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Latinos Twice as Likely to be Food Insecure

No Estas Solo/a Campaign

$2 million in scholarships available to Latino students

Latinos and blacks in California more likely to die of H1N1 than whites

Gaps emerging in US census outreach to immigrants

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Latinos Twice as Likely to be Food Insecure

This document is taken from the President and CEO of NCLR, Janet Murguia’s presentation to the Subcommittee on Department Operations, Oversight, Nutrition, and Forestry on The Effect of Food Insecurity in the Latino Community.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Hispanic household food insecurity rate (17.9%) is twice as high as the rate for non-Hispanic White households (8.2%), the most food secure.6

In addition, Latino households with children have even higher rates of food insecurity; 21.6% of these households experience food insecurity compared to 11.8% of similar White households. Because of the dearth of resources in many Latino households, their ability to make food purchases is restricted.  While the typical non-Hispanic White U.S. household spends $45 per person each week for food, Hispanic households spend 25% less, just $33 weekly per person.7

A survey in the Journal of Nutrition found that some of the consequences of food insecurity include hunger pangs, fatigue, lack of concentration at school, low work capacity, stress, disrupted household dynamics, and distorted means of food acquisition and management. 9

Respondents to the survey reported depression, increased need for health care, and decreased participation in social activities. 10 Families will go to great lengths to keep their children from going hungry, which is why it is so alarming that many Latino children do not have adequate resources for a nutritious diet. Food insecure children are twice as likely to be in fair or poor health.11

Further, a survey of parents of low-income, young Latino children who are food insecure found that they are two times more likely to note developmental concerns, including risks of developmental delays or disabilities, than households with children who have adequate resources for food.12 Even small cognitive changes can have lasting impacts on a child s education. Even when a child experiences even mild levels of food insecurity, data suggest that school performance and social skills are comprised.13

The coping mechanisms associated within adequate food resources such as overeating when food is available, compromising the quality of food in order to consume higher quantities, and even skipping meals, which causes metabolic shifts can result in a higher propensity for weight gain. While food insecurity persists in the Latino community, there is also a rising trend of obesity. One recent study found that among Latino preschoolers children in the critical stages of growth nearly one-quarter (24.4%) were identified as obese.15

Food insecurity also has a broader impact on society. The increased risk for and severity of sickness and disease that results from food insecurity can create a demand for more physician time, extensive levels of treatment, and greater rates of hospitalization all of which require more money and resources. The health care costs associated with increased illness due to food insecurity not only fall on individuals who suffer from these effects, but ultimately add strain to the entire health care system.

There is also mounting evidence that the overweight and obesity trends in the United States are due, in part, to high levels of food insecurity.14

The educational benefits of participating in government assistance programs include contributing to families achieving a higher level of nutrition. Program participants are more likely than low income nonparticipants to lack confidence about their knowledge of good dietary practices and the quality of their diet. However, they benefit from nutrition education, which promotes consumption of healthier foods, a balanced diet, and physical activity. The results can be seen in the healthier choices they make in grocery stores.17 Further, the education of adult participants is likely to have lasting impact on the younger family members, encouraging children to make healthy choices in and outside of the household. Although it is difficult to establish a direct causal relationship between participation and health outcomes because of the added effects of the program on reducing poverty and improving socioeconomic status, data show that participants are able to make more deliberate choices that maximize the nutrition content of their food. In fact, despite rising obesity rates throughout the country for the population overall, women who
participated in the Food Stamp Program from 1999 to 2002 were less likely to be overweight and
were able to keep their weight relatively steady compared to nonparticipants.18

Document sampled from the House Committee on Agriculture website.

For more information on Food and Nutrition Assistance Programs visit: www.fns.usda.gov

No Estas Solo/a Campaign

Designed specifically for the US Department of Justice-Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), Self Reliance

Foundation (SRF) launched a pilot Spanish-language human trafficking public awareness campaign featuring a major media and grassroots outreach campaigns in Washington, DC, Virginia and Maryland to build awareness and to assist the local human trafficking programs and services in increasing reported cases of human trafficking. This targeted, cross-platform 4 week communications strategy, which launched in December of 2009, was designed to reach victims and engage local Hispanic communities in identifying and rescuing victims of human trafficking.

Working together with members of the Washington DC Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force, the DC based-AYUDA, Inc., Polaris Project, and Hispanic Communications Network, Self Reliance Foundation delivered a high-impact Spanish-language educational multimedia campaign in the DC metropolitan area that delivered critical information on human trafficking and promoted critical information and key services to the local Spanish-speaking population. The integrated media campaign included 28 bus and 16 bus shelter posters that were located in predominately Hispanic neighborhoods, resulting in more than 5 million media impressions. An innovative call-in media campaign included phone card messaging to 550,000 Spanish-speaking consumers. Radio spots ran on 4 local Spanish stations resulting in 785,000 media impressions, and a live call-in radio program featured bilingual experts who provided detailed facts, information and resources to listeners. The campaign included television spots that ran during popular programs on local Univision and Telemundo stations resulting in more than 750,000 impressions.

The campaign offered a toll free hotline that received more than 3,000 calls during the campaign period. The calls received were primarily from individuals who were potential victims of a wide variety of potential trafficking issues including labor exploitation, unfair labor, domestic violence, sexual exploitation. Self Reliance Foundation’s Acceso Hispano Helpline (Linea de AYUDA) provided quality bilingual information and referral to our nonprofit partners AYUDA and the National Human Trafficking Resource Center and other local service providers.

