Bugs, Hunger and Food (Part 4): Welcoming the Blue Orchard Bee (BOB)

(Editor's Note: This is the fourth and final segment of a series on the importance of insects in the fight against hunger  Part 1 and Part 2 examined the role of insects as sources of protein.  Parts 3 and 4 examine the very significant impact that insects have on food production.  In this piece, guest author Hank Bruce talks about the activities of bees in New Mexico and a project to introduce simple ways of beekeeping to young people in our state).

 By Hank Bruce

It all began when a friend of ours in Ojo Encino,  (on the Navajo Reservation), asked about some ways to attract pollinators to their fruit trees and gardens. We mention bees and some people reach for a spray can of poison, others think of the pictures of bee hives and the imported European honey bees. But they are under threat as a horrendous disease often called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) devastates the populations and our crops from apples in New York to almonds in California and a lot of commercial and family gardens and orchards between. This and the drought we are currently experiencing here in the southwest are creating shortage of bees.

When we plant our gardens, fruit trees and berries we are hoping to grow our own healthy fruit and vegetables. To be successful though, we need a few bugs to help us. What we really need are pollinators, including bees, some flies and moths, even bats and hummingbirds. but particularly bees. While everyone is thinking honey bees, we forget that New Mexico has over 500 species of native bees. But even their numbers are declining with the drought and pesticides. What this means is that when our fruit trees, berries, grapes and vegetables bloom, the flowers don’t get pollinated and the plants and trees don’t produce fruit. Making friends with bees is a good idea, and we can give them a helping hand. We discussed this problem with some of the students and teachers at the Ojo Encino day school and they spread the word to other schools. They decided to put out the welcome mat for a friendly native bee they call BOB, the Blue Orchard Bee. This can be a fun project that doesn’t take a lot of extra work and cost absolutely nothing.

Making Bees Welcome
Our native bees come in many sizes and shapes. Most of the honey bees were imported from Europe and need more care than the one designed by Mamma Nature to live here. Most of the native bees are solitary or “small town” bees rather than forming large hives or colonies with thousands of bees. For this school project we focused on BOB because she’s not aggressive but does work hard. Each BOB may visit over 60,000 flowers in its life span of about 3 months.

Home Sweet Home for this little blue bee isn’t a big complex condo apiary and their needs are simple.

1. Water - even desert bees like BOB get thirsty. One of the best ways to give them a drink is to put a small pan with stones in it on the ground near your garden or fruit trees, or some wild flowers. Then keep it filled with water when you are watering your plants or trees.

2. What’s for BOB’s dinner? These bees will need lots of flowers in bloom, both for them to eat and stored food for the baby bees while they are growing. This means both pollen and nectar, and that comes from the flowers on your trees, vegetables, rose bushes and New Mexico’s beautiful wild flowers. When we plant some flowering plants for the BOB everyone can enjoy the beauty. The native plants are a great idea because they are better able to handle the drought and an important role to play in the environment.

3. Planting a garden for BOB and BOB’s cousins. We have lots of trees blooming in the spring, but After they are done blooming BOB is still hungry. You can provide more snacks when you plant for the seasons.
Spring: choke cherries, sand plums, Willow, New Mexico Olive, scorpion weed, bladderpod, mustard and almost every other wild flower that blooms early in the spring.

Summer: Rocky Mountain beeplant, basil, blanketflower, clover, Mexican hat, Navajo tea, mint, rose and fernbush, sunflowers, globemallow, verbena,
Late summer - autumn: goldenrods, sunflowers, asters, rabbitbush, cosmos, daisies, sneezeweed
Plant where you want BOB to be. This means near the garden, fruit trees, water and nesting sites.

4. Mud - BOB’s like to play in the mud. They use the mud to make adobe walls between the spaces for each egg in the nests you are building for them. If you can provide a little mud near where your trees and plants are your BOB’s will be happy.

Nests for BOB’s kids

You can have fun making a home for BOB’s kids. And this can be a great family project. You will need a block of wood, a drill and some drill bits.

1. A piece of pine or fir wood about 6 to 8" thick is ideal. Do not use treated wood, cedar or redwood.
2. Drill holes like these in the block. The size can range from 3/32" to 5/8" and should be at least 5-6" deep.
3. You can make a back and roof like the one in this picture.
4. Some of the BOB experts say that singing the front of the nest box helps attract the bees.
5. Place your nest box on a wall where it is sheltered from strong wind or rain, near your fruit trees or garden.
Some students like to use pieces of logs, or scrap lumber and make the holes up to 8" deep.
  

