RRealeal HeroesHeroes Project Bread 2004 Annual Report please note the front cover should be 1/8 Fold inch wider so as not to crop the glued pocket David Leifer on the inside back cover Photo Please remove cyan line before processing, these are guides for Folds and crops only do not print Printing instructions in red Indide Front Cover and Flap Real Lives Real Solutions Dear friends, Photos Kelly Sullivan When a family is out of food and flat out of options, it’s an emergency that calls for immediate attention — and we make it our business to make sure those calls for help are heard. For 35 years, we’ve sponsored The Walk for Hunger, which marshals 40,000 Walkers and 200,000 supporters to provide food for those in immediate need. At the same time that we vigorously advocate for the resources to support soup kitchens, food pantries, and food banks across the state, we work just as vigorously to prevent emergencies. After all, hunger is a complicated problem that calls for a mix of solutions. And Project Bread has become a national leader in integrating traditional responses like food pantries with innovative community partnerships designed to prevent emergencies from happening. In the past year, we’ve been working in 20 of the lowest-income communities in the state, putting hunger prevention on the agenda for local leaders and finding new ways to protect families. From innovative efforts like serving rural communities with home-delivered summer meals to vibrant new partnerships between farmers and schools, we’re at the cutting edge of alleviating and ending hunger in Massachusetts. With the help of thousands of donors and friends, Project Bread is crafting real life solutions for real people. And you make this vision possible. Sincerely, odd Lehman Ellen Parker T o Executive Director ot Ph TABLE OF CONTENTS About Project Bread . 1–12 HUNGER SOLUTIONS “When most people hear about The Walk for Hunger, By utilizing a wide range of solutions to the problem of Funded Emergency Food Programs .13–16 s hunger, Project Bread has a better chance of preserving their first reaction is ‘20 miles? I don't know. .’ My Contributors . 17–38 the emergency food network for its lifesaving work and hool & advice is to not consider the distance, just remember WIC Partnering to End Hunger . 39 of actually meeting the basic food needs of thousands of Pantries Food Stamps School Meals Board of Directors . 40 Food Vouchers that every mile and every dollar count.” Massachusetts families. Soup Kitchen After-ScSummer Meals EMERGENCY PREVENTION Ways to Help . 41 — Sarah Ferraro, student, resident of Dover 2 Real Hunger RRealeal SolutionsSolutions “Sometimes we don’t have time to eat dinner and sometimes we don’t have enough money or sometimes we don’t have nothin’ to eat.” — Emiline, grandmother, Mattapan Getting enough food should never be the focus of childhood.Yet, for Project Bread is first a friend to those one child in three in our state’s low-income neighborhoods, it is. in urgent need of food. An estimated 650,000 people in Massachusetts Last year, Project Bread worked with researchers from the Center are living in poverty and are at risk for Survey Research at the University of Massachusetts Boston to of hunger. Of those, 200,000 are conduct the first scientifically rigorous study of food insecurity and children. hunger in the state’s low-income communities.This study, published Project Bread serves hungry as the first Status Report on Hunger, sampled households in 183 people in every community in the census tracts with high rates of poverty in 34 cities and towns. state by supporting emergency food programs, providing informa- In most such households, it found that parents go without food to tion to hungry people on where to shield their children from hunger, but once the household runs out find the nearest hot meal or bag of of food, even the children groceries, and by screening callers cannot be protected. for food stamp and school meal eligibility. Percent Food Insecure Percent Food Insecure with Hunger 35 For the past 36 years, through funds 30 32.6 derived from The Walk for Hunger, 28.9 Project Bread’s research 25 Project Bread has supported the 20 23.8 demonstrates that hunger 20.2 state’s emergency food system. In Joshua Touster 15 is a constant companion 10 2003–2004, this system included Photos 10.0 11.8 for thousands of 5 7.8 8.7 400 emergency food programs Massachusetts children. 