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This Week's Other Stories:
 EDITORIAL
COMMENT: Amazing Milestone: US Cheese Production Hits 10 Billion Pounds
LEAD STORY: Raw Milk Cheese: FDA Says 60-Day Aging Not Effective, Is Looking At Alternatives
OTHER
NEWS : Whole Milk Powder, Anhydrous Milkfat Prices Fall In Fonterra’s Internet Auction; Skim Milk Powder To Be Included Next Month
GUEST COLUMNIST:
Upper Midwest
Prospects in 2010 by John Umhoefer
COMPANY PROFILE:
Shatto Milk Company Brings Farmstead Cheesemaking To Missouri; Kansas City Clamoring For Locally-Made Cheese
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Record Number Of Americans Receiving Emergency Food; More TEFAP Funds Sought
Chicago and Washington—More than 37 million people receive emergency food each year through the nation’s networks of food banks and the agencies they serve, according to a study released this week by the hunger-relief organization Feeding America.
Feeding America’s study, Hunger in America 2010, is described as the first research study to capture the connection between the economic downturn and an increased need for emergency food assistance.
An estimated 5.7 million people receive emergency food assistance each week from a food pantry, soup kitchen, or other agency served by one of Feeding America’s more than 200 food banks. That’s a 27 percent increase over numbers reported in Hunger in America 2006, which reported that 4.5 million people were served each week.
“Clearly, the economic recession, resulting in dramatically increasing unemployment nationwide, has driven unprecedented, sharp increases in the need for emergency food assistance and enrollment in federal nutrition programs,” said Vicki Escarra, president and CEO of Feeding America.
The methodology incorporated into the 2010 study includes data collected from February through June 2009. The results are based on surveys conducted at food pantries, soup kitchens and other emergency feeding programs.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported in November 2009 that an estimated 49 million people, including 17 million children, are at risk of hunger.
Feeding America said its new report reinforces the increasing need for food assistance in the US, with 70 percent of food pantries and soup kitchens and 73 percent of emergency shelters reporting that they are facing one or more problems that threaten their ability to continue operating. Problems relating to funds and food supplies were the two most commonly cited threats.
“While we have reached many more people over the past four years, the need of hungry Americans far outpaces our current level of service,” Escarra said. “We will continue to partner with federal and state governments, corporate and individual donors and other hunger-relief organizations to bring more food and funds into the charitable distribution system and connect people with federal benefits until every man, woman and child has access to adequate food and nutrition.”
Last Friday, Feeding America and a number of dairy, farm and other organizations had sent a letter to key members of Congress to take immediate action to shore up the emergency food supply by providing an additional $250 million in funding for the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP).
The letter was...more
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