But the favorite for the younger students is the Coffee Can Nursery. This is easy and provides opportunities to work together. It’s simply paper straws in a coffee can. This is what they did.

1.Start with a coffee can. Be creative and paint it and decorate it.

2. Now take some craft paper or recycled newspaper from home. Cut this paper into 5" x 5" squares. Roll the paper around a pencil and secure with a small piece of tape. These tubes should be between 1/4" and 5/8" in diameter. You will need enough tubes to fill the coffee can.

3. Secure the can to a wall or sheltered place near your fruit trees, berry plants or garden. It should be protected from strong wind or rain.

4. Put the tubes in the can and watch for BOB’s to visit and lay their eggs. Mama BOB will place some pollen and nectar in the tube, lay an egg, gather some mud to seal a space just big enough for a baby BOB. Then place more food, lay another egg and make another mud door. She will do this until the tube you made for her is filled with eggs, each in it’s own little space.

5. The baby BOB’s eggs will hatch in a couple weeks and eat the food Mama left for them. They they will form a cocoon and when they emerge they will visit the flowers on your plants plants, lay more eggs and the cycle continues.This is an example of a BOB nest made by students. On the right is a BOB nest made commercially for sale in garden centers, but, don’t you think it’s more fun to make your own. You can also use pieces of bamboo, reeds, cattail stems, and other materials for nests. Be creative and have fun inviting BOB to your garden.

(The author is a writer, horticultural therapist, advocate of sustainable gardening, anti-hunger activist, teacher and speaker from Rio Rancho, New Mexico.  Check out his Web Site, Horticultural Therapy with Hank Bruce)

A Quote from Pope Francis about Hunger

Image in Palomas, Mexico

Today, and it breaks my heart to say it, finding a homeless person who has died of cold, is not news. Today, the news is scandals, that is news, but the many children who don't have food — that's not news. This is grave. We can't rest easy while things are this way.

-Pope Francis, in unscripted comments answering questions at a huge international gathering of Catholic associations in St. Peter's Square.

(via Sojourners Daily Verse and Voice for May 20)

Bugs, Hunger and Food (Part 3): A Useful Role in the Food Production Process

A couple of days ago, we posted about a report from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) that looked at the role of insects in the food chain, including as a source of protein.  That was Part 1 of our series about the topic. In Part 2, we posted a video of  BBC TV host Stefan Gates at the stall that sells insects at the market in Bangkok.  

But insects are more than just food.  They play an important role in plant growth and in the food-production process.  Here is what the FAO report said about this topic:

Apatelodes Caterpillar via Wikimedia Commons (author Arbuck)

Insects deliver a host of ecological services fundamental to the survival of humankind. For instance, insects play an important role in plant reproduction . An estimated 100 000 pollinator species have been identified and almost all of these (98 percent) are insects (Ingram, Nabhan and Buchmann, 1996). Over 90 percent of the 250 000 flowering plant species depend on pollinators. This is also true for three-quarters of the 100 crop species that generate most of the world’s food (Ingram, Nabhan and Buchmann, 1996). Domesticated bees alone pollinate an estimated 15 percent of these species. The importance of this ecological service for agriculture and nature more generally is undisputed.

Insects play an equally vital role in waste biodegradation . Beetle larvae, flies, ants and termites clean up dead plant matter, breaking down organic matter until it is fit to be consumed by fungi and bacteria. In this way, the minerals and nutrients of dead organisms become readily available in the soil for uptake by plants. Animal carcasses, for example, are consumed by fly maggots and beetle larvae. Dung beetles – of which there are about 4 000 known species – also play a significant role in decomposing manure. They can colonize a dung heap within 24 hours, preventing flies from developing on them. If the dung remains on the soil surface, about 80 percent of the nitrogen is lost to the atmosphere; the presence of dung beetles, however, means carbon and minerals are recycled back to the soil, where they further decompose as humus for plant

A View From Squash Blossom Farms in Taos
In his blog .Around the World in Eighty Years,
New Mexico writer and photographer Jim O'Donnell wrote about his conversations with Ty and Gael Minton, owners of Squash Blossom Farms in Taos, New Mexico, about the role of insects in the pollination of plants.

Here are a few paragraphs from the piece entitled, "Community Supported Agriculture – Taos’ Squash Blossom Farms"

Near the greenhouse, Ty Minton found a big, fat fuzzy caterpillar and he wasn’t sure what, exactly, it was.

“I was so excited,” he said. “I ran inside, grabbed the iPad and raced back out here before it was gone. I spent quite awhile poring over pictures online, trying to match it up with the thing that was there in front of me.”

