Multi-Year Gift from Fairfield County Community Foundation Doubles Kids’ BackPack Program in Bridgeport

Fairfield County Community Foundation President & CEO Juanita T. James (left) and Connecticut Food Bank President & CEO Nancy L. Carrington oversee packing of food for the Kids' BackPack Program

Program provides healthy weekend meals for students at risk of hunger

Connecticut Food Bank is the recipient of a multi-year gift from Fairfield County Community Foundation that will double the number of children in Bridgeport who participate in its vitally important Kids’ BackPack Program. Through the Foundation’s initial gift of $124,000, more than 900 Bridgeport school children will receive nutritious food during weekends when other resources, including free/reduced price school meals, are not available to them.

“Well-nourished children tend to have fewer illnesses and better school achievement than those who are chronically hungry,” said Nancy L. Carrington, president and CEO of Connecticut Food Bank. “We are extremely grateful to the Fairfield County Community Foundation’s long-term support of the Kids’ BackPack Program in Bridgeport. It is such an important component of child nutrition for those who participate.”

“The Foundation and our donors support many programs to address the achievement gap in our schools, including training future principals and funding effective after-school and summer programs,” said Juanita T. James, president and CEO of the Fairfield County Community Foundation. “But if students can’t focus in the classroom because they are hungry, these programs cannot succeed. The Kids’ Backpack program is a solution that gets to the heart of a critical issue in our community.”

The Kids’ BackPack Program plans to serve 109 schools in 18 Connecticut towns in the 2011-2012 school year. Seventy schools in the Fairfield County area participate; including 28 from Bridgeport. A typical bag of food includes two each of packages of milk, 100 percent fruit juice, two whole grain cereals, two high-nutrition entrees and two low-fat, low sugar snacks.

In Connecticut, nearly one in five children is food insecure, meaning they do not know where their next meal is coming from. In Connecticut Food Bank’s service area, 53 percent of the food insecure population does not qualify for food stamps or other government programs, so they often must rely on other sources such as Connecticut Food Bank and others to help feed themselves and their families.

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SNAP Challenge – Day 6: Trying to find a balance

Editor’s Note: Deb Heinrich, Gov. Dannel Malloy’s liaison to the state’s nonprofit community, agreed to take the SNAP/Food Stamp Challenge this month and live on $4 a day for food for a week. We are posting her experience in this blog over the next few days.

I am sitting here, staring at the computer with a raging headache, trying to concentrate on what it is I might want to write in today’s journal entry. I’ve had this headache on and off for two days. I’m on the sixth day of the Challenge. I am finding that even when I eat enough so that I don’t feel hungry, I am still not feeling well. I can’t help but think it has to do with a lack of fresh fruits and vegetables. Today’s menu is much like the past few days: oatmeal with brown sugar for breakfast, lentils and rice for lunch, snack of peanut butter and celery, lentils and rice for supper. I’m going to eat another snack (peanut butter and celery) and see if it helps.

It helped some. Perhaps I am having trouble recognizing it when I’m hungry now. I am learning first hand how my stomach can be “full”, but I can still be “hungry.” I tried to think of a different combination of groceries that might have given me more nutrients and vitamins, but every combination I’ve come up with so far lacks either vitamins or minerals or lacks protein. I can’t seem to find a balance that gives me enough calories, protein and vitamins on $4 a day.

Speaking of balance, I want to acknowledge how much time it takes to learn the ins and outs of what foods contain what nutrients and vitamins, analyze a diet, find recipes for inexpensive foods, plan a menu, buy the food, make the food, and make sure the food is with you when you need it. Balance that with working full time, raising kids, helping out family, participating in your community and more and you really come to see how it might be hard to find the time to eat healthy when your resources are limited.

I feel so incredibly sad that there are some people in my own community and state that feel this way all of the time, especially children who are growing and trying to learn.

Well, balance or not, I have another two meetings to attend this evening. So off I go.

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SNAP Challenge – Day 4: Analysis and a Visit

Editor’s Note: Deb Heinrich, Gov. Dannel Malloy’s liaison to the state’s nonprofit community, agreed to take the SNAP/Food Stamp Challenge this month and live on $4 a day for food for a week. We are posting her experience in this blog over the next few days.

Analysis

Again, I started the day with oatmeal with brown sugar. I like oatmeal a lot, but I am having a harder and harder time putting the spoon in my mouth. Eating like this does lack a bit of variety. I know that eating a variety of foods gives you a better chance of getting the nutrients you need. I was feeling very hungry and tired yesterday so I did a little analysis of what kind of nutrition I was getting.

