Hunger Action Los Angeles

Free Summer Lunch 2008

This California Department of Education link provides parents and referral agencies with a list of tentative locations where children may receive free nutritious meals during school vacation and off-track periods. Please call site contact to confirm participation http://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/sh/sn/summersites08.asp

THE FARM BILL

CONGRESS PASSES FARM BILL: OVER-RIDES VETO BY PRESIDENT BUSH: GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS

WHAT’S HAPPENING?

The Farm Bill has finally passed after a comedy of errors in which the President vetoed the bill: Congress over-rode the veto but it was discovered that they had left out a section of the bill they submitted to the president: Congress re-submitted the bill, the President vetoed it again, and Congress over-rode the veto again.

The following is based largely on California Food and Justice Coalition's (CFJC)statement on the passing of the 2008 Farm Bill. Hunger Action LA is a member of the CFJC.

The good news came about as a result of the activity of food justice, anti-hunger and sustainable agriculture advocates. as well as the entrenched power of the agri-business lobby The highlights include:

$10 billion over 10 years for the nutrition title, covering mostly increases in food stamp benefits;
$5 million a year for community food projects;
$18 million a year each for minority farmer outreach and beginning farmer programs;
$46 million a year to support the specialty crop (fruit and vegetable) industry;
About $100 million through the life of the bill to support organic farming

Closing the loop hole that allow farmers to collect multiple payments for one farm The bad news is that this Farm Bill continues the high payments for certain crops (mostly corn, wheat, soybeans, cotton and rice) benefitting the huge agri-business companies that own most of our farmland and process most of our food.

This includes:

more than $5 billion a year to commodity growers in direct payments regardless of whether they need assistance.
a new disaster program (or, a "disastrous new program") that will direct up to $760 million a year to bail out producers who plant commodity crops on drought prone lands
a $200 million a year bio-fuels program that will continue to pull land from food production into fuel production Much of this funding helps in the production and distribution of unhealthy cheap ingredients like corn syrup.

It also allows the U.S. to keep dumping its subsidized products on the world market and economically destroy farmers in other countries, especially poor countries that need to boost their own agriculture.Finally, the incentives to grow crops for bio-fuel instead of food contribute to the rise in food prices affecting everyone in the world including the U.S. As CFJC states: "We thank those members of Congress who lead the fight for meaningful reform, and call on those who were forced to compromise to help find the path around politics, to good policy so they can stand with their colleagues in the future. "

The final ray of hope is that this year, more environmental, anti-hunger and faith based organizations were involved in the Farm Bill than ever before. The public has received a tremendous amount of information about how the food system works, and who it benefits (and who loses.) We have a good head start on fighting for more reforms, even between now and the next Farm Bill in 2012. The current food price crisis will be the spark for more activism for a food system that feeds everyone sufficiently, with food that's not bad for their health, grown in ways that don't hurt the environment, without hurting farmers in other countries, with respect and good working conditions for those who work on the farms.

Farm Bill in the News A Disgraceful Farm Bill New York Times Editorial:
The enemy of my enemy:
Why a Bush veto of the Farm Bill is bad
for the food movement (and the world)

More Farm Bill info:
http://www.ethicurean.com/2008/05/12/bush-vet
/ Maybe God Hates the Farm Bill, too

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/
news/politics/blog/2008/05/
maybe_god_hates_farm_bill_too.html Congress Overrides
Bush Veto to Pass Farm Bill:

http://www.startribune.com/politics/19189349.html

TAKE ACTION

THE HALA MISSION

Hunger Action LA (HALA) is a nonprofit organization working to end hunger
and promote healthy eating through community education, outreach, networking, and empowerment of low income people to speak on issues that affect their lives directly.

HALA MEDIA

hunger action day '07
click here to view the hungeractionday slide-show.

FOOD JUSTICE NEWS

To All Those Interested in Food and Justice...

A (usually) weekly update on food issues in L. A.,
promoting access to sufficient, affordable, healthy food
-with a focus on campaigns you can become active in!

October 6, 2008: We must press Congress to pass an economic recovery plan to help real people devastated by unemployment, foreclosure, and high food and gasoline prices. While they passed the $700 billion bailout for Wall Street (and you can go to LA City Hall to make your opinion heard on that this coming Friday), they didn’t quite succeed in a little-discussed package to help real people. It's not over, though: Congress plans on reconvening briefly in November.

The Governor signed several bills that make food stamp participation easier, which together with some federal changes bring about improvements to the program that would have been unthinkable ten years ago. Unfortunately he also vetoed spending in the California budget that helps seniors and low income families, including wiping out the entire Renter Tax Assistance program for seniors and the Emergency Housing Assistance Program. We ran that story last week but wanted to include again the list of cuts.

Houses Passes Economic Stimulus Bill: Senate May Come Back In November to Vote on It

State Food Stamp Legislation Passes (and gets Vetoed)

Governor Signs Important Disaster Victim Protection Bill

Mad As Hell Network Calls For Gathering at City Hall This Friday Oct 10

The Wall Street Mega Bailout: Bad News for the World's Hungry

A Reminder: Your Handy Dandy Guide To Some of the Governor’s Worst Budget Cuts

September 26, 2008: Between the proposed multibillion dollar bailout of big business that’s going to come out of our pockets and the California state budget--which is going to take from the pockets of the poorest in our state--there seems to be calamity everywhere we look.

We must press Congress to pass an economic recovery plan to help real people devastated by unemployment, foreclosure, and high food and gasoline prices. There’s an easy way to do that with the 800 number (see item 1) but phone calls should only be the beginning.