That’s a man truly in touch with the power of the pollinator.

“I couldn’t figure it out,” he said. “It had to be a friend though.”

That fact is that nearly 90 percent of all plant species need the help of animals to act as pollinators. About 75 percent of the crops grown world-wide for human consumption likewise depend on plant pollinators to propagate.

According to O'Donnell,  about one-fourth of the food we put in our mouth would not exist without pollinators. "The contribution pollinators make to our food resources and the economy is massive. It has been calculated that insect-pollinated foods were worth about $40 billion to the American economy in the year 2000," he said. 

This is a great article.  And here is the link to the full piece in his blog.  Or you can read the same article in The Taos News.

Bugs, Hunger and Food (Part 2): Sampling Insects at the Market in Bangkok--A BBC Video

In Part 1 of this series, we alluded to practice of eating deep-fried  beetles and locusts in Thailand. There are many ways to prepare the insects besides cooking them in a vat of hot oil.  Stefan Gates, host of the BBC program Cooking in the Danger Zone, ventured into the market in Bangkok in search of insect stalls.  This segment, entitled  Can Eating Insects Save the World? shows his interaction with one of the vendors at the market.  "It's a little bit like eating a prawn...it has a shell on the outside," Gates said after tasting a water bug. As it turns out, water bugs are an acquired taste, as you'll notice by Gates' reaction at the end of this video

Bugs, Hunger and Food (Part 1): A Source of Protein

Publications from the  Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) rarely attract as much attention in the U.S. media as the one released in May 2013.  The reason: The FAO was recommending that the global community look at a common source of protein in many parts of the world (insects) to help feed the world as the global population increases. This report made the rounds on the evening news, the daily newspapers and the weekly news magazines. (Time magazine put together a very comprehensive report).

The reality is that insects have long been a part of the diet in some Asian and African countries. We just haven't heard much about it (except for some shows on the Travel Channel).  And beyond their role as a source of protein, insects play an important function in the food production process.  We are going to look at insects as food and food-production enablers in a three-part series over the next several days. 

Insects as part of the Global Diet
When  I was in high school, my Civics teacher brought a box of chocolate-covered ants for us to try. This was a good-faith effort to broaden our horizons. So how was the experience?  The truth is that all I could taste was the chocolate, and the ant just felt like a tiny piece of tin foil going down my throat.  Ants are among the types of insects that are consumed regularly in some countries, although I doubt that they are covered in milk chocolate.  If you haven't associated insects with sweets before, then you might want to try a new flavor of ice cream laced with (gasp!)...cidadas! Desserts are the exception rather than the rule when it comes to consuming insects.

"From ants to beetle larvae – eaten by tribes in Africa and Australia as part of their subsistence diets – to the popular, crispy-fried locusts and beetles enjoyed in Thailand, it is estimated that insect-eating is practised regularly by at least 2 billion people worldwwde," the FAO said in a book entitled  Edible insects: Future prospects for food and feed security. "More than 1 900 insect species have been documented in literature as edible, most of them in tropical countries. The most commonly eaten insect groups are beetles, caterpillars, bees, wasps, ants, grasshoppers, locusts, crickets, cicadas, leaf and planthoppers, scale insects and true bugs, termites, dragonflies and flies."

An impetus for the book is the premise that the global community needs to start looking at at additional sources of food to meet the needs of a global population that is widely expected to reach 9 billion by 2050.

"To accomodate this number, current food production will need to almost double. Land is scarce and expanding the area devoted to farming is rarely a viable or sustainable option. Oceans are overfished and climate change and related water shortages could have profound implications for food production," said the authors of the book. "To meet the food and nutrition challenges of today – there are nearly 1 billion chronically hungry people worldwide – and tomorrow, what we eat and how we produce it needs to be re-evaluated. Inefficiencies need to be rectified and food waste reduced. We need to find new ways of growing food."

So, why not insects?  These critters are high in protein and  generally low in fat and cholesterol, and sometimes can provide more calories than those obtained from consuming soybeans, corn (maize) or beef.  (Read separate FAO Report: Forest Insects as Food: Human Bite Back).

 A Complex Solution

Insects at market in Thailand (Via Wikimedia Commons)

Before we start declaring that insects are one of the top solutions to address food insecurity in the near and far future, we also need to recognize some realities. As the FAO points out in the book, there's more to this proposal than simply encouraging folks to go out into the woods and the desert to harvest insects.

