Utahns Against Hunger

Programs: Hunger advocacy see schedule o recent snap and child nutrition activities snap: snap outreach - senior outreach senior specific brochures distributed to recipients (5,000) of senior meal boxes through the utah food bank, and meals on wheels on a quarterly basis. - the snap outreach manager added five additional outreach sites between october 1, 2015 and september 30, 2016. These sites were chosen after considering a number of factors including: affiliation with at-risk populations, poverty rate in county where site is located, snap usage in county where site is located, other service available where site is located, and their ability to serve targeted populations. - between october 1, 2015 and september 30, 2016, utah's outreach sites helped 368 households apply online for snap. Of the 368 households, 157 (42. 7%) had earned income, (31. 8%) contained a person with disabilities and 60(16. 3%) contained an elderly household member. - in 2016, uah staff conducted 7 snap trainings for community partners, which included information about the eligibility process and how to navigate the online application, and the how agencies can help their clients meet the requirements for both abawd participation and employment and training. Snap policy abawd options - in 2016 fns clarified that states can exempt chronically homeless individuals from the time limit because they are unfit for work. No separate or additional medical determination that needs to be made. Utahns against hunger worked with the utah department of workforce services to craft a policy that would be as seamless and the least burdensome as possible. The final requires applicant who are homeless to affirm that homelessness is a barrier to employment, no verification is required the customers statement is sufficient to qualify for the exemption. - uah worked and continues to work with dws to relax the ongoing eligibility for elderly and disabled households. Recertification is a time when these households lose eligibility. Uah has asked dws to seek a waiver that would allow households with unearned income to be continuously eligible for benefits without recertifying unless their income goes over 130% of poverty or until they pass away. Other: - uah successfully worked to pass legislation to change the way in which tanf participants are drug tested. Under hb 172 drug testing will no longer be required by each applicant, instead it will require applicants to talk to an lcsw to gauge risk before being required to submit to a drug test as a condition of program participation, instead of a condition of eligibility. Child nutrition: summer food service program - uah mailed/delivered 132 kids eat free summer food posters to partners around the state and emailed a pdf version of the poster to 87 community partners. - uah staff fielded 380 phone calls from parents asking for more information about summer food (an increase of approximately 100 calls from summer 2015), and assisted 220 individuals locate summer food sites in their community. - collected more than 10,000 books for our literacy project, distributed approx. 8,000 books at 3 summer food sites, which encouraged families to increase their summer reading activities. Medicaid/school meals data match - - utah was recently approved to use medicaid data to qualify students for free school meals. Uah met with dws and the utah state board of education to identify opportunities for additional outreach and education to schools with high medicaid use. Partners for breakfast in the classroom: - in 2016 uah was selected for a partners for breakfast in the classroom- uah led efforts in utah to begin working together with other state partners to fulfill the requirements of the grant. - uah, in partnership with the utah breakfast expansion team, released starting the day right: best practices for increasing school breakfast participation in utah schools. Federal: wrach: - in 2016 utahns against hunger staff attended 2 wrach meetings in phoenix and reno. Congressional delegation: - uah staff meet 18 times with congressional staff regarding federal nutrition programs; including child nutrition reauthorization. - held a post-election advocacy training with 20 community members. This training was attended by rep. Chris stewart's chief of staff, brian steed. - convened a meeting post-election of advocates who work on the federal level, this will become a state-wide coalition to work on federal budget and program issues under a new administration and congress. Local/community level: - uah participated as a member of the steering committee for the healthy kearns, a placed based initiative. This project plans to address issues from affordable housing, increased income and increased access to healthy food. Uah serves on the steering committee as well as the healthy people committee- this project is active and uah will continue participating, representing the interests of food security and the expansion of federal nutrition programs. - uah provided 5,000 in funding to support this effort to increase access to fruits & vegetables in low-income communities in partnership with salt lake city, green urban lunchbox and utah community action for their mobile markets.

double up food bucks see schedule o farmers markets - in 2016, utahns against hunger (uah) provided funding to 21 farmers markets for the double up food bucks (dufb) program. In the farmers market season of 2016 more than 37,000 in dufb incentives were redeemed, a 27% increase of the 2015 market season and there were more than 4,500 individual transactions an increase of 32%.