Two events this weekend will explore ways of creating new economies that don’t exploit people or destroy the environment. La Causa is sponsoring a Green Job Fair on Saturday in East LA including a demonstration of youth retrofitting an affordable home with solar panels.

The Fair Trade Festival on Sunday in Hollywood brings together vendors of items from around the world purchased from cooperatives or directly from farmers and artisans, without the middleman, giving the producers a fair price for their work.

September 9, 2008

September is Hunger Action Month: Take Action!
TODAY is the statewide Nutrition Call-In Day to encourage Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign several important hunger and nutrition related bills. This is a great opportunity to take action during Hunger Action Month. (...)
Hunger Action LA Meeting: Sept 25
The next meeting of Hunger Action Los Angeles is Thursday Sept. 26 from 3 to 4:30 pm. It will be held at SEIU Local 721, in room 3A, at 500 S. Virgil (90020 zip, two blocks from Wilshire/Vermont.)(...)
Fair Trade Festival! Sunday Sept. 28 in Hollywood
The second annual Fair Trade Festival will be held Sunday Sept. 28 from 9 am to 2 pm in the parking lot of Washington Mutual bank, 1500 N. Vine St. at Sunset Blvd. Vendors will have Fair Trade products such as chocolate, coffee, handcrafted items and there will be educational booths as well from a variety of organizations working on fair trade, sweat-free clothing, ending slavery and human trafficking, microcredit and other good stuff.(...)

July 28, 2008

ACTION ALERT! Call Now to Stop the State Budget Cuts
The conference committee's budget bill, AB 1781, could be voted on as early as tomorrow, July 29th. It includes sources of revenue that will prevent the harshest of the proposed cuts to vital services. Yet even under this proposal, vital health and human services programs are still hit hard.(...)

California First State to Ban Trans Fats
California on Friday became the first state in the country to ban trans fats in restaurants and retail baked goods, a significant step in efforts by health officials to clean up the American diet.(...)

City Council Panel Approves Fast Food Moratorium for South LA
A proposal that would place at least a one-year moratorium on new fast-food restaurants in a broad swath of neighborhoods, mostly in South Los Angeles, won unanimous support from a Los Angeles City Council committee Tuesday(...)

Assembly Speaker Bass and Assemblymember Furutani to Urge Timely Budget Passage:Town Hall in Carson, Tuesday July 29
Please join Madame Assembly Speaker Bass (D- Los Angeles) and Assemblymember Furutani (D- Gardena) at a town hall to discuss the need for Republican colleagues to reach across the aisle and pass the budget for the good of all Californians.(...)

San Bernardino: Community gardens growing in popularity amid rising food prices, health scares
Janet Zimmerman, San Bernardino Press-Enterprise: “Community gardens are full for the first time in years, seed sales are up and memberships in home gardening groups are gaining -- part of a movement among Americans concerned with food prices, the environment and food safety.”(...)

July 24, 2008

Experts Ask Congress To Boost AntiHunger Funds
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With food-stamp enrollment at record levels, antihunger experts urged Congress on Wednesday to increase benefits, at least temporarily, in the largest U.S. program that helps poor people buy food.(...)

Rising Food Costs Affect Child Nutrition Programs in America
The same congressional hearings referenced above focused on the impact of higher food prices on nutrition programs.(...)

Assembly Speaker Bass and Assemblymember Furutani to Urge Timely Budget
Passage:Town Hall in Carson, Tuesday July 29th
Please join Madame Assembly Speaker Bass (D- Los Angeles) and Assemblymember Furutani (D- Gardena) at a town hall to discuss the need for Republican colleagues to reach across the aisle and pass the budget for the good of all Californians.(...)

Mommy, Daddy, How Did You Survive the Economic Crisis of ’08?
La Opinion ran an article Tuesday with quotes from some of our state’s anti hunger leaders like Jessica Bartholow of California Association of Food Banks(...)

U.S. Offers To Cut Some Farm Subsidies To Make Trade More Fair
At the June 26th meeting we decided to advocate for AB 2844 to end red tape in the food stamp program: and AB 1996 to eliminate the remaining barriers to people with drug felony convictions from getting food stamps.(...)

July 18, 2008

Hunger Action LA Meets July 24

At the June 26th meeting we decided to advocate for AB 2844 to end red tape in the food stamp program: and AB 1996 to eliminate the remaining barriers to people with drug felony convictions from getting food stamps.(...)
State Budget: Better Than Original Proposal, But Still Cuts Health Care and Human Services---Call the Governor and Legislature

ACTION ALERT! Conference Committee Budget is Out - Fairer Revenue Proposals, but Still Cuts
Detailed Analysis updated July 15: http://www.cbp.org/ (California Budget Project)(...)
Food, Fuel, Housing and Banking Crises: What Is the U.S. Response?

Amy Goodman’s interview with Naomi Klein, author of “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism”(...)
Website: Free Summer Lunch for Kids---LA County 2008 Sites

Here’s a list of all the summer lunch sites in California. All kids regardless of income can get lunch(...)

July 7, 2008: Late word arriving on two trainings/conferences coming up in two days! Still time to register. See items #1 and #2

June 24, 2008

June 10, 2008

We Went to Sacramento…Now What?
Community Meeting Thursday June 26
Disease, Weather, Trade, and Food
U.S. Military Task Force Studying Food Crisis Scenarios
CNN Story At Santa Barbara Food Bank 5
Website Tells Where Kids Can Get Lunch Free This Summer
“Who’s Hungry”: Toy Theater Production Brings Stories of West Hollywood Hungry and Homeless to Life
World Food Forum Attempts to Address World Food Price Crisis

May 16, 2008

May 8, 2008