The subject of edible insects inherently covers a wide range of thematic areas, from the conservation of habitats where insects are harvested to insect ecology, the artificial rearing of insect species, the processing of insects into food and feed products, and the labelling and marketing of insect-based food and feed products. This publication, therefore, draws from a wide range of disciplines and areas of expertise. It is a multidisciplinary effort involving technical experts specializing in forestry, animal farming, nutrition, the feed industry, legislation and food security policies," the FAO said in the book.

So  is the world ready to embrace development of this food source on a large scale?  Probably not in the near future, but this is a solution that needs to be considered seriously.  According to the FAO, the concept of  insect rearing for food and feed remains a sector in its infancy, and key future challenges will likely emerge as the field evolves.

If you're interested in finding more about this fascinating topic, you can download the full FAO book or individual chapters via this link.

Faith Community, Charitable Organizations Join Their Voices to Oppose Cuts In SNAP

On Thursday (May 16), the House Agriculture Committee voted 36-10 to approve a farm bill that would cut about $21 billion in funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program  (and also makes deep cuts in international food aid). This is not good news in a year when we're fighting hard to maintain funding for safety-net programs in our country.  The measure--officially known as the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management (FARRM) Act of 2013--now goes to the House leadership, which would schedule a floor vote.

The cuts to SNAP are deeper in the  House Agriculture Committee's version of the farm bill than the reductions made in the Senate Agriculture Committee.  The Senate panel cut funding for food stamps by about $4.1 billion. Read comments from Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, a member of the committee, following the passage of the Senate version of the farm bill.

As Bread for the World and Sen. Gillibrand point out, domestic nutrition programs such as SNAP are the first line of defense against hunger and have proven effective in decreasing food insecurity during a weakened economy.

An analysis from Bread for the World (which includes a breakdown on how members  voted) describes how the cuts approved by the House Agriculture Committee could create hardships for families in our country.  If enacted, the FARRM would:

• Remove 2 million SNAP recipients from the program
• Reduce SNAP benefits (by about $90 each month) for 850,000 households
• End free school meals for 210,000 children.
• Cut international food aid by $2.5 billion over 5 years—those cuts would include a 78 percent reduction in funding for improving the nutritional quality of food aid

Bread for the World joined several anti-hunger organizations and a handful of members of Congress in a press conference on Capitol Hill to oppose the deep cuts in SNAP.  All of the groups vowed to fight the cuts as the bill goes to the floor of the House. 

In addition to the direct impact on benefits, the bill would restrict states' flexibility in how they administer SNAP in coordination with other low-income support programs like heating assistance (LIHEAP) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).

Speaking Out
Here are some of the statements from various organizations regarding cuts in funding for SNAP.  Some of the statements were included in a joint press release from Bread for the World, United Way, Catholic Charities and Feeding America. Others came just before or just after the House Agriculture Committee mark-up.

Bread for the World

“These cuts are worse than what was proposed in 2012,” said Bread for the World President Beckmann. “Lawmakers must look for other measures for balancing our federal budget than to do so on the backs of hungry and poor people who did not create the deficit in the first place.”

“If the House farm bill becomes law with these drastic cuts, millions will lose food assistance at a time when American families are struggling with long-term unemployment or reduced wages," said Eric Mitchell, Bread for the World's director of government relations.  Now is not the time for Congress to turn its back on hungry people.” 

Catholic Charities USA

"SNAP meets critical needs for low-income working families, seniors, children, and individuals struggling to get by," said Father Larry Snyder , President of Catholic Charities USA. "We as a society have a special obligation to consider first the needs of the poor, even as we act through government. The proposed cuts to this vital program put a disproportionate burden on the very people our Catholic tradition teaches us to elevate in our public consciousness."

Feeding America

If divided evenly across Feeding America's national network of food banks, every food bank would have to provide an additional 4 million meals each year for the next ten years, and that is just not possible," said Bob Aiken , president and CEO of Feeding America. "There is no way that charity would be able to make up the difference. We are already stretched thin meeting sustained high need, and we simply do not have the resources to prevent hunger in all of the families who would be impacted by these cuts."

This is what the organization said shortly after the Senate Agriculture Committee approved its version of the farm bill. “Given the state of the economy and the fact that so many people are struggling to find work or are working for fewer hours or lower wages, now is the time to protect and strengthen Federal hunger-relief programs, and not to cut these essential benefits upon which so many vulnerable families rely." Read full statement

United Way

"Strong communities require public-private partnership," said Steve Taylor , Senior Vice President and Counsel for Policy at United Way Worldwide. "Every day local charities see this partnership reflected in the generous support of volunteers and donors, and this value is reflected in Washington through important programs like SNAP. We're all in this together. SNAP and the families it serves must be protected from cuts." 