First of all, I want to say that it is not as easy as one might think to figure out what you are and are not getting in your food. The labels only go so far and I found the Internet only marginally helpful. I compared what I could find out to the 2010 Nutritional Recommendations from the federal government. What I found was a bit of a surprise to me.

I tried to pick foods that I thought were protein rich and very healthy. Despite that, I found that I got just over half as much protein as I should have over a two day period. I got almost as much carbohydrates as I should have, and half as much fat. It was much harder to analyze the vitamins and minerals, but it looks like there are two that are either too low to count or lacking altogether: B12 and vitamin C. The real culprit, though seems to be just plainly and simply the amount of food. For a 2,000 calorie diet, I was getting less than half of the calories I needed. I simply need to eat more food, preferably in the form of protein.

I find that particularly interesting because I am definitely full when I finish a meal. Therefore, I will need to eat more often. So today, I will add another mini-meal. I will have lentil soup for lunch, carrots and peanut butter for an afternoon snack and rice, refried beans and salsa in two soft tacos for dinner. We’ll see how that goes.

A Visit

I had the pleasure of an unexpected visit from my mother this evening. In the spirit of the challenge, she will be eating with me. We will both dine on the refried beans, rice and salsa in soft taco shells tonight.

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SNAP Challenge – Day 3: Hunger

Editor’s Note: Deb Heinrich, Gov. Dannel Malloy’s liaison to the state’s nonprofit community, agreed to take the SNAP/Food Stamp Challenge this month and live on $4 a day for food for a week. We are posting her experience in this blog over the next few days.

Today is the first day that I have really felt very, very hungry.

I started the day with my obligatory bowl of oatmeal with a tablespoon of brown sugar. At about 11a.m., I started longing for lunch and feeling a bit tired. For lunch, I had an apple dipped in about three tablespoons of peanut butter. I chose a red delicious apple because I recently read an article that said the skin in a red delicious apple has more vitamins in it than any other apple variety. It filled me up at the time, but at about 3:00 pm, I got really, really hungry.

I felt quite sleepy in a meeting this afternoon and my stomach hurt.

My kids called to ask me if they could have friends over this evening and I felt so tired that I just had to say no.

I had to break down and have a bowl of beans and rice with salsa at 3:30 p.m. I am glad that I cooked it in advance so that all I had to do was heat it up. I’m not sure I could have waited much longer to actually get home and cook something from scratch.

I felt a lot better afterward, more focused, not as grumpy. I’ll have to see how eating this extra meal will fit into the weekly plan. I know I’ll need to eat again this evening. I have to give a keynote address tonight at 6:30 p.m. After that, I’ll have a bowl of leftover lentil soup.

I think I need to analyze the nutrients that I’m taking in. Perhaps there is something specific that I am missing. Once I figure out what it is, I hope I can meet that need for under $2.58. That is all I had left after my grocery trip at the beginning of the week.

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SNAP Challenge – Day 2: Craving Eggs

Editor’s Note: Deb Heinrich, Gov. Dannel Malloy’s liaison to the state’s nonprofit community, agreed to take the SNAP/Food Stamp Challenge this month and live on $4 a day for food for a week. We are posting her experience in this blog over the next few days.

Day 2: It is hard to concentrate when you are hungry.

I woke up craving eggs this morning. I had oatmeal with brown sugar. One serving today. For lunch, I wrapped leftover black beans and rice in two soft taco shells with salsa and packed it away to bring with me to work. It traveled better than I thought it would. My colleagues went out to lunch together today. I did not. For dinner, I made lentil soup with onion, celery, carrot and the diced tomatoes. I missed putting potatoes and zucchini in it. I put in extra salt in place of the pepper, thyme and other spices I usually use. It is pretty good. Not great. My family had french fries with their dinner tonight. The smell was almost too much to bear. It was interesting to me that their three orders of french fries equaled what is almost a third of my week’s budget.

This morning when I was making lunches for the kids, my son, who is 11 years old, asked me if I could make him two sandwiches tomorrow for school. He was hungry after eating his lunch of a cheese sandwich with mayonnaise, tomatoes and spinach accompanied by a small packet of smart food (a puffed corn snack), a large cucumber from our garden, some ginger snap cookies and a cereal bar. This wasn’t just a sandwich with a slice of cheese, it had large chunks of mozzarella cheese in it. It seems that each day, he eats his weight in food. He is growing so fast. He told me it was hard to concentrate after lunch. It is clear to me that he would not do well on this challenge. Tonight, I’m thinking about the children in Connecticut his age that have no choice.

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SNAP Challenge – Day 1: Planning Is Essential

Editor’s Note: Deb Heinrich, Gov. Dannel Malloy’s liaison to the state’s nonprofit community, agreed to take the SNAP/Food Stamp Challenge this month and live on $4 a day for food for a week. We are posting her experience in this blog over the next few days. In this entry, Deb recounted the social isolation of people who are food insecure.