0 throughout 119 communities in All All All All Households Individuals Households Children with Children Massachusetts — from Abington to Worcester. In 2003, this emergency Among all households surveyed in low-income communities, 20 Through emergency food programs like the mobile pantry shown here, food system provided 40 million percent were food insecure. (Food insecurity and hunger are both Project Bread seeks to relieve a family’s immediate need for food. Once this measures of inadequate access to food.) This finding is three meals to people in need. times the statewide average. Additionally, the study found that in is met, the emphasis shifts to getting these families enrolled in a variety of low-income areas, both urban and rural, one child in three lives hunger-prevention programs, such as food stamps and school meals, which in a household that struggles to put food on the table. provide a more predictable means of putting food on the table. 3 4 Real Work Real Solutions Those who work on the frontline of hunger relief see its human cost — the quiet desperation of parents, the struggle of elderly people unable to make ends meet, the sudden relief when someone cares. For them, the work is taxing, difficult, and rewarding. Joshua Touster Photos “There’s absolutely no downtime . but it’s a joy to be here,” says Beth Chambers of Catholic Charities Boston, who works with Project Bread and the American Red Cross of Massachusetts Bay to distribute food. When hungry people need food, where do they turn for help? In Massachusetts, the answer is Project Bread. With its ability to help callers in 140 languages, Project Bread's hotline uses a state- of-the-art database to refer callers to emergency food programs in their home communities. s an umbrella organization, Callers also receive updated information on public programs, A Project Bread also sponsors eligibility requirements for federal nutrition programs, information regional hunger networks, which about meal sites for the elderly, meals-on-wheels programs, and bring together local food pantries other resources that supply free and soup kitchens to coordinate or low-cost food. Receiving A real indicator of the rise in food services, make better use of exist- 25,000 calls a year, the Project Meals Served by Emergency Food Programs insecurity and hunger is the use of ing infrastructure, and develop solutions to hunger that meet local (in millions) emergency food pantries and soup 40 Bread hotline counselors do more kitchens. The demand for emergency 35 40 needs. With its strong ties to the antihunger community and its willing- 36 food has consistently increased 30 than refer desperate families to 31 since the beginning of the economic 29 ness to think comprehensively about the solutions to hunger, Project their next meal, they provide 25 recession in March 2001. While 20 Project Bread supports emergency Bread has become the premier antihunger organization, leading a frontline social work that stabi- 15 food, it has led a statewide push 10 to transition families from soup new statewide focus on the importance of hunger prevention. lizes a family and gives them 5 kitchens and food pantries to 0 underutilized federal nutrition practical information on how to 2000 2001 2002 2003 programs that feed families and move forward. bring more federal dollars into the Commonwealth. 5 6 Real Kids Real Solutions Feeding children where they live, learn, and play Thousands of children in Massachusetts are chronically hungry. That’s It all begins with food. why, five years ago, Project Bread began investing substantial resources in Good food nourishes the body . prevention programs aimed at childhood hunger. During this time, Project and the spirit. With regular Bread developed an innovative program model — the Massachusetts Child meals, a child is free to grow, Hunger Initiative — which actively creates, tests, and implements programs to ask a question, to tell a joke. Good food brings laughter and to feed children where they live, learn, and play. a sense of belonging. While Project Bread supports 400 emergency food programs, it believes that children should be fed where they live, learn, and play. Project Bread has led advocacy that increases the use of underutilized federal nutrition programs, such as programs for mothers and young children, school meals, and food stamps, among others. During the past year, Project Bread continued intensive community organizing in 20 low- income cities in Massachusetts, bringing local leaders to the table and making access to a wide variety of nutrition programs available to low-income families. To date, the signature achievement of Project Bread’s prevention work has been the state’s support of universal breakfast programs in low-income elementary schools, affecting over 100,000 students. When schools make breakfast a regular part of the school day, most of the students who need it will start the day with a nutritious meal. This year, Project Bread used incentive grants to encourage 54 low-income schools in 11 cities to increase their participation in breakfast to 80 percent. Building on its successful work in Change in Math Grade Point Average schools, Project Bread turned its Research from Massachusetts attention to preventing child hunger General Hospital, 0.6 sponsored by over the summer months.