Although Iowa’s unemployment rate is below the national average, and state government closed out the 2012 fiscal year with a record surplus, a growing number of Iowa children live in poverty and are hungry or malnourished at least some of the time. The Des Moines Register recently launched a series of reports on “unprecedented challenges for Iowa kids.” Follow me after the jump for some depressing highlights.
The Des Moines-based Child & Family Policy Center has previously documented the increase in child poverty and the rising number of Iowa children living in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty. The Register’s “Iowa Kids” section links to many reports on hunger and other problems related to those trends. Here are some excerpts from a well-written piece by Jens Manunel Krogstad and Emily Schettler in this Sunday’s Des Moines Register.
About 15 percent of Iowa children lived in poverty as of 2010, rising at a faster rate than in the rest of the nation over the past decade. And as poverty has grown, so has the likelihood that Iowa children are going hungry, a Des Moines Register analysis of child hunger data has found. […]
The Register spent the past month examining data related to child hunger and interviewing experts about the impact of poor nutrition on child development. Among the findings:
• More Iowa children than ever rely on the public schools for some of their meals. Last year, nearly 160,000 Iowa students, or 30 percent of the public school enrollment, qualified for free meals. That’s an increase of 61 percent since the 2001-02 school year, a faster climb than the national increase.
The number increases to 195,000, close to 40 percent, when students who qualify for reduced-price meals are included.
Twenty years ago, Iowa had only seven school districts where more than half of students qualified for free or reduced-price meals. In 2011-12, there were 57.
• Last year, a monthly average of 193,200 Iowa children, about a fourth of all kids, lived in families who received taxpayer help to buy food. Since 2000, the number of Iowa children receiving benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps, has increased by 227 percent, in part because of expanded eligibility. The average monthly family benefit in Iowa: $262.
The 2009 federal stimulus package expanded the food stamp or SNAP program, but cuts are likely in the coming years. The U.S. Senate’s version of a new farm bill would cut federal nutrition programs by $4 billion over the next 10 years, while the U.S. House farm bill would cut the same programs by $16 billion. Even so, many House Republicans favor deeper cuts in food assistance, which is one reason the farm bill doesn’t appear to have the votes to pass the House. They may not realize that SNAP serves a growing share of working households and “has one of the most rigorous quality control systems of any public benefit program.”
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the proposed cuts “could eliminate benefits for 34,000 Iowans, including 15,000 children.”
The proposed $16 billion cut is a small fraction of the estimated $800 billion that will be spent over the next decade on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, [U.S. Representative Tom] Latham said.
However, cutting food stamp benefits would mean more hungry children, experts say. The most direct way to reduce child hunger is through national nutrition programs, said David Beckmann, head of Bread for the World in Washington, D.C. […]
Iowa children who could lose food assistance live in households that earn more than the federal minimum income level but still struggle to put food on the table, said Charles Bruner, executive director of the Child & Family Policy Center, a Des Moines research and advocacy group.
Under basic federal rules, residents must make less than 130 percent of the federal poverty level, which is determined by family size and household income. For a family of four, the cutoff is $35,113.
Iowa is one of 27 states that expanded eligibility. Since 2008, Iowa residents who make up to 165 percent of the poverty level, or $38,033 for a family of four, can get assistance.
That approach allows families to gradually lessen their dependence on food assistance as they become more self-sufficient, Bruner said.
If states are forced to tighten eligibility rules, families could go from receiving full benefits to nothing when they earn even $1 above the 130 percent level – called the “cliff effect.” This can discourage parents from seeking raises or higher-paid positions because of the potential loss in benefits, Bruner said.
Incidentally, Governor Terry Branstad picked a bad year to line-item veto state funding for food banks. Bleeding Heartland discussed shortages at Iowa food banks this summer. The Register’s Krogstad and Schettler also noted the “soaring use” of food pantries around the state.
The amount of food distributed by the Food Bank of Iowa has risen from 4.18 million pounds in fiscal 2000 to 8.87 million pounds in 2012.
The Des Moines Area Religious Council, which provides food to 13 metro-area pantries, served 6,063 families in the first nine months of 2008. In comparison, the organization this year has served more than 10,580 families, a 74 percent increase. The families include more than 10,000 children.
The council, which sets no income restrictions, began handing out less food per family a year ago because of growing demand and higher food costs, officials said. Families used to receive enough food each month to last five days. Now the food lasts three days.
To compensate, DMARC began offering Meals from the Heartland – meal packets of rice, beans and other foods – that feed about six people each. About 2,000 of those meals are handed out each month. Leslie Van Der Molen, who operates the DMARC pantry at St. Mary’s Family Center on Hubbell Avenue, said her clients also often can get fresh produce or bread donated daily by a nearby grocery store.
DMARC had intended to again provide five days of food per month. But it canceled those plans in anticipation of rising food prices caused by this year’s drought, said the Rev. Sarai Rice, the group’s executive director.
Private fundraising drives for the food banks are worthwhile but aren’t meeting the demand for food assistance.
As Iowa legislators determine what to do with a large projected surplus next year, they should consider supporting the food bank network at a higher level than the $500,000 Branstad vetoed for the current fiscal year. The 2010 census indicated that food insecurity is a growing problem in Iowa, and not just in urban areas. Table B of this report by the Center for Rural Affairs (pdf) shows that 34.6 percent of children in rural Iowa counties are food insecure, compared to 20.4 percent of children in micropolitan counties and 16.6 percent of children in metropolitan counties. Hungry kids don’t learn as much in school, which undermines other policies aimed at improving K-12 education in Iowa.