Outreach Coalition Minutes

From the November 17, 2005 Meeting

Attendees:

Location:  Food and Nutrition Service
                 Alexandria, VA

Moderator: Dawn Washington, FNS

	Listing of Attendees
	Presentations:
	-- National Media Campaign Presentation -- Primary Outreach Strategies -- Evaluation of Food Stamp Research Grants to Improve Access Through     New Technology and Partnerships -- Farm Bill Nutrition Forums -- Mayor’s Commission on Food and Nutrition -- Post Katrina: Dealing with a Disaster -- Promising Practices

Highlights: The agenda was as follows:

Opening – Karen Walker, FNS Division Director;
Update of FSP National Media Campaign – Laura Griffin & Pat Seward, FNS;
Update of 2004 Outreach Grants – Susan Sheets, FNS;
Review of 2001 & 2002 Grant Projects – Rosemarie Downer, FNS;
Update of USDA’s Listening Sessions – Kate Fink, FNS;
Briefing of DC Mayor’s Commission on Food and Nutrition – Kim Perry, Hunger Solutions;
FRAC Report on Disaster – Ellen Vollinger, FRAC; and
Coalition Committee Updates – Committee Chairs.

Below are some of the highlights from the presentations and questions raised in the meeting.

Update of FNS/FSP Media Campaign: The campaign is now entering into its third year. It has 5 goals: to increase participation among eligibles, to promote FSP as a nutrition assistance and work support program, to overcome the welfare stigma; to provide benefits with dignity and respect, and to make known where and how persons can apply for the FSP.

There will be additional radio buys in various locations across the country and two tool kits created; one to be used by State and local FSP offices and one created for community partners and faith-based organizations. The tool kits will contain an informational/motivational DVD “Community Hunger Champions: Helping People Eat Right When Money’s Tight” and the DVD containing FSP informational materials.

This year will see 3 additional English and 2 additional Spanish radio PSAs. Television PSAs are in the works and will be available soon.

A question was raised as to whether there are plans to buy TV time to air these PSAs No plan to buy air time. A suggestion was made to look to cable to run these PSAs since cable costs are much cheaper than regular TV.

There will be focus groups in 2006 to discuss:

• New names for the FSP
     o Food and Nutrition Program
     o Food Support Program
     o Nutrition Assurance Program
     o Food Program
     o Eat Better Today (EBT)
• 2 new Spanish TV PSAs; and
• FSP messages.

Potential sites for testing these names are CT, NJ, TX, AR, IL, GA, PA and KS and will begin around March 2006.

A question was posed as to whether there was feedback from States on the names. Yes, the APHSA organization suggested “Eat Better Today” and it was added to the potential list of names. Many States have already changed the name of the FSP. Attendees stated that because of this, the sooner a decision is made the better. It was also pointed out that the when considering a new name for the FSP that some thought given to what the Spanish translation would be.

Update of 2004 & 2005 FSP Outreach Grant Projects: The 2004 and 2005 FSP outreach grant projects are grouped into five strategy categories; community events & education campaign, working with employers; working with retailers, working with other FNS programs and outstationing & site visiting. The presentation also gave insight into the primary challenges, the most effective techniques and the most gratifying experiences.

Review of 2001 and 2002 Grant Projects:

Evaluation of 2002 Food Stamp Research Grants to Improve Access Through New Technology & Partnerships:

There is a small supply of hard copies of this report. To obtain a copy, contact Rosemarie Downer at rosemarie.downer@fns.usda.gov . It can be viewed at http://www.fns.usda.gov/ora/MENU/Published/recentreleases.htm .

Sustainability of 2001 and 2002 Grant Projects:

Are former grant projects being sustained? Approximately 75% of the 01 and 02 grant projects are being sustained. Most are being provided on a smaller scale. Some of the partners have continued partnering with the former grantees and some other partners have gone on to incorporate project outreach initiatives into their organizational activities.

What are some of the challenges these former grantees are facing? There are three primary challenges facing former grantees; jurisdictional politics, difficulty in showing the positive impact of the outreach activities; and working through the stigma associated with the FSP.

What are some recommendations that former grantees have for future or current grantees? Former grantees have provided nine recommendations for current or future grantees on sustaining their projects:

1. Think like a business person;
2. Give a hard sell as to why people should participate in the FSP;
3. Talk to other grantees;
4. Utilize the 50/50 State match;
5. Build capacity with community based organizations;
6. Build a close relationship with State and local offices;
7. Involve as many people as possible in the activities;
8. Show positive results; and
9. Look for funding before your project ends.

It was discovered that many of the State outreach plans contain partnerships with former outreach grantees. Also discovered was that some grant projects encouraged State offices to continue conducting grant initiated outreach activities.

