Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) 101

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CSFP 101

The Fair Trade Favorites giveaway has ended. Congrats to Twitter follower @berryman_beth!

Here’s another 101 quicky introduction to one of the American government’s food programs – the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, or CSFP. If you’re starting to get confused about all these programs and acronyms, never fear. I’ll be doing a roundup once they each have their own post. In the meantime, if you’re wondering about any of the other programs I’ve covered, check out the links!

SNAP (Food Stamps)
Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)
National School Lunch Program (NSLP)
UN World Food Programme (International)
Meals on Wheels (Non-profit, not government program, although they do distribute on behalf of programs that feed the elderly)
Head Start 101
The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP)

The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR – a future post), and the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) are all literal commodity distribution programs – they hand out food stuffs rather than money. TEFAP is available to a wide segment of the population in emergency situations. FDPIR is (obviously) specific to Native American Indian reservations. CSFP is specific to senior citizens, and it provides them with a monthly package of nutritionally-dense foods to improve the quality of their diets.

The USDA buys the food for the CSFP program at wholesale prices and distributes it to seniors 60 and older who are at or below 130% of the federal poverty income guidelines. The program is only available in 46 states, the District of Colombia, and on two Indian reservations. It will cost the U.S Federal government over $211 million in 2015, and provides food to over 573,000 people per month. The program is funded by the federal government (both the food cost and the administration expenses) but is administered by state and local government agencies as well as nonprofit organizations such as Meals on Wheels.

CSFP is an investment in our elderly population, because good nutrition helps seniors stay healthier and remain independent longer. This reduces the burden on Medicare/Medicaid and increases quality of life. Seniors are especially vulnerable to malnutrition because many of them live on a fixed income while grocery prices continue to rise. They don’t have a lot of opportunity to make more money, and physical limitations and apartment living impedes their ability to grow fresh fruits and vegetables.

If you or a loved one are 60 years old or older and might benefit from CSFP,click HERE to find out if your state participates in the program, if you qualify for benefits, and how to apply.

My Friend Ed: Compassion International

Charity Review, Service Projects,

compassion

Do you remember those terrible commercials where Sally Struthers would come on the screen and cry about children in need of sponsors? Nothing makes me change the channel faster than a well-paid celebrity guilting me into donating. Don’t get me wrong, I know the need is real, and it breaks my heart. And I love the idea of sponsorship – the letters, the pictures, making an investment that impacts one life instead of being spread thin across an organization. But I’ve always wondered if those things were legitimate or if everyone gets the same little form letter and picture.

I don’t know which organization Sally Struthers was crying for, but I know legitimate sponsorship exists – it’s called Compassion International. I first learned about Compassion when Christian rock band Audio Adrenaline talked about it at concerts back in the 90s. Then my parents, sister, and a couple friends started sponsoring kids, and they all had great things to say about it. So about eighteen months ago, when my church held a Compassion sponsorship drive, I sent my son to the table to pick out a child.

His name is Edouard. He’s six, and he lives in a farming community in Burkina Faso. He likes to play soccer, and he has the most beautiful brown eyes. Every month, Compassion International charges me about $40, and they use that money to provide Edouard with education, including school fees and uniforms, health care, and an introduction to Jesus. He doesn’t write yet, but his teachers at the Compassion center read our letters to him and help him write to us. We’ve gotten pictures of him several times, and it’s fun to see him grow. He has drawn us pictures and asked questions about our lives (he was rather concerned last winter when his teachers told him about how cold it gets in Minnesota). We got a letter from his pastor once, and recently we got a picture of him with his parents. I am confident that he is a real child who really benefits from my sponsorship.

Charity Navigator backs me up on this. Compassion International is a four-star rated organization. Their income has been expanding each year, and their output has followed suit. 84% of money donated to Compassion goes to programming, and the other 16% goes to advertising and administration costs. That’s pretty good. The CEO makes under $200,000/year, which in the world of CEOs is pretty much minimum wage…

One of my favorite things about Compassion is that they organize missions trips every year, and if you go along to your child’s country, they will arrange for you to meet them and their families, and to see their Compassion center. They will also help you arrange a meeting if you visit your child’s country on your own.

