group claims to be “one of the nation’s largest  foodservice distributors” with multiple brands and more than 1,000  products aimed not only at schools and restaurants but “every kind of  eatery from coast to coast.” The company has operations in 29 states,  “from our distribution warehouses in Tennessee, to our seafood facility  in Miami, to our cheese processing facility in Minnesota.” It employees  10,000 workers just to transport all of its goods, and its trucks  “log  millions of miles each year,” according to the company’s website.

Second  on the list of biggest rebate providers in D.C. schools is General  Mills, the cereal maker, at $41,218, followed by Kraft, supplier of  mayonnaise and salad dressings at $36,165, and Country Pure  Foods-Ardmore Farms, manufacturer of fruit juices, at $34.991. The list  includes many of the nation’s top industrial food processors, such as  Kellogg’s ($20,717), ConAgra ($25,030) and Tyson ($15,792), as well as  frozen pizza giant Schwan’s ($24.561) and muffin maker Otis Spunkmeyer  ($21,377).

Manufacturers pay rebates based on large volume  purchases–literally, cash for placing an order. Rebates are said to be worth billions of dollars to the nation’s  food industry, although manufacturers as well as the food service companies who feed millions of the nation’s school children every day–Chartwells, Sodexo and Aramark–treat them as a closely-guarded secret.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture requires that food service companies engaged in “cost reimbursable” contracts with schools credit any rebates they receive to their school clients. For more than a year, attorneys for D.C. Public Schools refused  to make public an itemized list of rebates collected by Chartwells, claiming the information constituted “trade secrets.” The schools were
overruled by Mayor Vincent Gray’s legal counsel after I filed an administrative appeal.

John Carroll, an assistant New York State attorney general investigating rebating practices there, has said rebates pose “an inherent conflict of interest” in school feeding programs because they favor highly processed industrial foods. In cases where schools pay a food service company a flat rate to provide meals, the companies are not required to disclose the rebates they collect. In  those cases, Carroll recently told a U.S. Senate Panel, rebates tend to drive up the cost of food, cheating children out of nutrition they might otherwise have on their lunch trays.

Carroll  also described cases where rebates discouraged the use of local farm products in school meals. Produce vendors can’t afford to pay a rebate for local apples. But in at least one case, a produce distributor raised the prices of his goods so that he could pay a rebate to a food service  company.

A Homeland Security sub-committee in the U.S. Senate is  investigating possible rebate fraud in contracts across the entire federal  government.

Here in the District of Columbia, children were being  fed meals manufactured in a suburban factory until Chartwells in the fall of  2009 introduced something it called “fresh cooked.” As I discovered while spending a week in the kitchen at my daughter’s elementary school, what that entailed was reheating pre-fabricated meal components such as  chicken nuggets and tater tots. For breakfast, children were often consuming up to 15 teasoons of sugar in the form of processed cereals, flavored milk, cookies and muffins.

Around that same time, D.C. Public Schools hired a new food services director, Jeffrey Mills, who scoured the entire Chartwells menu item-by-item, removing the flavored milk and processed treats and replacing many of the familiar re-heated lunch items. Funds allocated by a “Healthy Schools Act” approved by the D.C. Council helped pay for fresh local fruits and vegetables. But Mills  said he sometimes encountered stiff resistance from the local Chartwells manager because the products Mills wanted to serve were not on Chartwell “preferred” product list.

According to Carroll, site managers for food service companies face punishment from their employers  if they deviate from products that pay the biggest rebates. Rebates  are extremely lucrative, since they generate revenue that requires  virtually no labor. Some products trigger rebates of up to 50 percent  of their listed value. And while USDA regulations require that rebates  be credited to schools with “cost reimbursable” contracts, it is  believed that the big food service companies have found ways to profit  from them nonetheless.

For instance, it is speculated that manufacturers offer stepped-up rebates for very large purchase orders.  Thus, while a single school district may only be entitled to 10 percent  worth of rebates on its share of breakfast cereal, an order for cereal covering multiple school districts might trigger a rebate of, say, 20  percent. The food service company would simply pocket the difference.

