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Washington is the 2nd hungriest state in the nation. To
reduce hunger and food insecurity among Washington state
residents, priority recommendations include provision
of adequate support for nutrition and food programs and
improving access to nutrition programs.
The description below illustrates what organizations and
communities are doing to support priority recommendations
to reduce hunger and food insecurity.
As proposed in the Plan, one way to decrease the burden
of food insecurity is to increase access to nutrition
programs. Many who are eligible to receive such support
are not utilizing available assistance. For example, the
Public Health-Seattle & King County (PHSKC) WIC Program
found that roughly 65% of WIC clients are living at or
below the poverty line, yet only 23% are participating
in the Basic Food Program (BFP).
The task of identifying barriers to the WA BFP and recommendations
for increasing the proportion of eligible WIC clients
who participate in the BFP was bestowed upon the 2004
UW Community Nutrition class, taught by Donna Johnson.
As a class project, the students conducted an extensive
assessment of the attitudes and barriers to the BFP in
both WIC staff and clients. The assessment included literature
searches, key informant interviews, and surveys at three
public health clinics in the PHSKC service area. The students
found that many clients were unaware of the BFP or were
discouraged by perceived barriers to the application process.
In addition, a large percentage of staff never received
training on the BFP and many spent very little to no time
addressing the BFP and making referrals.
In an effort to increase the number of staff referrals
to the BFP, the students used this information to create
a 30-minute PowerPoint training module for WIC staff,
which outlines the benefits, eligibility requirements,
and available resources for the BFP. PHSKC plans to implement
the training module sometime this summer.
For more information:
Donna Oberg, MPH, RD
Lisa DiGiorgio,
MPH, RD
Public Health-Seattle & King County
The Children's Alliance works to increase the reach of
federal food programs through state and federal policy.
This year we, along with our partners, passed legislation
that will expand school lunch and summer food programs
and reduce barriers to participation in the Basic Food
Program. We also worked to increase funding for the WIC
Farmers Market Nutrition Program (FMNP) but that legislation
was not successful.
Partners organizations include: WA State PTA, School's
Out Washington, Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction
(OSPI), Action for Healthy Kids, WA Chapter of the American
Chapter of Pediatrics, WA School Food Service Association,
Washington Food Coalition, Food Lifeline, Northwest Harvest
and others.
For more information:
Shelley
Curtis, MPH, RD
Children's Alliance
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