Anti-Hunger Coalition

Meeting Minutes

February 24, 2011

Present: Patricia Beebe (Food Bank of Delaware), Paula Angelucci (Colonial School District), Josh Magarik (Senator Tom Carper), Albert Shields (Congressman John Carney), Julie Miro Wenger (Delaware Food Industry Council), Jean Warren (Lutheran Community Services), Richelle Vible (Catholic Charities), Donna deBussy (St. Patrick’s Center), Patti Miller (Nemours), Pat Redmond (Nemours), Fred Sears (Delaware Community Foundation)

Food Bank of Delaware Staff: Ed Matarese, Crystal Timmons, Larry Haas, Tim Hunter, Charlotte McGarry, Carie Riley

The meeting was called to order at 9:02 AM.

Anti-Hunger Coalition Power Point

Patricia Beebe began by offering a Power Point presentation about the Anti-Hunger Coalition (AHC). The Power Point was a result of graduate work performed by Kelly Whitmarsh. The AHC is currently being funded by the Delaware Community Foundation and is in the final year of funding. After the funding is through, the AHC will continue to function. The Power Point could be used by anyone on the Coalition for various presentations.

Five meetings were held in 2009 and three more have been held since the last DCF progress report. Along with full Coalition meetings being held, the individual task forces met as well. The task forces are chaired by members of the Coalition and staffed by staff of the Food Bank.

Many goals were established by the AHC. A joint public policy venture was formalized between Nemours, Delaware Food Industry Council, community members, elected officials and the Food Bank to further explore universal school breakfast in DE. The Commodities Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) began operation and we have since met our goal of 2500 seniors per month caseload. Food closets in all state service centers were opened. The backpack program has grown and the number of mobile pantries has increased. The AHC decided to join with the prison re-entry working group and there have been numerous legislative efforts to bring universal school breakfast to Delaware.

Goals for moving forward include: expanding children’s feeding programs, developing a warehouse for school supplies, securing of passage of legislation for providing food stamps to drug offenders, seeking additional funding for AHC, writing the plans for state government to submit EBT cards for WIC and senior citizens, and exploring the process and feasibility of enrolling people in food stamps with a data sharing agreement with DHSS.

We receive funding from a variety of different sources. Not much comes from the State of Delaware.

LIHEAP

Richelle Vible gave an update on LIHEAP. LIHEAP stands for Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. It is administered through Catholic Charities. So far only 14 people have come in for the extra $1 for LIHEAP funding. Communication is difficult between LIHEAP and Catholic Charities but they are trying to work on a better partnership to obtain more information about benefits.

Universal School Breakfast

There is a good mix of legislators who have signed on to be on universal breakfast legislation, if we decide to take the legislative route. Logistically speaking, it is a good idea. Patricia Redmond explained that House Resolution 24 of 2009 required the Department of Education to convene a committee to study the implementation of a statewide universal breakfast program. The committee proposed the following recommendations:

  1. Provide districts and schools with guidelines for schools on ways to enhance breakfast participation;
  2. Address conditions, other than finances, that create barriers to school breakfast participation;
  3. Increase awareness of current breakfast programs to families and community members;
  4. Indentify a sustainable funding mechanism for universal breakfast.

We need to make the connection between breakfast and school performance and then we would need to figure out a way to fund the program, which will cost an estimated $60,000 to run a pilot program. Currently, all schools offer breakfast in Delaware but some of them have to pay for it. In addition to funding, we would need to find a school district that is worthwhile in which to do the pilot program. Also we need to find a way to roll the program out with community support, press, etc.

Commodities

Previously, 10% or less of the Food Bank warehouse was commodities. Now it is up to about 1/3. We are receiving good product and have been working closely with the new TEFAP administrator.

The meeting was adjourned at 10:53 AM.

Respectfully submitted,

Carie Riley

Executive Assistant

Food Bank of Delaware