Chartwells  manages food service in more than 500 school districts across the  country. The products it uses are supplied by a sister company called Foodbuy, whose employees concern themselves entirely with writing huge contracts  with food manufacturers and collecting the rebates on behalf of their  parent company, Compass Group, based in Great Britain. Compass group,  which owns numerous food service operations in this country–including Chartwells, Bon Appetit, Restaurant Associates, and Wolfgang Puck Catering–claimed  some $22 billion in sales in its most recent annual report.

In  July of last year, I disclosed that Chartwells had collected more than  $1 million in rebates and discounts during its first 18 months of operation  in D.C. schools.  Subsequently, the schools acknowledged that they had  been waiting nine months for Chartwells to make good on a request to  produce an itemized accounting of where those rebates came from.

I  can now pass along a list of most of the companies involved, compiled  from hundreds of data entries contained in the documents obtained from  D.C. Public Schools, representing rebates reported by Chartwells since  fall 2008. Some of the companies cited in the documents could not be  positively identified.

$ 415,051.41 Performance Food Group: food and food service products

$ 41,218.07   General Mills: breakfast cereals

$ 36,165.78   Kraft General Foods: salad dressings, condiments

$ 34,991.20  Country Pure Foods-Ardmore Farms: fruit juices

$ 32,839.50 Jenny-O Turkey Store: processed turkey products

$ 29,075.44  Allen Canning: canned vegetables

$ 25,030.91   ConAgra: prepared foods

$ 24,561.45   Schwan’s: frozen pizza

$ 21,377.88 Otis Spunkmeyer: muffins

$ 20,717.38  Kellogg’s: breakfast cereal

$ 20,628.47 Ecolab: kitchen sanitation services

$ 19,002.03  Pilgrim’s: chicken products

$ 15,792.67 Tyson: chicken products

$  13,682.74  Keany Produce: fruits and vegetables

$  16,583.00 Ford Motor Co.: vehicles

$ 15,011.72  Supply America: food service supplies and equipment

$ 14,324.32   Frito Lay:  chips and snacks

$ 13,974.08  JAFCO Foods: breaded chicken

$    9,959.46  Butensky Services: refrigeration repair

$   9,830.65  Simplot Food Group: frozen potato products

$   9,509.46  Smithfield Packing: ham, hot dogs

$   9,153.11  Pactiv: plastic food packaging

$   8,226,89 Atlantic Mills: kitchen wipes, aprons

$   8,056.00  VF Solutions: uniforms

$   7,344.53   Heinz: ketchup

$   7,308.33   Dunbar Armored: armored car services

$    6,727.56 Pinnacle Foods: syrup, pickles, barbecue sauce

$    6,591.27   Unilever Food Solutions: dressings, sauces, seasonings

$    6,578.11  Michael Foods: frozen egg products

$    6,193.99   Coca-Cola: soft drinks, bottled water

$    5,953.75  Automotive Rentals: vehicle rental

$    5,680.97 Great Lakes Cheese: cheese products

$    5,195.30  Mission Foods/Gruma: tortillas

$    5,152.21  Office Max: office products

$    4,718.02  McCormick & Co.: spices

$    4,678.79  Cadbury: chocolate

$    4,388.70 Cargill Meat Solutions: processed beef

$    4,368.03 National Paper & Plastic: plastic cutlery, disposables

$    3,679.00  Network: undetermined

$    3,571.05   Osborne Co.: undetermined

$    3,239.65  Sara Lee Bakery: bread, baked goods

$    3,200.00  Rush Truck Center: trucks

$    2,882.68   Produce Source Partners: produce, cut fruits and vegetables

$    2,604.29  Nestle: frozen prepared foods

$    2,587.67   REMA Foods: canned, frozen and packaged commodity foods

$    2,516.04   Georgia Pacific-Dixie Foodservice: disposable cups, plates

$    2,571.30  Tropical Paradise Inc.: frozen fruit slush

$    1,992.46  Dr. Pepper/7-Up: soft drinks, bottled water, Snapple

$    1,970.99  Advanced Food Company: Philly steakds, bugers, fajita strips

$    1,917.71   Schreiber Foods: processed cheese

$    1,770.04  Hormel: processed meats

$   1,604.00  MegaMex Foods: salsa, canned jalapeno peppers, refried beans

$    1,317.36   Lamb Weston: potato products

$    1,305.25  Campbell’s Foodservice: Pepperidge Farm Goldfish, Giant Goldfish Grahams