I would love to meet Edouard someday, and who knows, maybe I will. But even if we don’t meet on this side of heaven I will enjoy exchanging letters and pictures with him and watching him grow up healthy and educated because of our little gift and the work of Compassion International.

If you’re interested in sponsoring a child or supporting the work of Compassion, visit their website at www.compassion.com.

Do you have a Compassion child? Tell us about him or her in the comments!

Food Shelf Friday’s Fair Trade Favorites

inspiration, Product Review,

Fair Trade Favorites

Fair Trade: An international trade arrangement in which the producers in developing nations are paid a fair price for their products, thus reducing poverty, unethical treatment of workers, and environmental degradation.

If I had unlimited resources, I would buy everything organic and fair trade. I hate the reality that Central American banana workers are being paid a pittance to work long days up to their elbows in pesticide residue processing my bananas, that most cocoa growers have never tasted chocolate, and that my $100 sneakers cost only four cents in labor and were probably made by a child.

Our artificially cheap consumer goods come with a high price.

But day-to-day, right here in my own home, It’s hard to take the price hike that comes with moving from non-organic to organic produce and from bargain shopping to fair trade. We have spent our whole lives with these artificially low prices, and sometimes even they’re too much for us. So how do we move from being part of the problem to part of the solution?

There are two ways. One of them will cost you more money, and one will save you money (And if you do both, it will reduce the burden of the expensive way). Are you ready?

  1. Buy fair trade and organic products as much as possible.
  2. Choose to buy less, and reduce, reuse, recycle.

That’s really simplistic, I know. But it’s a start. When you’re shopping, ask yourself if you really need another purse. Buy fair trade gifts. Shop second hand as a means of reducing the burden on both underpaid labor and our landfills.

This is a super brief intro to the topic of fair trade, but I think most people are familiar, and what I really want to do today is introduce you to some of my fair trade favorites.
4815821f5eed207df868e6943cbb75df BR040EN-tangled-beads-bracelet-z 1. Noonday Collection:
Noonday sells jewelry and accessories made by fair trade artisans around the world. Their products are beautiful, and each piece has a story. My personal favorites are my Callypso Earrings, made from sustainably harvested water buffalo horn, and the Tangled Beads Bracelet, which came from Ethiopia. Many of the pieces made by Noonday’s Ethiopian artisans are made from old artillery. The first time I held my bracelet in my hand, that reality hit me like a flood and I got choked up thinking about how something sad was being remade into something beautiful and providing economic opportunities at the same time. Noonday averages around $35 for a pair of earrings or a bracelet, and $50-ish for necklaces. Prices vary of course depending on the materials.

chocolate2. Endangered Species Chocolate:
I’m a bit of a chocolate snob. I worked in a department store for a few years, right near the candy counter. When they got samples or if there were broken pieces in a shipment, we were the grateful recipients of some serious goodies. And once I got used to Godiva, I lost my appetite for Hershey’s. Knowing that chocolate is one of the products known for unethical production, I have really cut back my consumption. When I do indulge, my favorite is Endangered Species Chocolate’s 72% cocoa natural dark chocolate. It’s smooth and flavorful, and available at my local grocery store.

s0608892_sc7 3. Caribou Blend coffee:
When I started learning about the importance of fair trade, I went looking for two things: chocolate and coffee. I knew that those were areas notorious for unethical production. We were buying our favorite Caribou Blend at Costco. We have a Keurig, so I’m already overpaying for coffee, and I was afraid to ask! But I was pleasantly surprised to find that many Keurig K-cups were available in fair trade varieties, and excited to discover that my go-to coffee was already Rainforest Alliance certified (Rainforest Alliance means that both the workers and the environment are cared for during production).

fair-trade-flags 4. Fair Trade Friday box from Mercy House, Kenya:
Subscription boxes are all the rage right now. For a fixed monthly fee you get a box of goodies to try – food, clothing, beauty, or accessories from different vendors. A few months ago, I joined up with the Fair Trade Friday subscription box from Mercy House. Every month I pay $31.99, and I get a package of goodies made by ethically treated artisans. My most recent box contained a cute purse and a pair of turquoise earrings. When I joined I assumed that I would be giving a lot of the items as gifts (at least that’s how I justified it to myself…) but I have wanted to keep most of the items for my own use!