Mazon, A Jewish Response to Hunger

"Rather than embracing the bi-partisan, balanced approach used for decades by their predecessors, , in which they rejected increases in hunger or poverty in the name of deficit reduction, leaders in this Congress have mired the Farm Bill in misguided attempts to realize budget savings that would do real harm to vulnerable people across the country."

Share Our Strength

In a post on the SOS blog after the Senate Agriculture Committee vote, online organizer Sam Reed said:  "As the economy slowly recovers, federal nutrition programs like SNAP and SNAP Ed make sure families don't have to choose between putting food on the table and paying their rent. Cutting off vital resources from those who need it is not an acceptable response to our nation’s fiscal challenges. These cuts will mean more kids facing hunger in America, which can lead to an increase in health care costs, declining test scores, and lower graduation rates."

Food Research and Action Center

The organization noted that the House and Senate were going ahead with cuts to SNAP despite a poll showing broad opposition by the U.S. public. The organization alluded to a  poll of 850 registered votersconducted online from April 29 to May 1, 2013, by Hart Research Associates, which showed that s even in 10 voters indicated that cutting food stamp funding is the wrong way to reduce government spending. 

Network: A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby

In their attempts to reduce the deficit, House and Senate members need to focus on areas of the farm bill that can be further cut without increasing hunger and endangering the wellbeing of our children – our hope for a healthy future, Network said in a news release.
Agriculture Committee

So what is the House Agriculture Committee saying about its vote?  The cuts in food stamps benefits are described as " the first reforms to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) since the Welfare Reform Act of 1996, saving more than $20 billion."

"I am proud of the Committee's effort to advance a farm bill with significant savings and reforms. We achieve nearly $40 billion in savings by eliminating outdated government programs and reforming others. No other committee in Congress is voluntarily cutting money, in a bipartisan way, from its jurisdiction to reduce the size and scope of the federal government. I appreciate the efforts of my colleagues and the bipartisan nature in which this legislation was written and approved. I look forward to debating the bill on the House floor this summer," said Rep. Frank Lucas, committee chair.

Here is the full  House Agriculture Committee Press Release, which provides details of cuts and consolidations in other programs under the jurisdiction of the committee.

Smokey Bear and the Children's Garden in Ruidoso

By Julia Price

The New Mexico Alliance for Children and the U.S. Forest Service sponsored their annual field trip for all of the Region IX Head Start students to Smokey’s Garden in Ruidoso.

The kids visited the Ranger Station on Mechem Drive to plant the children’s garden, which the Rangers tend and harvest over the summer months. All of the produce is donated to the Lincoln County Food Bank.

It’s always a lot of fun for the children and for all of us. This year, about 75 three and four-year-olds participated in storytelling, art, gardening, and a nature walk. The children made fruit and veggie print paintings and a hand print mural. They learned the caterpillar song and listened to “The Diary of a Worm” and stories about butterflies and other garden critters.

In the garden, they planted the raised beds, learned how to make a potato bed, and also planted pole beans, squash, and sweet peas in recycled egg carton containers to take home. They learned about worm farming from a local organic farmer—and of course, Smokey Bear made a special guest appearance. Afterwards, the kids enjoyed a healthy picnic lunch in the garden. Photos are attached.

Eight staff and volunteers from the New Mexico Alliance for Children planned and coordinated the activities, along with the Rangers and Head Start teachers. Funding for the project was provided in part through the Albuquerque Community Foundation.

(The author is executive director of the New Mexico Alliance for Children)

'A Recognition that Poverty Even Exists'

You know the phrase "Out of sight, Out of Mind."  And there is also the common saying, "Hidden in Plain Sight."  Unfortunately, those concepts are easily applied to poverty in our country.

And some would argue that part of the reason why poverty is a mere blip on the radar of our consciousness is because there is very little coverage in the news.  This lack of public awareness of poverty is why a documentary like A Place at the Table has so much shock value, even for those of us who are somewhat aware of the problem. Granted, more than ever,we are saturated with coverage of all sorts of topics via the broadest types of media imaginable. A friend from another generation mentioned to me that many of the people she knows get their news via Twitter rather than newspapers.  (But even Twitter links to online coverage of articles that might have been also published in print).

Pew Study Documents Lack of Coverage
But it is not our imagination that poverty gets little attention in the print media.  (Don't get me started about the broadcast media--but that's another whole different post). This trend was documented by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism and reported in U.S. News and World Report.  According to the study, which looked at coverage by 52 major mainstream news outlets, coverage of poverty amounted to far less than 1 percent of available news space.  "Poverty becomes a sort of 'very special episode' of journalism that we sort of roll out every so often," Tampa Bay Times media critic Eric Deggans said.