$    1,274.61  Anchor Packaging: plastic food containers

$    1,219.00  Fabri-kal Corp.:  plastic food containers

$    1,250.20  Iceland Seafood Corp.: frozen fish

$    1,210.00  Sara Lee Meats—Jimmy Dean: breakfast sausage

$    1,112.30  Rich Products: frozen foods

$       963.95  WinCup: Styrofoam cups

$       913.80  Colavita: olive oil

$       853.41   Masterfoods—Uncle Ben’s: instant rice

$       810.25   Ventura Foods-Sunnyland: oils, shortenings, pan coatings

$        683.94  Verizon Wireless: communications

$        579.46  First Advantage Occupational Health Services: drug screening, substance abuse assistance

$        564.24  Schwan’s Bakery: undetermined

$        539.80  Goodman Foods: undetermined

$        531.57   Gehl’s Guernsey Farms: cheese sauces

$       494.54   Bon Chef: food presentation equipment

$       401.65    Jet Plastica: plastic cutlery, straws

$       400.80  Smucker’s: jams, jellies

$       400.00  Mickey Truck Bodies: specialty delivery trucks

$       398.00    Ken’s Foods Inc.: salad dressings

$       368.75    Wholesome & Hearty Food: vegetarian burgers

$       314.89    Handi Foil: disposable aluminum containers

Oct 15: a crash course in local apple lore and how to make cider

There’s nothing quite like freshly pressed apple cider. Can you believe that folks attempted to ban its production and consumption during Prohibition? True, it was the alcoholic kind they were after, but… Okay, while not exactly an event focusing on food justice, local food lovers might be interested in this event being organized by our local Slow Food chapter…. (more…)

DC school garden bike/van tour this Saturday (Oct 1)!

October is apparently ALL THINGS FOOD month…..

DC Farm to School Week — which celebrates healthier food options inside the schools — begins next Monday, Oct 3. But this week you can celebrate the gardens that are helping to teach kids how our food grows just outside of their classrooms, in their very own schoolyards. Yep, it’s DC School Garden Week. Come check out some of the most impressive school gardens around by joining a school garden tour this Saturday, October 1.

It all starts at 8am with a free breakfast and tour at Watkins Elementary (420 12th St., SE, Washington, DC 20003). After biking — or catching the van if you’re not up for biking* — to 10 other local schools, the group will finish at Tubman Elementary with a recap of the tour over a free lunch (thanks to Chipotle). Come meet the hard-working and inspiring people involved in sustaining these gardens, and ask questions.

Where: Meet at Watkins Elementary

When: Saturday, October 1 from 8am-1pm

Cost: None

RSVP: tours@dcschoolgardenweek.com. Please indicate whether you’d like to participate in the van or bike tour.

More details can be found here.

*If you don’t have a bike, but would like to participate in the tour, let us know- we’ll hook you up with a bike courtesy of Capital Bikeshare!

Announcing D.C. Farm to School Week – Oct. 3-7, 2011!

What’s a child’s first reaction to a bright orange roasted sweet potato on her cafeteria tray?  “Weird!” or “What’s that?!” But take that child to a nearby farm and show her how sweet potatoes are grown; or bring a local chef into her classroom to make a delicious sweet potato dish.  Then what?  That sweet potato in her school meal is gone before you know it!

The D.C. Farm to School Network is pleased to announce that the third annual D.C. Farm to School Week will take place October 3-7, 2011 in schools across Washington, DC!  The week will get students excited about local food and where it comes from.  Schools will feature seasonal, local foods in their school meals, and engage students in hands-on food education.

