HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 12081987 - T.1 THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS OF CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA
Adopted this Order on December 8, 1987 by the following vote:
AYES: Supervisors Powers , Fanden, Schroder, Torlakson, McPeak
NOES: None
ABSENT: None
ABSTAIN: None
------------------------------------------------------------------
SUBJECT: Hunger Task Force Report
JohnBateson,Bateson, Chair of the Hunger Task Force, presented
the attached report on hunger in Contra Costa County.
After discussion by Board members, IT IS ORDERED that
the following actions are APPROVED:
1. ACKNOWLEDGED receipt of the report from the Contra Costa
Hunger Task Force;
2. COMMENDED the Task Force for their efforts in compiling
the report;
3 . REQUESTED the County Administrator to analyze recom-
mendations contained in the Task Force report and report
to the Internal Operations Committee;
4 . DIRECTED the County Administrator to contact Price Club
and Costco requesting their cooperation in offering
discount memberships to allow food stamp recipients the
opportunity to shop at the discount stores;
5. REQUESTED the County Administrator to transmit a copy of
the Task Force report to the Restaurant Association,
asking them to meet with the Hunger Task Force;
6. REQUESTED the Finance Committee to review funding for
vehicle repair/replacement for the Community Food
Coalition; and
7 . DIRECTED staff to investigate ways to improve outreach
to County residents to ensure that people who qualify
for assistance are aware of benefits they are entitled
to and how to utilize such services.
CC: County Administrator
Finance Committee
Social Services Director
Health Services Director
hereby certify that this is a true and correct copy of
an action: taken and entered on the minutes of the
Board of Supervisors on thedate shown.
ATTESTED: Aex" �/i '4 /987'
PHIL BATCHELOR, Clerk of the Board
of Supervisors and County Administrator
BY Deputy
In the Midst of Plenty, the Shadow of Hunger
A report by the Contra Costa County Hunger Task Force
December 1987
SUMMARY
A number of myths persist about hunger in Contra Costa County. The results of
interviews of emergency food clients conducted by the Hunger Task Force reveal a
dramatically different picture than the rosy world the myths represent. Dispelling these
myths is the first step toward ultimately ensuring that the right to food, like other basic
human rights, is guaranteed.
MYTH 1: Hunger is not a problem in Contra Costa County.
FACT:
• 75,000 county residents live near or below the poverty line.
Each month, 5,240 people receive three-day food baskets from county emergency
food pantries -- a 39 percent increase since 1984.
The number of people who eat in Contra Costa soup kitchens has increased from 200
a day in 1981 to 900 a day in 1987.
MYTH 2: The only hungry people in the county are bums and transients.
FACT:
48 percent of emergency food recipients are members of families with children. Only
2 percent are actually transients.
MYTH 3: The reason people are hungry is because they're too lazy to work.
FACT:
45 percent of adult emergency food recipients are employed in low-paying jobs or
have recently lost a job.
o Many emergency food recipients are disabled (16 percent of survey respondents),
raising dependent children alone (27 percent), or are children themselves (33
percent).
MYTH 4: Most county residents who qualify for federal food assistance receive it.
FACT:
o Almost 50 percent of emergency food recipients eligible for food stamps don't receive
them.
• 70 percent of low-income pregnant women and children in the county do not
participate in the Women, Infants, and Children's Program (WIC), despite the
program's effectiveness in improving health and nutrition. All children over three
years old are turned away from WIC due to limited program funding.
Only 40 of Contra Costa's 188 schools participate in the School Breakfast program.
Seventy-five percent of needy children in the county are unserved.
1
MYTH 5: Welfare payments are adequate to feed an individual or family.
FACT:
• The average food-stamp allotment in Contra Costa is only 32 cents a meal.
• Even adding welfare payments to food stamps doesn't bring families up to the
federally established poverty line.
MYTH 6: Private food programs are able to pick up the slack.
FACT:
Emergency food programs in Contra Costa provide food to 1,500 people a day — less
than 3 percent of the county's low-income population.
MYTH 7: Federal food-assistance programs are a waste of the taxpayer's money.
FACT:
• The WIC program saves over $3 in health care for every dollar spent.
