Nonprofits Help Fill State's Hunger Gaps

Nonprofit organizations and state government might not go together like peanut butter and jelly, but go together they must for Connecticut to feed its hungry.

September is Hunger Action Month. A designation designed to highlight the more than 400,000 Connecticut citizens who don’t have enough to eat. That number makes Deb Heinrich, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s nonprofit liaison, focus on the need for the two entities to cooperate all the more.

“The governor has been doing public service announcements to raise awareness that there is a lot of hunger,” Heinrich said.

As part of Heinrich’s effort to call attention to food security issues, she accepted the SNAP challenge. She is eating on $4 a day, or $28 a week.

“I’m finding it can be done. I’m not hungry, but my choices are very limited,” said Heinrich, who is blogging about her experience on Patch.com. “So I end up eating the same thing over and over. You really have to plan it out. Most meals at the beginning of the day for the whole day.”

Across the state 110,000 children, or one in five kids, are hungry, said Nancy Carrington, president and chief executive officer of the Connecticut Food Bank.

Yet many of these children live in homes that don’t qualify for federally funded programs such as SNAP, Carrington said. So the food bank started "Back Pack," which helps more than 2,000 Connecticut school kids.

On Fridays during the school year, the backpacks of children qualifying for the "Back Pack" program are quietly taken from their lockers and packed with 10 food items to tide them over for the weekend. The backpacks are replaced before the class returns from recess.

“Basically it is the nonprofits stepping in across the state, especially in this time of prolonged unemployment,” Carrington said.

The Share Our Strength state-based No Kid Hungry Campaigns is another example of government and nonprofit partnership. These campaigns connect families to federally funded food and nutrition programs like the school breakfast and summer feeding programs.

Food drives are often tied to Thanksgiving and the holiday season, but hunger follows no calendar. There is great need all year long. Summertime often means scant offerings, Heinrich said.

The Connecticut No Kid Hungry Campaign is working with End Hunger Connecticut! and the governor to help end childhood hunger in Connecticut by 2015. According to End Hunger Connecticut, only 58.4 percent of schools statewide take part in breakfast programs. If that number reaches 60 percent, the state will get an additional $7.6 million in federal dollars.

“Generally speaking the nonprofits are more efficient,” said state Rep. Vincent Candelora, a Republican representing East Haven and North Branford in the 86th House District. “Certainly the role of nonprofits needs to be increased not just to end hunger, but in many health care aspects.”

The work of the nonprofits is critical to serving and often filling the gaps where government services cannot reach. Without these organizations our community would lack the depth it has become known for,” said state Rep. Al Adinolfi, a Republican representing Cheshire, in the 103rd House District.

“We can do a much better job with nonprofits — with encouragement by the state,” Adinolfi said. “When it’s privately handled it has more meaning. But you’re finding a lot of nonprofits need help and it’s more difficult to raise money than ever before.”

Recent events like Hurricane Irene hit cash-strapped residents hard.  Many, who normally find it difficult to afford food, must now replace refrigerated and frozen food items. 

“I know we have a pretty big population that accesses the food bank at the senior center,” said state Sen. Gayle Slossberg, a Democrat representing Milford, Orange and West Haven in the 14th Senate District. 

And that’s the truth, Heinrich said.

“With the economy as it is it reaches a lot of people, and it’s not who you think it is,” Heinrich said. “It could be your next door neighbor, and sometimes it is.”