Get your school involved! Learn how at www.dcfarmtoschoolweek.org, where you’ll find tools, resources and instructions for registering your school.  The D.C. Farm to School Network will help every step of the way.

Sponsor the event! We’re looking for organizations and individuals interested to help make D.C. Farm to School Week a success.  Read our Sponsor Packet to learn more.

Cleveland Elementary students visit Common Good City Farm

The event will kick-off the first ever National Farm to School Month in October, celebrated by schools all over the country.  Last year, over 150 schools served up seasonal specialties such as honey-braised local apple and collard green salad, and Asian slaw with local cabbage during D.C. Farm to School Week.  And dozens of schools coordinated farm field trips and chef demonstrations to engage students in the farm-to-table process.  Let’s make this year’s event even better!

For more information, visit www.dcfarmtoschoolweek.org or email Andrea Northup, D.C. Farm to School Network Manager at the Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food & Agriculture, at andrea[at]dcfarmtoschool[dot]org.  This event is brought to you by the D.C. Farm to School Network and the Office of the State Superintendent of Education Department of Wellness & Nutrition Services, in conjunction with schools and other community partners.  And remember, D.C. School Garden Week will take place Sept. 26 – Oct. 1!

Growing Gardeners with Rooftop Workshops

We’re not just growing vegetables on our rooftops here at Bread for the City. We’re growing gardeners.

Some of our clients have never really seen a garden before, let alone worked in one themselves. Many people, however, have fond memories of gardening in their youth (as part of family and community traditions), but no longer have access to green space these days. For all, our rooftop gardens are an opportunity to learn about food at its source, and to develop some capacity for growing it ourselves.

So in addition to our daily open hours (Monday through Thursday, 9-11am), we’re also conducting gardening workshops to learn and practice together. In these workshops, a mix of staff, volunteers and clients learn how to make their own containers, how to plant them, and facts about different herbs. We learn the science behind the plants and then we our hands dirty. Participants also enjoy lunch prepared with fresh ingredients grown right there in the garden. At the end of the workshops, clients receive both produce and potted plants to take home for their own budding gardens!

Brenden Armstrong, a local professional horticulturist, has been joining us to share best practices and ideas for how to grow vegetables and herbs in containers. Here’s what Brenden says about the class:

During the first class clients had the opportunity to plant basil, tomato, and pepper plants. For the second class they planted more herbs including thyme, oregano, lavender, and mint.

All of these plants were chosen because they are easy to grow both within and outside of the home, and they also provide good yields. Most herbs will supply plenty throughout the year when harvested correctly; basil, for instance, can be harvested every few weeks. Tomatoes and peppers can also be grown easily and grow enough that a couple of plants will suffice for each person in the household.

Throughout the workshops we emphasized the opportunities to use materials around clients’ homes to reduce the costs of gardening. We talked about how you can make everyday items such as yogurt cups and plastic juice jugs into containers for growing vegetables and herbs.

Those who came to the workshops varied in their interests and backgrounds. Some participants had a lot of experience, and were even able to share their own knowledge; and for others this was their first time working with plants. Students caught on very quickly to what was taught and everyone contributed their thoughts to the class. Someone even called it “mind-opening.” People were especially pleased to be able to pot up their own plants and take them home.

Now, since these workshops were held late in the season, neither the clients nor I had a chance to start the plants from seed. (Starting plants from seed saves a lot of money and also allows you to choose from many more varieties than you can buy in the store.) So I made sure to choose seedlings that will nevertheless produce by the end of this season. This would allow participants to feel successful and make them more confident to continue gardening.

This is all still an experiment. So far we’ve received feedback from our clients on what kinds of plants we should grow, and what kinds of workshops we should be organizing. Ultimately, we hope to see clients take a leading role in all aspects of the garden.

Our workshops are developing into a real regular schedule, with some during the week and others on weekends (often with expert instruction by OLD CITY Green – stay tuned for another post on them). You can see the calendar here.