• If every Contra Costa resident eligible for Food Stamps or WIC participated, an
additional $14 fnillion would be channeled into the local economy.
MYTH 8: Hungry people don't know how to manage their money.
FACT:
According to a Bureau of Labor Statistics survey, food stamp recipients spend far less
money on highly processed foods, snacks, and sweets than other shoppers.
MYTH 9: It doesn't hurt to go to bed hungry once in awhile.
FACT:
• Poor maternal and infant nutrition affect an infant's birth weight, brain growth, and
overall health.
• Everyone, regardless of age, is more lethargic and less resistant to illness when
malnourished. Hunger also has a devastating emotional impact.
MYTH 10: There is nothing I can do to eliminate hunger in Contra Costa County.
FACT:
Both individuals and groups can urge political representatives to support long-range
hunger solutions, donate money and time to local feeding programs, plant gardens
that produce excess food for the hungry, and get involved with anti-hunger efforts in
their community.
2
SUMMARY RECOMMENDATIONS
Federal and State Level
1. The California Legislature should raise the minimum wage to match the federally
established poverty level for a family of three.
2. Federal and state funding for the Women, Infants, and Children's Program (WIC)
should be expanded to cover 100 percent of eligible women and children and
maintain children on the program until age five.
3. The California Legislature and the Governor should petition for a federal increase in
food stamp benefits to a minimum of 75 cents a meal.
Local Level
4. Contra Costa County government and citizens should advocate at the state and
federal levels for legislation that will support programs benefiting low-income county
residents.
5. Local hunger and nutrition groups should work with the Contra Costa Social Services
Department to jointly provide county-wide food stamp outreach, advocacy, and
community education.
6. Contra Costa County should fund a permanent emergency food and shelter hotline.
7. County and community groups should work together to develop additional revenue
sources for the Nutritional Program for the Elderly.
8. The county should expand its bus and taxi voucher system for transporting low-
income county residents to benefit offices and job or training sites.
9. School administrators and county officials, in cooperation with local businesses,
service clubs, and churches, should establish an "adopt-a-school program" to expand
the School Breakfast Program.
10. One staff position at a county or community agency should be created to seek
increased funding for anti-hunger efforts, develop and implement a community food
plan and education/outreach program, and analyze existing data to identify early on
people at nutritional risk.
3
Contra Costa County Hunger Task Force
5121_ Port Chicago Highway " Concord, California 94520
For Immediate Release December 1 , 1987
Contact: Harvey Smith or Bekki Johnson, Prevention Program,
646-2511/646-6511 , or John Bateson, Food Coalition,
676-7543 .
HUNGER REPORT RELEASED
Do you believe that hunger is not a problem in Contra Costa
County, or that the only hungry people in the county are
bums and transients? The fact is that 75 , 000 county
residents live near or below the poverty line . Forty-eight
percent of emergency food recipients are members of families
with children, and only 2 percent are actually transients .
These are just two of ten myths about hunger in Contra Costa
County that are debunked by the soon to be released report
from the Contra Costa Hunger Task Force, "In the Midst of
Plenty, the Shadow of Hunger . " The report will be presented
to the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors at 10 : 30
a.m. , on Tuesday, December 8th. It includes recommendations
at the federal , state, and local level to eliminate hunger
in the county.
The Hunger Task Force sees the report as a sourcebook and
reference tool on hunger in the county. The information it
contains can be used to urge corporate, governmental, and
individual support of anti-hunger efforts .
The Contra Costa County Hunger Task Force was established in
1986 to focus on the growing problem of hunger in the
county. Representatives from the social services , public
health, and nutrition fields - as well as members of
community agencies and concerned individual members - joined
together to reach lasting solutions to the problem of hunger
in Contra Costa .
In February 1987 , Task Force members surveyed coordinators
of 31 county emergency food pantries and 3 soup kitchens .
In March, 100 emergency food pantry clients, 100 soup
kitchen clients, and 100 recipients of government surplus
commodities were interviewed. The interview results,
combined with demographic information and data on government
food programs , form the basis of the report.
I'
The Task Force believes the report will lead to increased
efforts to ensure that the right to food, like other basic
human rights, is guaranteed.
