Robert McCartney (01:30):
That's Lindsay Smith, a food systems planner at the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments or COG. We'll hear more from her later. I'm your host, Robert McCartney.

As Lindsay said, the root problem is simply that too many people don't have enough money to afford basic necessities. Fortunately, they can get government help such as through the federal SNAP program, better known as food stamps. Congress dramatically increased SNAP benefits in response to the pandemic. People also can get groceries for free from food pantries, but there are other steps we can and must take as well. I'll talk with local officials and experts about how to put enough nutritious, healthy food on tables for everyone in the region.
 
Let's start by talking to someone with a firsthand look at the need in the community. Jackie DeCarlo is CEO of the Manna Food Center, a pantry headquartered in Silver Spring and an important player in combating hunger in our region. I asked her how the pandemic and accompanying recession affected her work.

Jackie DeCarlo (02:41):
At the peak, the demand for food grew more than 40%. And now, thankfully, that is diminishing a little bit, but certainly we still have the pandemic concerns for health and safety as well as the economy, the recovery period is going to be a long one for these neighbors whose economic situation was pretty fragile.

Robert McCartney (3:08):
Roughly how many people or how many households, I guess, would be benefiting from food that they get via Manna in a month?

Jackie DeCarlo (3:17):
The main program we have is called Food for Families, which is a monthly distribution, and that was about 3,000 or so folks monthly before the pandemic, depending again on the time of the year. It's worse in the winter, of course. And now we're at about 3,600 or so, but it's mostly those who are economically fragile and who may be working, but just barely making ends meet and something like a furlough or a health emergency taps all their savings, maxes out their credit cards and they need the help of receiving free food services from us.

Robert McCartney (4:00):
The good news is that the emergency spurred actors across the region to step up in multiple ways to address the increased need for food. This was particularly important in the early months of the pandemic before Congress increased federal assistance, a much needed expansion.

Jackie DeCarlo (04:18):
What it's important to know is that we never had to turn anybody away. We were alongside a lot of other groups that jumped into the fray and responded to the emergency, met the demand. The community made that possible by giving us donations so that we had enough food on the shelves.

Robert McCartney (04:35)
The crisis also led to changes to improve the food supply chain, innovations that are continuing as we hope the pandemic is approaching its end.

Jackie DeCarlo (4:43):
Our county government and private philanthropy helped us expand a program called Farm to Food Bank, where we went from purchasing from local farmers, like a half a dozen farmers or so, in farmers markets, and we're now up to working with 30 farms in the region. Many of whom are in the Montgomery County Ag Reserve.

Robert McCartney (05:05):
You've used the phrase food insecurity a couple of times, and I hear that a lot. Can you tell our audience how you define food insecurity? What does that mean in practical terms?

Jackie DeCarlo (05:18):
Yeah. Sorry if it's a bit jargony. So food insecurity has some official definitions and it all actually goes is on a spectrum from extreme to moderate, to occasional food insecurity. The way that I try to explain it to folks is just it's that situation where you're not always sure where your next meal is coming from. You are a mom or a grandparent who's trying to provide food for your kids, your family, and you're looking at your paycheck, you're looking at your bills, and you're trying to figure out how are you going to make ends meet. If you're food insecure, you're probably housing insecure. You're probably medically fragile in terms of your access to the healthcare system. Again, another thing that our eyes have been open about is the emotional stresses that this public health crisis has put us all in. You may not have the tools or familiarity with getting the services you need. And so what we are trying to do is food assistance providers, is work throughout the nonprofit community to make connections.

Robert McCartney (06:30):
Now let's talk to an elected official who's devoted a lot of effort to improving food security in the region. That would be DC council member Mary Cheh. In addition to her leadership on this topic in the district, she's been sharing a new regional committee at COG focused on food and agriculture. She's sponsored numerous bills to promote more access to food, such as for school children and people in low income neighborhoods. Now she's promoting one to help seniors. It addresses the challenge that many older people eligible for food stamps or other help aren't aware they can get it.