Meanwhile, you can feel free to come by to check out our garden even without a workshop! Ask the front desk if you’re in our building, or contact Jeff Wankel at (651) 325-8918 or jwankel@breadforthecity.org with any questions. And, of course, these programs are all made possible by your support. Please help this Community Supported Agriculture initiative by making a donation (of cash or soil!) today.

Brainfood Community MVPs

Food advocates these days don’t have it easy.   There’s plenty written on the ways that poverty, access, and obesity influence what we eat — now fair food activists are exploring what resources, approaches, and strategies are successfully changing how we eat.  Just last month, a UNC-based study found that simply improving access to supermarkets in low-income neighborhoods wasn’t enough to impact rates of fruit and vegetable consumption.  Mark Bittman, the Times’ resident food writer-turned-op-ed columnist, recently wondered if taxing unhealthy foods and subsidizing fresh produce could change what he calls the Standard American Diet.  And nutrition policy guru, Marion Nestle asserts that it’s not all about cold, hard cash: many individuals who can afford fresh food may still lack the time or the skill base to utilize fresh ingredients.

While the debate continues on how to successfully navigate the modern food system and encourage healthier eating habits, one theme is clear: systemic change starts at the individual level, and changing individual behaviors necessitates food education opportunities that are low-cost and accessible to traditionally underserved communities.

That’s why Brainfood will be launching Brainfood Community MVPs, a new youth-led teaching initiative, this fall.  We’ll be heading out of the kitchen and into the community as a fully mobile teaching unit, bringing recipes for healthy alternatives, working with local farms and gardens, and spreading the good news that healthy cooking ain’t all that bad after all.

What is Community MVPs?

The inspiration for Community MVPs came directly from the youth population that Brainfood has served for over 10 years.

In participant focus groups, one clear theme emerged: after building cooking and leadership skills at Brainfood, program graduates want to use their skills to serve the community.  We were inspired, though not surprised, that our youth want to help fill the need for more hands-on, culturally appropriate food education resources in the District.

Community MVPs is a program that gives Brainfood graduates the opportunity to take their cooking and leadership skills out of the kitchen and into the community. This 9-month program teaches returning Brainfood students how to develop and facilitate hands-on workshops on healthy cooking.  During the fall participants will design workshops and refine their teaching techniques.  In the spring, participants will identify community groups who are in need of food education resources and schedule times to deliver their workshops at on and off-site locations.  Participants will also be paid for their work as community teachers.

Why this program?
In focus groups conducted with current and past participants we discovered that program graduates wanted to use their cooking skills to serve the community.  We were inspired, though not surprised, that our youth are ready to help build a support system in DC that empowers residents to make healthier food choices.

Community MVPs is also a continuation of Brainfood’s commitment to meeting people where they are. Building a healthier DC will take more than just having great spaces for urban gardens and farmers markets, or having businesses open retail locations in more neighborhoods. We believe that community based outreach, free or low-cost food education resources, and the creation of safe and welcoming spaces are necessary to change the way that people eat, cook, and buy their food.  We also believe that Community MVPs will exemplify how a diverse group of stakeholders can leverage local food and resources to positively impact the community.

How can Community MVPs help my group or organization?
In Spring 2012, our inaugural class of Community MVPs will be offering hands-on cooking workshops on healthy cooking to community groups.  Have our trained core of student teachers teach a healthy cooking workshop at your organization’s site, or schedule a time to bring a group to our kitchen.  Our student teachers are DC teens who are committed to building skills and empowering the community to make fresher, healthier food.

Wanna support our inaugural class of Brainfood Community MVPs?  We’re currently looking for committed, creative individuals to coach our youth teachers to success.  Check our our website or email Carina Gervacio (carina@brain-food.org) for more info.

New Ward 7 Farmers Market

More options for healthy, affordable, fresh produce are coming east of the Anacostia River! On Saturday, September 3rd, a new Farmers Market will launch in the Parkside-Kenilworth neighborhood of Ward 7. This will be just the third currently operational market east of the River and will run from Labor Day through Thanksgiving.