Members of the Hunger Task Force will be available to meet
with the press immediately following the presentation to the
Board of Supervisors . Copies of the report will be available
from the Prevention Program, 646-2511 , on December 2nd.
j
F THE TRIBUNE,Oakland, California-
Wednesday, Nov. 25, 1987 0-7
'Real hunger in the-filids_t ®f plenty
:c.. .Y ... ..
As we anticipate tomor- And if.you think a nation as wealthy as ours offers
rows goodies — the turkey, enough programs to prevent hunger,you are once again
t., the dressing,the pies and rolls, closing your eyes to the reality. Nearly 50 percent of
the feeling of being stuffed be- the people interviewed in the task force survey were
yond our most gluttonous eligible for food stamps but did not receive m be-
dream — its difficult to ima g P
the
• h- cause they were either discouraged by the excessive
sw. ing that anyone could be going paperwork and documentation or felt they would be
\ ,hungry. stigmatized by participation in the progracg.
Of course people are suf-
But even if they were to receive foodstamps, they
feting from chronic hunger, would not be much more secure. The average food
and in ever-increasing num-
stamp allotment in the county provides only 32 cents a
bens. And in a classic example meal.
of want in the midst of plenty,
people are even going hungry Even more upsetting, only 40 percent of Contra
Brenda in what is usually viewed as Costa County's public schools participate in the school
prosperous Contra Costra :breakfast program. None of the schools in Richmond,
County. one of the cities with the greatest need, offers the pro-
PaytonA soon-to-be-released sur- gram. As a result, 75 percent of the county's needy
vey of hunger in Contra Costa reveals that more than children are not served by the program.
F"-10 percent.of the county's population, an estimated Aside from the detrimental effect of hunger on the
r_
'r"75,000 county residents,live near or below the poverty hungry — low birth weight and slowed brain growth in
line. (The 1987 poverty line was an annual income of babies, lethargy and lowered resistance to illness in
$11,592 for a family of four or.$9,044 for a family of everyone — the survey, points out that hunger also
-"three;) hurts the overall society..If every eligible and hungry
Based on interviews with 300 recipients of emer resident participated in the federal aid programs; for
` -gency food provisions,the.Contra Costa County Hungerexample, an additional $14 billion would be pumped
Task Force uncovered some disturbing realities about into the local economy through food sales.
,, poverty and hunger. To its credit,the task force goes a step farther than
For starters, the survey found a frightening in establishing the need in the county. It offers concrete
crease in the number of people seeking emergency food lstrategies for combatting the problem of hunger, in-
Q1",,supplies. Since 1984, the number ofresidents who re- cluding an.increase in the state minimum wage,expan-
�;. •;,,ceive the county's three-day food basket has increased. 'sfon of the Women, Infants and Children's (WIC) pro-
} .t by 39 percent this year,5,240 people received the gram; and. an increase in food stamp benefits to a
9.1'baskets. Since 1981, the number of people who eat at- minimum of 75 cents per meal.
county soup kitchens has increased by 33 percent;from
Locally, it suggests that businesses. "adopt a
y1 Y200 to 900 a day. school" to expand the school breakfast program, that
P hungry g the county establish an emergency food and shelter
The profile of the hun has changed
as dramati-'
Cally as their numbers.According to the survey,nearly hotline,outreach and education programs,and develop
f. ' half, 48 percent, of the emergency food recipients are. programs to detect early indications of hunger and.
A. members of families with children. In fact 33 percent raise money for emergency food programs.
are children.
If you are of a mind to dismiss hunger as the result The task force survey points Qut that people are
'+ of laziness or mismanagement,the facts won't help you hungry in even the most prosperous areas, as amazing
continue your self-delusion. The survey found that 45 (or disgusting) as that is.But possibly more important,
percent of the adults who needed emergency food sup- it makes it clear that hunger is not something we have
plies were employed in low-paying jobs or had recently to accept — we can do something about it.
lost their jobs. That cushion you thought you had may Brenda Payton writes on Mondays, Wednesdays
not be as fat as you think. and Fridays.
_ ,.. .. _ .._.. -_.. .. - ... .- ._. -
' i