So those are a few of my fair trade favorites! What fair trade companies or items do you love? Share in the comments! And if anyone knows of a company that makes sneakers (actual workout/running shoes, not casual tied shoes), please include that. That’s one area where I haven’t found an option I like.

And, by the way, the opinions in this post are entirely mine. None of the companies listed here have asked me to review their products or offered me anything to talk about their products (although, if they want to send me some freebies, I wouldn’t object! Lol)

Make sure you find your way to the Food Shelf Friday Facebook or Twitter page this week for a giveaway of a nice assortment of items from Mercy House’s Fair Trade Friday.

Documentary Film Review: The Starfish Throwers

Documentary Film Review, Film Review, inspiration

starfish throwers

I have been excitedly waiting for a chance to share my review of this film! It just finally became available on video, so I thought I would post about it now that you can track it down and see it for yourselves!

Once upon a time, a man stepped out onto the beach and noticed a little girl on the sand throwing starfish into the water. He walked up to her and asked, “What are you doing?”

“Throwing the starfish back into the sea,” she replied.

The man shook his head at the girl’s naivete, “Every day the tide washes in thousands of starfish to dry out and die on the beach. You throw a few back today and tomorrow there will be more. You cannot possibly make a difference.”

As she picked up another starfish and threw it into the ocean, the girl replied, “I made a difference for that one.”

The Starfish Throwers is a documentary film that chronicles the lives of three people who, like the girl in the old story, have decided that even if they cannot do it all, they’re going to do something. The subjects are: a teenage girl named Katie who gardens to feed the needy, a retired teacher named Allan who makes and delivers thousands of sandwiches to the hungry in Minneapolis every night, and a five-star chef in India, Narayanan, who walks away from his successful career to care for the “untouchables” in his culture’s caste system. I liked the subjects they chose because the film doesn’t just focus on the third world, but looks at people working for change in the American South and North, as well as India. The subjects vary in age, gender, and financial background. None of them were professionals in a non-profit, and their organizations don’t have big budgets or famous supporters. They are simply three average people who are each driven from within to do what they can for the hungry and poor. And they face challenges. Katie’s family has hit some financial snags and she keeps getting discouraging emails from people who think she’s too young and should let grownups handle the needy while she has a more typical time being a teenager. Allan is forced to take some time off to be treated for prostate cancer. Narayanan has the whole caste system against him, and his own family struggles to understand why he would “throw away” his career as a professional chef to care for the destitute.

So obviously you guys know that this topic is my passion as well. A few months ago the trailer for this movie was going around on Facebook. I loved the trailer and it led me to the film’s website. There I saw a listing of places where you could see the film, and one of them was here in Minneapolis. I talked my family into going out that night for dinner and a documentary, and it ended up being one of the best family outings we’ve done. The film was played at Casket Cinema, a little art studio in an old brick building full of free-spirited artists (just so you know, the name isn’t as creepy as it sounds. The old building is the Casket Arts building, named for whatever business built it way back when. There are no caskets involved.) Just being there awakened my old passion to create. The artist who shows the films had filled his studio with mismatched furniture and projected the film on a big white wall. He provided free popcorn and took up a collection to pay for the film.

The movie definitely lived up to my expectations. I was touched and inspired. At the end of the film, the host introduced the director, Jesse Roesler, who happens to be from the Minneapolis area, and to Allan, one of the film’s subjects. It was terrific to be able to ask questions and hear more from the people behind the documentary. Casket Cinema collected non-perishable food at the gathering, and the filmmakers opted not to charge for that particular showing so that the collection could go to Mark’s nonprofit, Minneapolis Recreation Development. The film sparked deep conversations in my family, and J asked if we could go back to see more documentaries at the studio/theater.

I highly recommend this film. It is available to purchase on dvd, though I do not believe it is available on Amazon Prime or Netflix (Yet – I hope it will be eventually). I’m attaching the trailer, and some links so you can visit the film’s website and Facebook page, as well as the websites of the three non-profits chronicled in the film.