Morning Ritual

Looking at my schedule today, I realized that I was going to have to make the bulk of my food this morning since I would be gone most of the day (church, kids’ soccer, 9/11 Memorials, etc,). We would have to go right from church to soccer so I’d need to bring a lunch.

So I set the alarm an hour earlier and got to work in the kitchen. First I made some oatmeal for breakfast. Though this was the real oats that you make on the stove, I was thinking of the portions that come in those little instant oatmeals. I figured that one of those little portions would never keep me through lunch. So I made two portions of oatmeal. Well, the real stuff makes more than those little packets and it turned out that two portions of oatmeal was WAY too much food for me this morning. I put some brown sugar on it and ate it all anyway. Live and learn.

While that was cooking, I cut up an onion and half the jalapeno, sautéed them, added some salt and started cooking them with the black beans. They needed to simmer for an hour and a half. That would be for dinner (black beans and rice with salsa). I made a big pot so that I could save what I didn’t eat for future meals. Then I made my lunch: three large celery sticks loaded with peanut butter. I’m not a huge fan of celery, but the alternative vehicles for peanut butter were not as economical. Then I hit the shower and started the day.

End of the Day Thoughts

I wasn’t hungry during the day today. The oatmeal was very filling and kept me to lunch just fine. Lunch was interesting, though. Our church had an after service picnic. I, of course, ate the lunch I brought. It started me thinking about our culture and the integral sociology of sharing a meal. How many times have I caught up with friends over coffee and a bagel or met someone for lunch at a local restaurant or even had a working lunch with colleagues. Close friends visit each other for dinner meals, families connecting and bonding. I realize that with limited food, there will be no invitations for friends to join me at my home to eat. I simply cannot spare the food. I also cannot make the meals I normally would make for guests. I cannot imagine feeding a guest peanut butter and celery. If my children brought home a friend from school, they would not be able to raid the refrigerator or snack cabinet. There would be no homemade cookies waiting on the counter. Food and sharing it is a fundamental part of our social interactions and bonding. I can only imagine the isolation that I would feel if this were not simply an exercise for one week and if it were to last months on end.

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Can you live on $4 a day for food? Take the SNAP Challenge

Can you live on $4.00 a day for food? Be honest with your answer.

That’s how much some of us spend on coffee or latte during the day. For more than 380,000 people right here in Connecticut, it’s not a question. It’s a reality.

In September, designated as Hunger Action Month, we’re asking our supporters to experience that reality for one week. Called the SNAP Challenge, participants are asked to live as if they are on food stamps, now known as the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Details of the challenge are included below.

Nearly 11 percent of people living in Connecticut depend on SNAP/food stamps to put food on their tables, according to the latest report from the Food Research and Action Center.

The SNAP program helps people and families buy food. Eligible people receive a monthly benefit that they can use to buy food, non-alcoholic beverages and food-producing seeds and plants.

For one week during Hunger Action Month, take the SNAP Challenge and see how you would do. Here’s what you need to know about the SNAP Challenge Each person may spend $4.00 per day, a typical daily allotment.

- You may not consume food and beverages that you had in your refrigerator or pantry (or garden) before your SNAP week begins.

- Your daily allowance is for any food and beverage you consume. That soda from the vending machine counts. Dinner at a restaurant counts. Fast food counts.

- No free food may be accepted during this time (that means no cookies from co-workers, nothing to eat at that breakfast meeting, etc.).

- With the exception of salt and pepper, you must purchase any condiments you need or want with your monetary allotment.

- Keep track of receipts on food spending and take note of your experiences throughout the week.

- You may visit local community soup kitchens or food pantries, but if you do, please make a financial contribution in an amount that at least covers the cost of the meal or food you receive so they can continue to serve people who are really in need. Your financial contribution to that program will not be subtracted from your SNAP allocation.

If you fail to make it through the whole week (which is possible), we’d like to hear what happened. Please submit your comments (and even your menus or recipes) for possible inclusion in this blog. Send e-mail to cfb@ctfoodbank.org.

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Connecticut Food Bank Wins Gold PRSA Mercury Award for 2009/2010 Annual Report

Connecticut Food Bank is the recipient of a 2011 Gold Mercury Award from the Connecticut Chapters of the Public Relations Society of America for its 2009/2010 Annual Report: Imagine. The award was presented in the Tactics Category, Annual Report, Not for Profit.

“The goal of the annual report is to increase awareness that people who struggle with hunger are not just statistics, but can be family, friends and neighbors,” said Janet Kniffin, Connecticut Food Bank’s chief development officer. “The publication helps the reader put themselves in the shoes of someone who has lost their ability to provide food for themselves or their family.”