NOTE: The sustainability of grant projects is an ongoing interest. Once a final product is complete it will be posted on the Food Stamp Outreach website.

Update of USDA’s Listening Sessions on FSP Reauthorizing Proposals: The hand-out was organized by program/theme and the proposal suggested at the forums. Comments are from the New York City, Cheyenne, Baltimore and Miami forums only.

Presentation on DC Mayor’s Commission on Food and Nutrition: We were given a first hand look at the DC Mayor’s Commission on Food and Nutrition by Kimberly Perry, Vice-Chairperson of DC Hunger Solutions. The purpose of the Commission is to advise the Mayor and the Council of the District of Columbia on the policy, nature and extent of food and nutrition programs in the District of Columbia. For more information on the Mayor’s Commission, you can contact Kim Perry at KPerry@frac.org .

FRAC Report - Post Katrina: Dealing with a Disaster: Key needs: additional funding for disaster response, more disaster relief information in outreach activities, and more education on local and state officials on the correct disaster policies and procedures before another disaster strikes. FNS was hailed for providing over 60 waivers to States enabling them to get FSP benefits to disaster victims.

Food Stamp Coalition Committee Updates:

Promising Practices Committee: The Committee is created to collect and share promising practices, address the gap in information sharing and present promising practices on the FSOC website. The Committee has over 150 outreach based practices to be placed on the website. The practices range from community education and outstationing to utilizing sensitive approaches, retailer initiatives, and town hall/round table task force approaches.

A question was posed as to how we can make the website containing the practices more interactive. Once practices are ready to be loaded onto the FNS outreach site, FNS and the Promising Practice committee will work together to make the site as interactive as possible.

The FNS Program Development Division currently has 19 practices listed on the web under “Profiles of Promising Practices”. Those practices can be viewed at www.fns.usda.gov../government/program-improvement.htm.

Hunger Champions Committee: The 2005 Hunger Champion awardees were announced on October 4, 2005. The local office recognized as Hunger Champion Mentors were the Department of Human Services in Polk, County Iowa and Santa Cruz County Human Resource Agency in Santa Cruz, California were presented with plaques at the APHSA Program Director’s meeting also on October 4th in Greensboro, NC. There are four Hunger Champion Honorable Mentors; Charlottesville Dept. of Social Services, Charlottesville, VA; Dept. of Health & Human Service, Portland, ME; Richmond City Dept. of Social Services; Richmond, VA; West District PA Co Assistance Office; Philadelphia, PA. A list of all of the awardees is posted on the FNS web at www.fns.usda.gov/outreach/pdfs/hunger_champions.pdf .

The committee will be doing some refining of the nomination and review process and there will be a Hunger Champion recognition program in 2006. The committee will tentatively announce the 2006 cycle in February, accept nominations February 06 through June 06; conduct the review process July 06 – August 06, and announce the winners in October 06 again at the APHSA meeting.

Business Committee: The new co-chairperson Elizabeth Kielian provided the briefing on their current initiative “The Golden Grocer Awards”. This awards program is very similar to that of the Hunger Champion Awards but it will recognize the outstanding achievements and creative ideas used by retailers in the Food Stamp Program. The purpose is to show USDA’s appreciation the important role that the retailers play in the FSP. The nominees will need to demonstrate a commitment to carrying out activities in one or more of the following areas: Customer Service, Outreach, and Nutrition Education. For more information on “The Golden Grocer Awards” program, please contact Elizabeth Elizabeth.kielian@fns.usda.gov  or her co-chair Lisa Christie at lisa.christie@fns.usda.gov .

Open Discussion: The open discussion brought about the idea of identifying “proven practices”. What outreach activities are being conducted that have a track record of being successful? Some suggestions were to find proven “tried and true” ongoing practices; ones that may have been already evaluated perhaps use the State outreach plans to locate them.

General points and commitments:

• Share business case packet with Coalition members;
• Release the tool kits as soon as possible;
• Try to schedule next Coalition meeting around the tool kit train-the-trainer session;
• Coalition members too provide comments on the tool kit to Pat Seward (pat.seward@fns.usda.gov );
• Look into satellite radio and cable TV for PSA’s;
• FSP name change should happen quickly;
• Continue to review how to increase synergy of lessons learned with investments;
• Continue research of the sustainability of grant projects;
• Consider using terminology: “older adults” in place of seniors in outreach materials;
• Make the FSP strong in good times before a disaster hits;
• Build capacity of community based organizations;
• Make promising practices more interactive; and
• Identify “proven practices” starting with the collect promising practices.
   

Last modified: 04/30/2009