The Parkside-Kenilworth Farmers Market will be just over the Pedestrian Bridge at the Minnesota Avenue Metro Station on the Kenilworth Avenue side. The Market is a collaborative effort between City Interests, the owner and master developer of 15.5 vacant acres of land at Parkside; the University of DC; and the Banc of America Community Development Corporation. The Market is just one of many initiatives underway in DC’s own federally designated Promise Neighborhood, which received a $500,000 grant from the US Department of Education in 2010 to address community-wide issues of health, nutrition, housing, economic development, and education from cradle through college and career.

The yellow star indicates the Farmers Market.

The Market is working toward being able to accept SNAP and WIC payments and hopes to utilize the Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program (SFMNP) as well. It is the hopes of the Market’s founders that the weekly event will become an outlet for creative, active programming and will draw greater attention to the concerns of food access and nutrition in underserved neighborhoods throughout the District.

This is an exciting development for the Parkside-Kenilworth neighborhood and for Ward 7 as a whole! Check out the Market on Saturday, September 3rd from 9-1pm to support ongoing efforts to address food access inequalities east of the Anacostia River.

WHAT: Parkside-Kenilworth Farmers Market

WHEN: Saturday, Sept. 3rd from 9am – 1pm and every Saturday following through November

WHERE: The corner of Burnham Place NE & Kenilworth Terrace NE, just off the Minnesota Avenue Metro Station Pedestrian Bridge on the Kenilworth Avenue side. Visible from DC-295.

WHY: Supporting the Market will support the larger cause of bringing greater food access to underserved neighborhoods throughout Washington, D.C.

One in Three Households with Children in Washington, D.C. Report Inability to Afford Enough Food

D.C.’s Very High Food Hardship Rate for Households with Children Underscores Need to Protect Nutrition Safety Net

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jennifer Adach, 202.986.2200 x3018, jadach@frac.org

WASHINGTON, D.C. – August 11, 2011 – More than 37 percent of households with children in Washington, D.C. reported in 2009-2010 not having enough money to buy food that they needed for themselves or their family at times during the prior twelve months, according to a new analysis of food hardship data (pdf) released by the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC).  Among states, D.C. has the highest food hardship rate among households with children.

FRAC’s Food Hardship in America series analyzes data that were collected by Gallup and provided to FRAC. The data were gathered as part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index project, which has interviewed more than one million households since January 2008. FRAC has analyzed responses to the question: “Have there been times in the past twelve months when you did not have enough money to buy food that you or your family needed?”

The analysis released today examines food hardship rates – the inability to afford enough food – for households with and without children. Data are available for every state, every Congressional District and 100 of the country’s largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs). Findings for Washington, D.C. and the metro area include:

  • There is a dramatic difference in food hardship rates between households with and without children. In 2009-2010, 37.4 percent of households with children in the District of Columbia said they were unable to afford enough food. The food hardship rate for households without children drops to 14.9 percent.
  • For the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria MSA, 9.4 percent of households without children reported food hardship in 2009-2010. But, once again, the numbers were dramatically higher for households with children – 19.4 percent of households with children said that they had difficulty affording enough food.

“The fact that one in three households with children – and one in five in the metro area as a whole –struggle to afford enough food in the nation’s capital should shock people, and should underscore the fact that we cannot weaken programs that benefit low-income families,” said D.C. Hunger Solutions Director Alex Ashbrook. “We urge Members of Congress – who live and work in this city – to ensure that all deficit negotiations protect nutrition programs and other parts of the safety net that help low-income people.”

When Congress returns to Washington after its August recess, it will enter the next phase of consideration under the recently passed debt ceiling deal. D.C. Hunger Solutions joins FRAC in urging Congress to recognize the absolute necessity of protecting low-income programs such as SNAP (food stamps) and school meals from cuts.

“These data merely underscore what every Member of Congress should know already — that his or her district has tens of thousands of households struggling with hunger or food insecurity,” said FRAC President Jim Weill. “Weakening any of these key safety net programs would make hunger and malnutrition more common and deeper. It could increase fiscal deficits, further weaken the economy, and increase human suffering in the district.”

The full analysis is available on FRAC’s website (www.frac.org).

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