Connecticut Food Bank’s annual report was designed by Caserta Design Company of Stratford, Connecticut, and included photos by Aaron Kotowski of New Haven.

PRSA’s Mercury Awards recognize outstanding creative and strategic work in the public relations, communications and marketing professions. The awards honor creative and strategic excellence and encourage outstanding performance in the field.

The awards competition includes the work of members from the Connecticut Valley, Southern Connecticut, Westchester/Fairfield chapters of the Public Relations Society of America.

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Turning Kilowatts into Kindness – One Scoop at a Time

To kick off the summer season and give back to the local community, Fairfield’s own Gofer Ice Cream is hosting a “Kilowatts to Kindness” ice cream social in partnership with North American Power on Sunday, June 26, from 2-4 p.m. at Gofer Ice Cream of Fairfield (The Brick Walk – 1241 Post Road). Aside from appealing to those with a sweet tooth, the tasty social has a larger goal – helping to alleviate hunger. Fifty percent of the proceeds from the ice cream sales will be donated to Connecticut Food Bank.

“Doing good for the community is very important to us here at Gofer ice cream,” said owner Jay Ragusa. “We’re delighted that we can make an impact in the lives of Connecticut residents in need.”

Ragusa has taken giving back one step further, helping his customers extend their giving to Connecticut Food Bank by switching their energy supplier to North American Power (www.napower.com), a South Norwalk-based company that helps non-profit organizations leverage the power of perpetual fundraising with their innovative philanthropic programs. For every customer who switches to North American Power through Connecticut Food Bank’s dedicated web site (www.napower.com/CTFoodBank), North American Power will donate $5 to the organization. Plus, for every supporter who signs on, North American Power will continue monthly donations based on the customer’s kilowatt usage.

“Giving back to the greater good is something that has always been part of our company’s core mission and our fundraising programs give customers the chance to support their favorite organizations by building philanthropy into everyday spending,” said North American Power CEO Kerry Breitbart. “For supporters of Connecticut Food Bank, the simple act of paying their monthly electric bill can make a huge impact in the fight against hunger in Connecticut.”

The “Kilowatts to Kindness” ice cream social is open to the entire community and will feature live music from local musician Kristin Errett, face painting for the kids, green vendors and the opportunity to learn about the new fundraising initiative to benefit Connecticut Food Bank. This event is sponsored by Gofer Ice Cream of Fairfield, CT, in partnership with North American Power to benefit the Connecticut Food Bank

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Connecticut Food Bank dedicates “Giving Garden” to encourage gardeners to Plant an Extra Row for the Hungry

Connecticut Food Bank recently dedicated its new “Giving Garden” to encourage home and community gardeners and farmers to plant an extra row of produce as part of its Plant a Row for the Hungry campaign. East Haven Mayor April Capone planted the garden’s last tomato plant at a dedication ceremony attended by the local businesses who donated vegetable plants, as well as volunteers who are donating their time this summer to tend the garden. You can watch the event on East Haven Patch.

The Plant a Row for the Hungry campaign’s goal is to increase the number of gardeners, farmers, schools, places of worship, youth and community groups and businesses that make a difference by adding a row of seedbeds or donating their surplus produce to Connecticut Food Bank and other local hunger-relief organizations. Donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law and donor receipts are provided.

“Every extra tomato, squash or watermelon goes a long way to help feed those who don’t have enough to eat,” said Nancy L. Carrington, Connecticut Food Bank’s President & CEO. “In Connecticut, one in seven families is affected by hunger and we all know the importance of providing nutritious fruits and vegetables to people in need.”

Home Depot of East Haven and Van Wilgen’s Garden Center in North Branford donated the vegetable plants for the garden. Surplus plants were given to some of Connecticut Food Bank’s member food pantries and soup kitchens that have vegetable gardens on site.

Since Connecticut Food Bank launched the Plant a Row for the Hungry campaign in 2006, the program has collected thousands of pounds of fresh produce for people struggling with hunger in Connecticut.

Clean, fresh produce can be dropped off at a local food pantry or Connecticut Food Bank’s warehouses in East Haven, Fairfield and Waterbury. Any fruit or vegetable that gardeners prefer to grow can be accepted. Suggested plantings include spinach, kale, cucumbers, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, peas, green beans, tomatoes, sweet peppers, eggplants, summer and winter squash, zucchini, beets and garlic.

To find a local food pantry that accepts fresh produce donations in the area, visit www.ampleharvest.org. For details about Plant a Row or to request a program speaker for your organization, call Carolyn Russell, Connecticut Food Bank’s Procurement Director at 203-469-5000.

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