Mary Cheh (07:08):
There's a big misunderstanding among many seniors about what they would be entitled to have. There was a survey that we did here a while back about people who were not enrolled in public benefits and they showed how unsure they were, whether they were eligible or not. And then one of the things the bill tries to address is the somewhat complicated nature of applying. And so even if they do find out about it, maybe they don't have the ability to actually go through the application process…

Robert McCartney (07:42):
The DC Department of Human Services would be responsible for reaching out to seniors and guiding them through the bureaucracy. Cheh said she doesn't know of any significant opposition to the bill. She said her experience with an earlier bill, the Healthy Schools Act showed that whatever opposition does arise evaporates once the results are in. Among other things, that bill provided that even if kids arrived at school late, they would be able to eat breakfast in the classroom.

Mary Cheh (08:09):
At first, it seemed like there might have been some pushback by the teacher's union or teachers, "No, they don't want kids eating in the classroom when they first come in. It'll be a mess and chaotic," and whatever. Well, when children have something to eat, they're able to learn. When they come hungry, they can't focus. So after they had their free breakfast, it turns out that it was more conducive to learning…

Robert McCartney (08:36):
Another solution has been to encourage more food sellers to locate in lower income neighborhoods, such as Ward 7 and 8 in the eastern and southern parts of the city. Those are in contrast with affluent Ward 3, which Cheh represents in Northwest DC.

Mary Cheh (08:54):
There's a wide disparity in the number and quality of grocery stores available to district residents, depending upon where they live. If you just listen to these numbers, Ward 3, where I am, has one grocery store for every 8,600 residents. Okay? Ward 8 has one grocery store for 85,000 residents. Ward 7, one for 79,000 residents. And so among the things we've been doing to address that disparity is to give these tax incentives for grocery stores to open in low income neighborhoods and to give money to corner stores to have fresh food and healthy snacks in their corner stores in low income communities.

Robert McCartney (09:48):
Let's hear more from Lindsay Smith, the food systems planner at COG. She shared some data about how food insecurity falls most heavily on racial minorities. In the last census survey, 4% of white households reported food insufficiency compared to 11% of black households and 14% of Hispanic or Latino households.

Lindsay Smith (10:14):
Unfortunately, food security is also higher in households with children across all groups. However, again, black and Hispanic or Latino households are disproportionally burdened.

Robert McCartney (10:25):
By far the biggest protection against hunger is direct government aid to families. We've already talked about the biggest one: SNAP. For every one meal that food banks provide, SNAP provides nine. There's also the special supplemental nutrition program for women, infants, and children known as WIC, as well as free meals for school children. Governments significantly raise those benefits during COVID, but the increases could start to be rolled back as early as January 2022.

Lindsay Smith (10:56):
The federal nutrition programs, those are really our first line of defense against hunger, and there have been some really important lessons learned during COVID-19. As a region, we need to be talking with our federal delegation to really advocate for as many permanent improvements as we can.

Robert McCartney (11:17):
Smith called my attention to the role that local farms can play in supplying food for our region. There are a lot of small farms here that are an important source, especially for fresh vegetables and fruit. Protecting that farmland is important to support the resilience of the food supply here. The shortages we all saw at the start of the pandemic were reminder that it's good to have short supply chains that are reliable in a crisis.

Robert McCartney (11:44):
A lot of people in our region don't really think of it as an agricultural area. Where are the farms in our region? Where are they located for the most part?

Lindsay Smith (11:58):
If you had asked me 10 years ago, I would have a different answer, but my answer now is they're actually, they're everywhere. In terms of who's got the most land in farming in the region, we do want to look at some of our neighbors like Loudoun County, Frederick County, Maryland, Montgomery County, but there's a lot of agriculture in Prince William, Prince George's, Charles County. And then, increasingly urban agriculture is growing.

Robert McCartney (12:30):
The amount of land devoted to farming in the region has declined over the past decades, but the principal factor affecting food self-reliance has been the steady growth in population. Food production just has not kept up.

Robert McCartney (12:44):
In addition to advocating for continuation and expansion of these federal programs, what else could the region do to improve food security?