And there are other commentaries that back the Pew study.  For example, Dan Fromkin describes in Niewman Reports how The Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader and editor David Stoeffler set out to cover a subject that had been largely ignored: poverty in the Ozarks. "For five consecutive days last September, Stoeffler published stories across the entire front page of the print edition and the homepage of the paper's website. Each day focused on a specific problem: "No home," "No shoes," "No food," "No car," and "No peace." Many readers were shocked, saying they had no idea so many area families were living in such desperate circumstances."

Incidentally,  the web version of the News-Leader series has three other parts for this series entitled "No Way to Live" "No Normal" and  "No Easy Answers."

But Frompkin also notes, "Sadly, the News-Leader's success is an anomaly in the news business. Nearly 50 million people—about one in six Americans—live in poverty, defined as income below $23,021 a year for a family of four."  Read Frompkin's full piece, It Can’t Happen HereWhy is there so little coverage of Americans who are struggling with poverty?

Photo from: St. Martin's Hospitality Center-Albuquerque

Approaching a 50-year High
I give credit to U.S. News and World Report for making this the topic of one of its featured reports.  But, of course, there might not have been a cover article had it not been for the Pew study. So a huge kudos goes to the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism.

Regardless, the magazine paints a stark picture of poverty and current perceptions.  Here is how the article starts:

It has been nearly half a century since President Lyndon Johnson declared "war on poverty." That war produced great successes, and many of its initiatives have been profoundly effective – the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps), Head Start, Medicaid, the Women, Infants, and Children nutrition program, school breakfast programs, and federal aid for poor schools and students.

Now, however, after years of erosion of wages and benefits, the U.S. poverty rate has risen and approaches a 50-year high. Yet poverty has become an almost invisible issue for policymakers and the press. It feels today like a "war on poverty" would need to begin with a battle just to gain recognition that poverty even exists.  Read full article: Poverty has become an invisible issue for politicians and the press

Sen. Kristen Gillibrand Fights to Preserve SNAP Funding in 2013 Farm Bill

New Mexico's Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham is fighting hard during the markup of the 2013 Farm Bill in the House Agriculture Committee  to save funding for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps).   Rep. Lujan Grisham sits on the Subcommittee on Operations, Oversight and Nutrition, so she has important input on this issue. And as she gains seniority her input will be stronger.

There is a strong anti-hunger advocate in the Senate, who also has a voice on the shape of the Farm Bill. As a member of the Senate Agriclture Committee, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is leading efforts to save funding for SNAP and international food aid and boost credit for struggling small farmers.

 (International food aid goes beyond funding.  A handful of groups, including Bread for the World, have joined together to ask both the House and Senate Agriculture Committees to  reform food aid, so more of the money allocated goes directly to people in need instead of intermediaries).

The Farm Bill was scheduled to go to a vote in 2012, but Congress deferred work to this year.  If you recall, Sen. Gillibrand led an unsuccessful effort in the Senate last year to reallocate some of the guaranteed profits for crop insurance to SNAP. 

So the Farm Bill is back for consideration (right now, even as we speak), and Sen. Gillibrand is again fighting hard to save SNAP funding, in light of a proposal in the Senate to cut $4.1 billion in food stamps over the next 10 years.  These cuts would result in an average benefit reduction of $90 per month for nearly a half a million households.  The House Agriculture Committee is scheduled to consider the Farm Bill tomorrow, May 15.

“In this tough economy, a family losing this access to food assistance would be devastating,”  Senator Gillibrand said in her Web site. “More than half of food stamp recipients are children, eight percent are seniors and unfortunately, as many veterans are using food stamps as any time in history. As a mother and a lawmaker, watching a child go hungry is something I just will not stand for. Families who are living in poverty, who are just trying to figure out how to keep the lights on and put food on the table -- they did not spend this nation into debt. And we should not be trying to balance the budget on their backs.”

Sen. Gillibrand is  willing to compromise, but only to a certain extent. "Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand wants no cut to food stamps, but she said in an interview that she hopes to vote for a final bill even if there is a small cut to food stamps, as there was in the Senate bill she voted for last year," The National Journal reported recently.

The effort to preserve funding for SNAP in the Farm Bill is going to be extremely difficult, but we are glad that Sen. Gillibrand, Rep. Lujan Grisham and others are fighting hard for tens of thousands of food-insecure families around the country. 

