All posts in Government Issues category.
Hi Backyard Hen Supporters, I wanted to let you know that the Kojo Namdi Show (WAMU 88.5) will be focusing on the growing Backyard Hen movement around the country tomorrow (Thursday) from 12:00 to 1:00. They will be interviewing Pat Foreman, the author of City Chicks, as well as an urban farmer from Brooklyn and [...]
D.C. Councilmember Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3), who has vowed to pay for her “Healthy Schools” legislation one way or another, has asked colleagues to approve a tax on soda sales in the District of Columbia as a means of raising the estimated $6.5 million annual cost of the omnibus bill aimed at improving school nutrition and combating the city’s high childhood obesity rate.
In her letter to other members of the Council, Cheh does not specify a tax rate for sodas, but quotes the director of the U.S. Center for Disease Control as saying that a tax of 1 cent per ounce on soft drinks–or approximately 10 percent–would be the “single most effective measure to reverse the obesity epidemic.”
Cheh notes that since the repeal of a city tax on snack foods in 2001, there is no tax in the District on sodas except those purchased from vending machines. Meanwhile, Maryland levies a 6 percent sales tax on soda, while Virginia charges 1.5 percent. plus a state excise tax. Revenue from Cheh’s proposed soda tax would be directed into a special “Healthy Schools” fund, to be used only for purposes outlined in the bill.
In addition to providing additional funds for school breakfasts and lunches, the “Healthy Schools” bill would also help fund the purchase of local produce for school meals and establish grants for school gardens. While the legislation has won widespread support on the Council and among healthy food advocates, it has been dogged by questions of how Cheh would finance the plan when the city is in financial pain.
Special soda taxes have been proposed in other cities–notably New York–as a means of attacking the obesity problem. But this is the first time the issue has been raised seriously here. The “Healthy Schools” legislation, which sailed through committee and an initial Council vote recently, is scheduled to come up for a second and final vote on May 5.
An aide to Cheh last night said Cheh proposes to attach the soda tax to the city’s proposed general budget legislation, scheduled for a vote May 25, and expects that it will spark a fierce reaction from the food and beverage industries.
The proposed soda tax could also ingnite protests from the city’s black and low-income residents. Cheh says in her letter that such a tax most likely will fall heaviest on the District’s poor, who are also at greatest risk for being overweight or obese. “This means that children in the District who are at the greatest risk for childhood obesity are the most likely to decrease their consumption of sugary beverages as a result of a soda tax.”
Today, the Washington Informer reports on the expansion of food stamps in the District, as celebrated at Bread for the City last week in a press conference with Councilmembers Michael Brown (I-At Large) and Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3).
The actual implementation of the Food Stamp Expansion Act (introduced by Brown and unanimously approved by the Council) was way delayed, but finally an additional 4,800 DC residents are eligible for food assistance. It’s good news at a time when the low-income residents of DC need more of it.
But can we just take a step back to last week, when the Washington Post covered this story? (I know it’s lame to blog about something that’s like a whole week old; yet it was a busy week around here, and there’s something about the Post’s article that really sticks in the craw.) Check out how WaPo’s Tim Craig caps off his article with an out-of-nowhere conclusion:
“Still, for some residents both inside and outside the city, the fact that city officials are bragging about increasing the District’s food stamps rolls is sure to generate debate, and reinforce conservatives’ criticisms of the District government’s priorities.”
Okay — hold on. Is that a fact that Craig is reporting? Is such a debate actually happening somewhere? Would any District resident really think it’s a bad idea for our city government to claim federal funding (free money!) that will both alleviate miserable hunger and stimulate $1.73 of local economic activity for every $1 of food stamps? Or was this paragraph written because the practice of journalism demands that the ‘other side’ get its say, regardless of reason, morals, or even presence?
We are not journalists, so maybe we just don’t understand. But we do think that Craig could have put this precious column space to better use by, say, reporting on the fact that Councilmember Mary Cheh has another food stamp expansion bill in the works, one which will bring relief to 4,000 more District residents (working families, homeless people, and self-employed individuals) and is already unanimously-supported by Council. That sounds like news to us.
Hi everyone,
The D.C. WIC Agency scheduled a second training for farmers interested in accepting WIC and FMNP vouchers. That training is set for April 15, 1 to 3 p.m. If you want to register, please email me at kroberts@dchunger.org — I’d be happy to pass your name on to the Agency.
The D.C. Farmers’ Market Collaborative meets monthly at D.C. Hunger Solutions. Anyone is welcome to attend and discuss outreach/publicity about the new WIC cash value checks — and publicity for markets generally. Please contact me if you’d like to attend a meeting, and/or if you’d like to be added to our email list to keep up with farmers’ market news and opportunities to help.
Additionally, the Farmers’ Market Collaborative (in cooperation with the WIC Agency) is creating a handy, at-a-glance guide to the four federally-funded nutrition benefits that residents can use at District markets. This guide will be available for all farmers and market managers as a quick-reference to have on hand at their cash registers. (It also might prove a useful model for other states in the future — as the June 2009 CFSC report notes, only about half the states have elected to include farmers’ markets this year as vendors for the new fruit & vegetable checks included in the WIC food package.) Contact me if you would like a copy.
