Officials give children hot meals, plus knowledge about nutrition

By Jim Memmott and Doug Mandelaro
Democrat and Chronicle

WILL YURMAN

Devin Palozzi, a second-grader at Corpus Christi School, discovers he’s not a big fan of tomatoes during a nutrition lesson at his school given by Norma Kerr of Cornell Cooperative Extension. Devin, however, did like the grapes and celery. In addition to Cornell Cooperative Extension, programs such as Foodlink’s Kids Cafes give children hot meals, plus knowledge about nutrition. [Day in Photos]

(April 14, 2003) — There is a hunger emergency in Rochester, as more and more people turn to food pantries to get through the month.

But even as they battle the emergency, directors of area food programs are trying to do more to foster long-term solutions to hunger problems here.

’’Anyone can give away free food,’’ says Tom Ferraro, executive director of Foodlink, the main clearinghouse here for donated food. ‘’We need to regroup. We need to do the heavy lifting of really helping people.’’

Consequently, Ferraro and others are focusing on programs that emphasize better nutrition, especially for children.

They hope that the programs will have a double benefit, at once feeding hungry children and also instilling the value of eating healthy foods.

This strategy is evident in Foodlink’s Kids Cafes, a hot-meal program for young people at 17 different locations in the area.

At the cafe at the School 22 annex in the city the other day, the students not only ate well, they discovered some new foods.

Broccoli got especially high praise from Rhoda Stockmeister, 5, Taja Lewis, 5, and Lillian Simkins, 6.

In all, the 17 Kids Cafes served about 50,000 free hot meals last year, all the time emphasizing the importance of eating healthy food.

’’Kids Cafe is a good example of educating kids early on,’’ says Dr. Christa Zehle, chief pediatric resident at the Golisano Children’s Hospital at Strong. ‘’Some of us feel strongly about teaching the children so they bring the knowledge back to their parents.’’

The cafes also serve other purposes, says Jamie Wemett Saunders, Foodlink’s vice president.

’’This is not a soup kitchen,’’ she says, describing the educational and social components in each of the programs. Some offer help with homework. Others offer music classes, dance instruction, computer training.

Some of the funding for the Kids Cafes comes from New York state.

In addition, Wegmans Food Markets Inc. contributes money to eight of the sites, including the one at School 22.

Foodlink plans to expand the number of Kids Cafes in the area, setting up in Rochester recreation centers. Saunders would also like to add more cafes to elementary schools as a way of helping offset possible City School District cuts to existing programs.

In school

Norma Kerr, a nutrition educator with Cornell Cooperative Extension, is at Corpus Christi Elementary School on Oxford Street in the city, speaking to Mary Ellen Lansing’s second-grade class.

She opens by asking the students if they had made any changes in their eating habits since the previous class.

’’I had some cauliflower with my dinner,’’ reports Alexandra Van Dame, 7.

’’I was sleeping, and I had a nightmare and I woke up,’’ says Elijah Toro, 7. ‘’I woke up and had a glass of water. It was good.’’

Kerr smiles, happy that the class has picked up on her advice about eating vegetables, about drinking plenty of water.

She then moves onto a lesson on food preparation assisted by a green puppet called Mr. Bac, as in bacteria. The students love to hate Mr. Bac, a foe to health who can be overcome in part by the thorough washing of hands.

Throughout the lesson, Kerr reminds the students to take their learning home, to share what they know with their parents.

All of this is part of the mission of the Cooperative Extension, which has several programs that teach nutrition and consumer education.

’’We’re hoping to promote some behavior change,” says Sue Grace, a registered dietitian with Cornell Cooperative. ‘’We’re not doing these things on a one-shot basis.’’

Finding help

Part of Sue Segelman’s job at the YWCA in Rochester is to encourage people to take advantage of existing benefits, especially the food stamp program of the United States Department of Agriculture.

’’After welfare reform (in 1996), there was a dramatic drop in the use of food stamps,’’ says Segelman, who is nutrition outreach and educational coordinator at the YWCA. ‘’Families thought they no longer qualified, but they did.’’

Segelman’s clients are generally single mothers with children, many of them working in low-wage jobs. She helps them fill out the 12-page application for the food stamp card. She also helps clients get by during the month or so that it usually takes to receive the card.

The food stamp program allots a certain amount of money each month, depending upon the number of people in a household, as well as income.

In January, Toshiba and Jacob Lesure of Rochester were receiving $300 in food stamps for their family of four. Since then, the figure has risen, but it may drop again as Jacob has found work.

A monthly shopping ritual helps the Lesures get as much as they can with the money they receive.

Toshiba goes to Save A Lot on North Goodman for canned goods, to Inclema’s Meat Market on North Goodman for meats. She stops at a Tops Friendly Market in the city for fresh vegetables. In January, she spent $298 on her food-shopping trip.

’’I see some people, they get their food stamps, but they run out of food,’’ Lesure says. ‘’My goal is to stretch them, to not run out at the end of the month.’’

But she adds that meeting her goals depends on finding a ride to take her to the various stores. Similarly, her large freezer allows her to buy meat in bulk, another savings.

Lesure and other mothers of young children also receive help from the Women, Infants and Children nutritional program for pregnant women and children under 5 years of age.

WIC, which serves thousands of families in this area, provides funds for the purchase of formula and other foods as well as nutritional counseling.

Other ideas

People involved in the search for solutions to the problem of hunger here emphasize that hunger should not be viewed in isolation.

’’We know that the need for (free) food is just a symptom,’’ says Laurie J. Jenkins, executive director of the Southeast Ecumenical Ministry in Rochester. ‘’We know we’ve got to get at the root causes.’’

Taking the root causes into mind, SEM distributes food from its pantry in an atypical way.

Rather than giving food directly to people in need -- the normal practice at food pantries -- SEM gives the food to case managers from social service agencies who then take it to their clients.

’’It’s just more efficient, more effective,’’ Jenkins says.

Saunders of Foodlink says that approaches like SEM’s are important, that the solution to food problems locally is not to create more pantries but to be more effective with existing ones.

’’We don’t need 180 separate food programs,’’ Saunders says, noting the number of providers in the area. ‘’We could work together better collectively.’’

Advocates for the poor and hungry also call for a hike in the minimum wage as one way of helping the working poor. And they lobby for more housing benefits for the poor.

’’A lot of low-income people are paying 60 to 70 percent of their income on housing, which doesn’t leave a lot for food,’’ says Mark Dunlea, associate director of Hunger Action of New York State.

People involved in food distribution also say that communities need to understand that their programs make good economic sense.

So-called ‘’damaged’’ food in dented cans that supermarkets can’t sell is given away to people in need. The food doesn’t go to waste; people eat.

Similarly, surplus food from farms is passed along. The farmers are reimbursed by the government, and individuals and families receive needed food.

E-mail addresses: jmemmott@DemocratandChronicle.com dmand@DemocratandChronicle.com

Getting, giving help

If you or your family needs emergency assistance in getting food or information on programs that can help, call Lifeline at (585) 275-5151, toll-free outside Monroe County at (800) 310-1160.
If you want information on how to help with the hunger problem locally or how to donate to fight hunger, call Foodlink at (585) 328-3380 or visit www.foodlinkny.org