World Vocal Ensemble Helps Peacecraft Celebrate Global Fair Trade Day in Albuquerque

What is fair trade?  The World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO) has a complete and complex answer.  Read about it here. All you need to know is that this is an economic system that gives farmers, artisans, and cooperatives a fair price for their products, which includes coffee, chocolate, flowers, arts and crafts, clothing and footwear, and many other products.

This movement has been growing steadily over the past two decades (and there is still a long way to go).

But the progress has been steady enough over the years to give the global community a  strong reason to celebrate. And that is why the Fair Trade Resource Network commemorates World Fair Trade Day on May 11 every year, although celebrations have been scheduled around the country on May 4-19, 2013,

In Albuquerque, the celebration took place on Saturday, May 11, at Peacecraft, our local fair trade store.  There was huge banner over a collection of colorful baskets from Africa, and a display urging people who entered the store to discover fair trade.

The highlight of the afternoon was the performance of the local a capella group World Vocal Ensemble,which offered songs from Georgia, Bosnia, Bulgaria, and the Appalachian region of the United States.

The group--which in other setting has also performed songs from Colombia, Hawaii, India, Ireland and Iran--invites you to hear them in concert Saturday, June 15, at St. Timothy Lutheran Church, 211 Jefferson Ave. NE at 7:00 p.m.  $10 Admission  Donations Accepted  

Here is a video of the World Vocal Ensemble perfoming the song Nardanina  at Peacecraft.  This is a traditonal piece from the Achara region of the Republic of Georgia.

On Mother's Day, Amy Brenneman Promotes the Work of CARE

In December 2012, actress Amy Brenneman traveled to Peru with her family to visit the women and families benefitting from CARE's maternal and child health and child nutrition programs. She wrote about her experiences in Notes from the Field | My visit with CARE Peru Part 2: Guayacondo

Ms. Brenneman, who is known for her prominent roles in the television series' Judging Amy and The Practice, also spoke about her experiences in CARE USA's promo for Mother's Day.

Like you, I'm a CARE supporter. I'm also a mom – which explains why I'm writing you today, just a few days before Mother's Day. You see, you, me, and hundreds of CARE staff are helping moms halfway across the world in ways you probably don't even realize. In December, my two kids and I got to see this work in action. We were well off the beaten path in Peru, visiting women and families involved in CARE's maternal and child health and child nutrition programs.

In one of the villages we visited, I saw the value of CARE's work in stark relief. A chart on the wall of the center showed the community's status from years ago, when many children were malnourished (indicated by an ominous red marker). Next to it was the community's status today: virtually none of the children are malnourished.   See full message

And here is a similar message  through a video from CARE Perú


La actriz Amy Brenneman, conocida por su rol protagónico en la serie de ABC, Private Practice, visitó programas de desarrollo de CARE Perú en su paso por el país. En el vídeo nos cuenta parte de su experiencia. CARE es una Organización mundial de desarrollo con presencia en más de 80 países. En Perú, trabaja hace 42 años a nivel nacional con 10 programas que apuntan a superar las causas de la pobreza.

Saturday Deliveries and Collections (Remember to Leave a Bag of Food by Your Mail Box on May 11)

Have you remembered to set aside that brown paper bag that came with your newspaper?  At the top are the words: Food  Drive/Saturday, May 11, 2013 Recolección de alimentos/Sábado 11 de mayo del 2013

There are many sponsors for this food drive, including Feeding America, the AARP Drive to End Hunger and the United States Postal Service (USPS).

But let us not forget that  one of the key promoters of the food drive is the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), the union that represents your friendly postman or postwoman.  According to the NALC, the food drive collected 70 million pounds of food last year.  The vast majority of the food collected was left by the mail box or taken to a post office on the Saturday of the food drive.
 
But did know that Saturday mail is at risk?  The USPS, which lost $16 billion last year, in February proposed a plan to cut back deliveries of first-class mail to weekdays, although packages would still be delivered on Saturdays.

This plan was temporarily scrapped for two reasons.  First, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress, declared in March that the USPS did not have the authority to make such a change without the approval of Congress.  Secondly, the Congress approved a spending plan that required the USPS to keep Saturday deliveries. Read more in Albuquerque Business First and The Chicago Tribune.

But the issue is not settled.  What we know for sure is that the plan to  cut back the delivery schedule will not go into effect on its planned date of  Aug. 5.  In April, the USPS said it would continue Saturday deliveries through at least Sept. 30 and possibly beyond that. But the door remains open for the USPS to undergo some internal reorganization, including the possibility of working with Congress to draft a plan to restructure its delivery schedule.

