Legislative Breakfast on Hunger

Wagner College was proud to host last Friday's Legislative Breakfast on Hunger sponsored by Project Hospitality, Staten Island's largest social service provider. This was an exciting event because it brought together in one place many of Staten Island's most dedicated activists for a hunger-free community. Significantly, the meeting also attracted representatives from the offices of leading legislators at the local, state, and federal levels who seemed to be sympathetic toward many of the reforms and initiatives discussed. Unfortunately, at this point, Staten Island, especially the North Shore of Staten Island, is far from being free of hunger. This is not, however, for lack of trying. There are dozens of food pantries and soup kitchens on Staten Island eager to serve all hungry residents without question.

Still, as this Legislative Breakfast made clear, even a hundred more food pantries would not solve the problem of hunger on Staten Island. The only way to do this is through legislation, both at the State and Federal levels. In particular, there are three or four initiatives that must receive the full support of our lawmakers. Probably the most important of these is the full funding of SNAP, the new acronym for Food Stamps, which stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. This program feeds many millions of people each day and for many it is the difference between having enough to eat and going hungry.

One of the interesting issues about SNAP that was raised relates to alleged abuse. First, there are strict guidelines about what can be purchased through SNAP. No alcohol, no cigarettes, no drugs. Second, where there is abuse, in part, because of small commercial outlets that covertly permit illegitimate purchases, the number of such cases is infinitesimally small. This tiny amount of abuse simply does not warrant cuts, especially when the program does so much for families, including the 25% of children who are food insecure.

A second piece of legislation that always comes up around fighting hunger is the minimum wage. The current minimum wage is too low, especially for people in New York who have high rents, and who also have families to feed. Raising the mimimum wage even a few dollars would make a huge dent in hunger and would contribute directly to consumer spending. People who are on minimum wage spend everything they make, by necessity.

Third is SNAP-ED or nutrition education programs. Programs such as "Just Say Yes" and "Cookshop" that can be found in many public schools really do help kids make better choices when it comes to food. And it's pretty obvious that better choices lead to healthier lives and, need I add, lower medical costs.

Finally, the issue of universal school meals continues to come up. The idea is simple: eliminate income qualifications for free school meals. Let every schoolchild at both breakfast and lunch eat free. Why? Because the paperwork to qualify is confusing, burdensome and off-putting. And even more because for older children, in particular, there is a stigma associated with being from a low-income family. Teenagers do not like to go public about their family's financial need. And there is no reason to. The resources are there to make schools meals available to every child. But here's the statistic that really got to me from the Legislative Breakfast. Children in elementary school who qualify for free and reduced meals because of their family's income level actually take advantage of the meals in 83% of cases, but only 37% of such children do so in high school. Chalk that up to the stigma, but consider the impact on the highschoolers' well-being. Going hungry makes it harder to concentrate, to study and to learn and the long term toll on one's physical health is enormous. Let's take the next step. Universal School Meals should be a federal law, so that every child can eat without shame or stigmatization.