To reinforce the media campaign’s message, SRF collaborated with the Hispanic-serving community and faith based partners to disseminate the campaign’s public education materials, and develop interpersonal grassroots outreach efforts to engage potential “Good Samaritan” members of the greater Hispanic community in the campaign. Our strategy of “in the air” and “on the ground” marketing efforts were designed to meet our goals of increasing the number of community members who are understand how to identify human trafficking victims, are aware of the purpose and services of the local service providers, and ultimately are willing to work with the these groups to identify, rescue, and assist human trafficking.

$2 million in scholarships available to Latino students

The Orange County Register reported that more than $2 million in college scholarships will be awarded this year to Latino students through the Washington, D.C.-based Hispanic College Fund, program officials have announced.

The scholarships range from $500 to $10,000 and are based on merit and financial need.

Last year, five Orange County students won a Hispanic College Fund scholarship, out of 592 recipients total.

More than 500 students nationally are expected to receive a scholarship this year.

“Hispanics are the fastest-growing population in America, and we owe it to them – and our country – to make sure that young Latinos pursue higher education and productive careers that will strengthen our economy,” the scholarship fund said in a statement.

To qualify, undergraduate and graduate students must maintain a 3.0 out of 4.0 GPA; be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident residing in the United States or Puerto Rico; be enrolled full-time at an accredited university for the 2010-2011 school year; and demonstrate financial needs.

Santa Ana native Uriel Guadarrama, who received a $4,000 scholarship, attends USC, where he’s majoring in international business and Chinese.

“The HCF scholarship has been a blessing to myself and to my family,” Guadarrama said in a statement. “The financial support that I have received has made it easier for me to focus on my academic and career goals.”

The scholarships are supported by a number of private donors, including Denny’s, Ford Motor Company Fund, Google, Kaiser Permanente, the Manuel Candamo Memorial Scholarship, Verizon, PepsiCo, and J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott Foundation.

To apply, go to http://scholarships.hispanicfund.org.

Source: www.ocregister.com

Latinos and blacks in California more likely to die of H1N1 than whites

According to Los Angeles Times, California Latinos have been nearly twice as likely as whites to die of H1N1 flu since the pandemic began last spring, according to statewide figures released this morning by the California Department of Public Health.

Over the same months, blacks in the state have been 50% more likely to die of H1N1 flu than whites, according to the report.

“Not everybody has been impacted equally” by H1N1, said state epidemiologist Dr. Gilberto Chavez during a briefing this morning. Chavez said statistics have shown “very important racial disparities” in H1N1 mortality and hospitalization rates.

Chavez said blacks were three times as likely as whites to be hospitalized with H1N1 flu, and Latinos twice as likely. He said Native Americans, who make up most of the “other” category in state H1N1 data, are also more likely to be hospitalized and die of H1N1 flu than whites.

There are several reasons for the higher mortality and hospitalization rates among those minorities, Chavez said. Blacks and Latinos have high rates of chronic health conditions, such as diabetes and obesity, that studies by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate put them at greater risk of catching the flu, Chavez said. They also tend to have less access to healthcare and wait longer to seek help, he said, which reduces the chances for successful treatment with antiviral medication.

“For cultural reasons, they may be waiting too long to seek care,” Chavez said. “This gives us an idea of who we need to target for outreach and immunizations.”

Gaps emerging in US census outreach to immigrants

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the government is fumbling some efforts to assure immigrants that U.S. census data won’t be used against them, including gaps in outreach and foreign language guides that refer to the decennial count as an investigation.

With the launch of the head count weeks away, the Census Bureau’s outreach has been falling short in at least a dozen major cities, such as Chicago, Dallas, New York, San Jose, Calif., and Seattle, according to a report released Monday by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund. Many of their states are on the cusp of gaining or losing U.S. House seats and face a redrawing of legislative boundaries that may tilt the balance of political power.

The report generally praises the Census Bureau for improved efforts since 2000. But noting the large ramifications of even a small undercount, AALDEF is critical of the Obama administration. The legal group cited the government’s refusal to give fuller assurances that census data would be kept confidential and to suspend large-scale immigration raids during the count , as was done in the 2000 census. AALDEF said it wasn’t ruling out legal action to get stronger guarantees.

“We are running the risk of a real undercount,” said Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. “The next few weeks will be critical.”

The Census Bureau is printing instruction guides and sample forms in dozens of different languages for use in community help centers, since one in five residents speak a language other than English at home. But there have been errors due to poor translations, including material for Vietnamese speakers that describe the census as a “government investigation.”

Other gaps included a lack of specialists for the Bangladeshi community in Detroit; the nation’s third largest Korean-American population in Chicago; and the south Asian and Cambodian groups in Philadelphia and Rhode Island. In Virginia, when groups cited a need for census specialists for their Korean and Vietnamese communities, the agency responded by hiring someone who spoke Chinese.

Responding, the Census Bureau has emphasized it is devoting a large amount of its $133 million ad campaign to racial and ethnic audiences, including television spots in 28 different languages. It also worked with more than 150,000 business and community groups, hoping to build trust in its message that filling out the 10-question census form is safe and easy to complete.

To encourage participation, Census Director Robert Groves on Monday visited neighborhoods along the U.S.-Mexico border near Laredo, Texas. As many as half the residents were missed there in 2000 because they had little knowledge of English and feared being turned over to immigration agents.

Other trouble spots:

Latino groups are worried the Census Bureau’s ad campaign may neglect communities with higher numbers of immigrants in poverty. Census-takers also may be less adept in navigating some areas because of an agency requirement that employees be U.S. citizens.

In 2000, the Census Bureau noted for the first time an overcount of 1.3 million people, due mostly to duplicate counts of more affluent whites with multiple residences. About 4.5 million people were ultimately missed, primarily lower-income minorities.

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Source: www.philly.com