The changes would have a deep impact on letter carriers, since jobs could be eliminated and hours reduced.  I'm sure the NALC is deeply concerned.  The other secondary implication is what would happen to the twice-a-year food drives sponsored by the NALC, both of which occur on Saturdays.  The NALC and its partners will figure something out.  Perhaps the food drives would occur on a Friday or a Monday?

Regardless of what the future brings, it's time to focus on the present (or the very near future?) Please remember that The Stamp Out Hunger drive is still occurring this coming Saturday.  Check out this video from the organizers of the campaign.



So please take time to fill your bag and leave it by your mail box.  Annemarie Ciepieda Henton, a volunteer for the communications committee at Roadrunner Food Bank in Albuquerque, has a great suggestion.

"When you’re grocery shopping for that Mother’s Day brunch this week, throw some extra nonperishable food items in your cart, like soups, pasta, rice, canned vegetables and fruit and canned meats," Ms. Ciepiela Henton wrote in  Roadrunner Food Bank's blog. "Just leave them near your mailbox on Saturday, and Stamp Out Hunger partners will take care of the rest. Don’t have a mailbox? No problem. Just bring it to a post office near you."

Read her full piece entitled  Let's Stamp Out Hunger

Author Sara Miles Talks about Building Community and Fighting Hunger

Sara Miles runs The Food Pantry, a ministry of St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco. She is the author of the books Jesus Freak: Feeding, Healing, Raising the Dead and Take This Bread: A Radical Conversion. Every Friday more than 500 people line up for the free food the pantry serves.

Read a great quote from her about bread and communion

Thanks to Church World Service for sharing this video.

A Webinar on Healthy Food Choices and SNAP

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), once known as the Food Stamp Program, is at the very heart of the nation’s nutrition safety net, serving, in 2013, more than one in seven Americans who are struggling to put food on the table. So, how do you encourage participants in the program to spend their SNAP benefits on healthy food?  This is the topic of a roundtable cosponsored by three organizations that work on nutrition issues: The Altarum Institute, Grantmakers In Health, and American Society for Nutrition.

This Altarum Institute Policy Roundtable will examine innovative approaches, including financial incentives, to encourage healthy food choices by SNAP program participants.  An important part of the discussion will center on the added economic benefit that can occur when more SNAP dollars are spent on local food and circulate in the local economy. Speakers from Altarum’s Center for Food Assistance and Nutrition, the Bipartisan Policy Center, the Fair Food Network, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation will discuss what is being tested, and what is known to be working, in this critical effort to improve health status through healthier food purchases supported by SNAP.

Speakers:

• Senator Debbie Stabenow (invited)
• Linda Jo Doctor, W. K. Kellogg Foundation
• Dan Glickman, Former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture; Bipartisan Policy Center
• Oran Hesterman, Fair Food Network
• Audrey Rowe, Food and Nutrition Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture
• Loren Bell, Altarum Institute, panel moderator

Respondent:

• Faith Mitchell, Grantmakers In Health, moderator

Registration site  for both in-person and Web participants.

Pledges Needed for Two-Day Walk for the Hungry in Northern Chihuahua

You've heard about the CROP Walk in many communities in the U.S., including Albuquerque.  And there is the annual Walk for the Hungry in New Orleans.  These events are intended both raise awareness about hunger and raise money to address the problem.  Anyone who participates in these events usually gives up the better part of a morning or an afternoon.

There is a walk coming up just south of the border in Chihuahua on Monday, May 20, sponsored by La Luz de La Esperanza Outreach.  The fundraiser, "Walk Against, Hunger” “Caminamos Contra el Hambre," will start at 9:00 a.m that morning at La Luz de Esperanza outreach facility in Palomas, just across the border from Columbus, N.M.  But walkers will be giving up more than just a morning, since the route will take them all the way to the community of Janos, which is about 139 kilometers (that's 86 miles) from Palomas!

"We estimate that this task will take at least two days to complete," said Esperanza Lozoya, director of the Luz de Esperanza Outreach, who will be walking with her daughter Sofía Ramírez and long-time volunteer Dolores Campos.  "We estimate that this task will take at least two days to complete," said Lozoya.

Lozoya has worked faithfully for more than a decade to serve the people of Puerto Palomas and nearby areas.  Her organization, La Luz de Esperanza Outreach, works with scarce resources to provide meals, school supplies, shoes and other items to children and the elderly of the community.  "Our goal is to continue with distributions 100% of funds raised will purchase much needed food," said Lozoya.

Esperanza Lozoya

Please send pledges, before and after the walk, to:

La luz de La Esperanza Walk for the Hungry
c/o Dos Manos 
P.O. Box 595 
Arroyo Seco, N.M. 87514

Donations are tax-deductible.