Thanks, and I hope to hear from many of you soon!
-Kristin Roberts, D.C. Hunger Solutions
kroberts@dchunger.org; 202.986.2200 x3041
We’ve been talking a lot about the Healthy Schools Act here on the blog. Last Friday over 60 DC residents testified on the legislation before the DC Council. Here’s one testimony:
Good afternoon Madam Chair and Councilmember Barry:
My name is Carl Rollins and I am here on behalf of Common Good City Farm. When I was riding my bike here this morning I stopped by the farm. This time of year it doesn’t look like much, but I saw the future. Through the fence, I could see cherry blossoms on a tree we planted a year ago. Garlic scapes were shooting up towards the sky.
This abandoned school baseball field could be the first of many. We could have one school farm like this in each ward.
Whether we’re tuning in to The Biggest Loser television show, hearing the latest updates about Michelle Obama’s new “Let’s Move” campaign to tackle childhood obesity, or reading about a new policy taxing soda or removing vending machines from schools, there is no denying nutrition and physical activity are two of the hottest topics in the country.
They are also two of the most pressing public health issues with serious long term health consequences. In fact, in Washington, DC the rate of obesity is 22.3 percent, while nearly 27 percent of the nation’s adults are obese. These rates spike up even more dramatically in African Americans and Latinos.[2] Some of the health consequences of obesity are coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, various cancers (endometrial, breast, and colon), high cholesterol, liver and gall bladder disease, sleep apnea and respiratory problems.[3]
DC Voices for MEAL Choices (DVMC), an advocacy group of the Metropolitan Washington Public Health Association, is working to get the DC Menu Education and Labeling (MEAL) Act passed in the district by educating policymakers, the media and the public about the positive effect of including nutrition information on menus and menu boards in restaurants.
In March 2007, D.C. City Council members Phil Mendelson and Marion Barry introduced the DC MEAL Act to address the significantly high number of obesity related chronic diseases in the nation’s capital. The council members developed the bill to help residents and visitors of D.C. make healthier food choices when eating outside of their homes.
The MEAL Act would require fast food and other chain restaurants in the District of Columbia to provide detailed nutrition information directly on the menu. The bill would mandate establishments with 10 or more locations nationwide to list the calorie content and specific amounts of saturated fat, trans fat, carbohydrates and sodium in standard menu items. Although Councilman Mendelson introduced the DC MEAL Act almost three years ago, the Council has not passed the law requiring DC chain restaurants to provide nutrition information to their customers.
Students in Washington Youth Garden’s Garden Science program learned about the proposed DC Healthy Schools Act this past week.
We wrote letters to the City Council to express our support of this bill, a few of which you can read below. We will be submitting these letters of support to the DC City Council and will read a few of them during the public testimony period at the upcoming hearing on March 26.
In a previous post, we explored a new Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program that helps low-income mothers buy more fresh produce at farmers markets. The new coupons are known as WIC Fruit and Vegetable Cash Value Vouchers, or FVC. This second post in the series looks at benefits of a similar nutrition assistance program already in place–the WIC Farmers Market Nutrition Program (FMNP)–and yet more stumbling blocks in implementation of such programs.
First, the good news.
According to a report by the Community Food Security Coalition based on USDA numbers, 2.3 million WIC participants received farmers market benefits in 2008, spending about $20 million. During that year, 16,016 farmers and 3,367 farmers markets were authorized to accept FMNP coupons. The USDA awarded grants to each state, amounting to $301,302 for D.C. in 2009, while Maryland received $341,338 (Virginia received $291,212 in 2008, but declined to participate last year).
Also according to the report, evaluation of the program in Washington state showed that WIC recipients who used vouchers increased their knowledge and consumption of fruits and vegetables, and planned to keep coming to farmers markets in the future. Several D.C.-area markets–including the Crossroads market in Takoma Park and three of the markets run by FRESHFARM Markets–established very popular grant-funded “double dollar” programs, which matched the value of vouchers, increasing shoppers’ buying power and farmers’ income.
This works out for everyone–at least until bureaucracy or lack of participation get in the way.
Liz Falk, the former manager of WIC and food stamp programs for FRESHFARM Markets, says she saw very little in the way of advertising for the WIC FMNP. D.C.’s WIC administrators and the Department of Health could not — or would not — devote much funding to develop and distribute marketing materials, and different agencies were reluctant even to add each others’ information to existing materials. The situation will likely hold true for the FVC program.
More worrisome still: Falk says that “red tape is covering so much of what’s possible with these programs.”
The program’s certification process itself is problematic. As our first post mentioned, D.C. offers just one training for farmers who want to participate in the WIC FMNP, Senior FMNP, and FVC programs. (It’s set for this Wednesday, March 10 in Greenbelt, MD, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.)
By contrast Maryland offers multiple trainings on 13 different dates in Greenbelt, Annapolis, Hagerstown, Baltimore, and Denton. Each lasts an hour–from 10 to 11 a.m. or 1 to 2 p.m.