Lindsay Smith (12:53):
I think we really need to raise the visibility of small farmers, farmers of color and food entrepreneurs. And as you pointed out, pandemic has really shown us that shorter supply chains are more than just a nice thing to have. And we need to invest in both the human and capital infrastructure that's going to be required to grow our regions food economy, so technical assistance, processing aggregation, storage technology. And then farmers and entrepreneurs need to be able to affordably access these.

Robert McCartney (13:28):
Hugo Mogollon is executive director of FRESHFARM, a 25-year-old nonprofit that is the largest farmers market organization in the Mid-Atlantic. It works with more than 120 area farms.

Tell us about the presence of farmers in this area and what role they play.

Hugo Mogollon (13:48):
We would be surprised to know that it is thriving agricultural industry here in the region. I think this industry brings more than 700 million in sales, and gross sales in the region creates thousands of jobs. It is mostly vegetables, and midsize farmers are growing specialty crops. And there are also some commodity farms. Also, Maryland has been known for the dairy farms. So at the beginning of the pandemic, I think it was really hard for farmers to find where to bring that food that they were growing. It was a lot of uncertainty because you can imagine the farmers plan the season months in advance. So many of those plans just were affected by the pandemic.

Robert McCartney (14:43):
During the pandemic, FRESHFARM helped those farms keep their products flowing to the community by connecting them to alternate channels for distribution. They streamlined the supply chain, or what he calls the value chain, to more than two dozen farmers markets. They also aggregated locally produced food and shipped it directly to grassroots community groups.

Hugo Mogollon (15:05):
During the pandemic, we actually were able to distribute what is close to more than 300,000 meals. We’re working with local farmers and connecting them with institutions that serve the communities already, right? So churches and food pantries, childcare centers. That's one of the opportunities we're trying to create at FRESHFARM, connecting these farmers with opportunities to sell that would also solve food access issues.

Robert McCartney (15:34):
Such aid is especially important when you're part of a global market in food stuffs. Other producers may have lower costs, but also be less reliable.

Hugo Mogollon (15:45):
Competing with the global food system is also difficult because apples that come from Chile are cheaper than the apples that are grown in Pennsylvania or West Virginia or Maryland. So we as a region and governments in our region need to think how we can create alternative value chains, so our farmers could have opportunities to sell. And the pandemic shows that that global food system is very fragile, and we saw grocery stores with empty shelves. Meanwhile, our local farmers show that we can have a resilient food system if we work with them.

Robert McCartney (16:32):
FRESHFARM also is promoting food equity with a $1.4 million federal grant to expand a program that doubles the value of customers' SNAP benefits if they're used at farmers' markets.

Robert McCartney (16:48):
Now I'll end with some thoughts of my own. Surely our very well off region should do what I ever it takes to keep anybody from going hungry. Unfortunately, many jobs, especially in the services sector, don't pay anywhere near enough to cover the total cost of basic necessities like rent, healthcare and food in our high cost area. Plus there are large numbers of people who can't work because of age, illness, or physical limitations.

As I said at the start, I want this podcast to focus as much as possible on solutions, and we've heard a number of them. Like everywhere else in the country, our area depends first on federal programs, such as SNAP and WIC, to help low income people afford enough food. Our representatives in Congress and other elected officials and advocates should press to continue those programs at least at current levels that were elevated during the pandemic.

Robert McCartney (17:44):
It's also critical to make sure that everybody who's eligible for federal or other help is aware that they can get it and knows how to go about applying for and obtaining it. That's where initiatives like Councilmember Mary Cheh's bill come in to reach out to people who might not be aware of what's available or need help accessing it.

The next line of defense are the many food banks and food pantries that distribute food for free to those who need it. Local governments, philanthropies, and individual donors should support these organizations, especially in the first stage of a crisis, like the pandemic, before the federal government can organize its response. It would help a lot if there were more grocery stores in so-called food deserts or poor neighborhoods where places to buy food are few and far between.

Finally, we should invest in and otherwise strengthen the position of our local farmers. They provide a variety of fresh, healthy produce, and their goods remain accessible even among disruptions in the national or global food market.

We hope you enjoyed this episode. We welcome your comments, please send them to thinkregionally@mwcog.org. This podcast is produced by Megan Goodman and Janelle Parkman at COG. Until next month, this is your host, Robert McCartney urging everyone to think regionally.