The Starfish Throwers (website for the movie) – www.thestarfishthrowers.com (The Starfish Throwers – Facebook)

Katie’s Krops – www.katieskrops.com
Minneapolis Recreation Development – www.363days.org
Akshaya Trust – www.akshayatrust.org

Casket Cinema – www.casketcinema.com (Casket Cinema – Facebook)

6 Ways to Save Time AND Money – with guest blogger Heidi@Home

Saving money, Time savers,

6 Ways to Save Time and Money - Heidi

Please join me in welcoming a guest blogger today! Her name is Heidi, and we’re living almost parallel lives in very different climates (she’s sweating down in AZ, but we won’t talk about that when it’s 30 below here in MN…)! When we chat, we always seem to find ourselves saying, “Me too!”

Heidi writes about family, faith, and all things domestic on her blog, Heidi @ Home. I love reading what she has to say and have learned so much from her about things like fair trade. And, her family does their own Food Shelf Friday style menu by eating rice and beans for dinner every Monday night. So when I crashed at the end of my first week back at grad school AND an increased work schedule, Heidi saved me by sharing this awesome, practical post. Thanks Heidi!

6 Ways to Save Time AND Money

I’m not Martha Stewart and I don’t claim to be anything other than a Domestic Diva Wannabe, but last night I was having a conversation with a friend on Facebook about ways to save time and money, when it comes to making dinner.
My friend works full time and has a 2 year old.  By the time she gets home from work she has about 90 minutes to make dinner, eat dinner and then get her daughter in bed. My position in life is a bit different because I stay at home with my two kids, but I still don’t want to spend any more time doing prep work than I have to since I have two “helpers” underfoot and nobody to keep them busy while I’m cooking. Also, I’m just lazy.

During our brainstorming session here are a few of the things we discussed:

Do prep work once

*Does your recipe call for only half of an onion? Cut up the entire onion, stick the unused half in the freezer and save for later.

*Are you marinating meat to put on the grill tonight? Make a double batch of marinade.  Use one batch tonight and fill a Ziploc with the other half, stick the meat in it and freeze.  When you go to defrost the meat later it’ll already be marinated and ready to cook. This is one of my favorite marinades and I almost always have it in my freezer.

Freeze fruits and veggies when they’re on sale

*This goes along with only doing prep work once.  My kids LOVE to snack on red bell peppers.  This year I have been able to buy them in season for 3 for $1. Out of season the same peppers cost at least $1.50/each.  When they’re in season, and on sale, I buy about 10-15 peppers and then slice them.  I spread the sliced peppers onto a cookie sheet and freeze.  Once solid I transfer the peppers into a Ziploc bag.  Later I can reach in and grab my kids a couple to snack on or throw them into a recipe like fajitas or soup.

*I use this same method with berries.  I wash the berries and spread them on a cookie sheet to freeze. I slice strawberries before freezing, but leave blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries whole.  Once they’re frozen I put them in a Ziploc. Later I use the frozen berries to make smoothies for my kids or to add to hot oatmeal.

Cook in bulk

*I cook 5-6 chicken breasts at a time. We’ll eat two for dinner that night and then I dice the others and freeze them in single serve portions so I can add the meat later to soups, chilis, enchiladas, salads, pasta, etc. In addition to the time savings of having pre-cooked chicken on hand, I’m saving money because I’m able to buy when meat is on sale and I’m only using the electricity to heat my oven once. I am also saving time because I only have to do dishes once.

*As one of the original members of the Funky Freezer Girls I am a huge fan of freezer cooking.  You don’t have to do Once A Month Cooking or be part of an exchange group in order to make your life easier using your freezer.  If you make your own pasta sauce, make a double batch and freeze half by putting it in a Ziploc bag and laying it flat in your freezer until frozen.  If you make enchiladas, lasagna, or another casserole that goes in an 9×13 pan place the recipe in 2 8×8 pans. Stick one pan in the oven for dinner that night and the other in the freezer for later. The night before you’re going to have your freezer meal, put it in the fridge to defrost and pop it in the oven after work.
This is, in no way a comprehensive list, but I pray it’ll help you get the creative juices flowing in ways that you can save yourself time, stress and money. Just because you don’t have time to cook doesn’t mean you have to eat out or eat processed food!