The House and Senate are expected to take up their respective FY2016 Budget Resolutions next week as the Budget Committees wrap up their bills today.

Here are five things you can do to weigh in with your Members:

1) Share new SNAP data tool with your Members of Congress.

Data on SNAP participation rates by congressional district is now available via an interactive map from USDA. We strongly encourage you to reach out to your Senators and House Members immediately and use this data as part of your arsenal to protect SNAP from budget cuts. The time for us to act is now. As our anti-hunger hero, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), says, “This is real. This is not a false alarm.”

How to Use this Data When Talking to Your Members of Congress:

• Highlight Number of SNAP Households: Urge your members to carefully consider how cuts to SNAP would be a disaster for thousands (use the number of households on the data sheet to make your point) of the most vulnerable citizens in his/her own backyard, including children, seniors, people with disabilities and others who are just trying to make ends meet.
• Point out the poverty level. Explain how cuts to SNAP would only make poverty and hunger in the district much worse, and would have a negative ripple effect for business and the local economy.
• Highlight the Work Status numbers to illustrate that the majority of SNAP households had at least one employed person over the past year, which shows that these households are doing their best to make ends meet. SNAP plays a critical role in filling in the gaps — while also ensuring individuals get the nutrition they need – so people may be lifted out of poverty, rather than falling deeper into it.

2) Tuesday, March 24: Participate in Keep SNAP Strong Call-In Day.
Call your Representatives (pdf) and Senators (pdf) and tell them to:

1. protect SNAP;
2. speak out on the floor in support of SNAP; and
3. use the data above to vote on behalf of constituents who rely on SNAP and other programs that help lift people out of poverty.

3) Sign and share this petition telling Congress to keep SNAP strong.

We are aiming for 15,000 signatures for next week’s floor debates. We are one-third of the way there!
Sample tweet: Join me and @fractweets in telling Congress to keep SNAP strong. Tell a friend http://bit.ly/1FUaioE

4) Share stories, stories, and more stories about how diverse populations have benefitted from SNAP.
And, be sure to participate in Rep. McGovern’s #FillUpYourPlate campaign and share what SNAP means to you.

5) Check out FRAC’s SNAP resources.

• Jim Weill’s statement on the need to protect SNAP
• Why Congress Must Protect and Strengthen SNAP (pdf)

What Happens Next:
This week, the House and Senate Budget Committees have been debating their budget resolutions.

House:

The House budget resolution was approved Thursday, March 19, along a party line vote of 22-13.
The bill will be on the floor for a vote by the full House during the week of March 23. During this time, Members will vote on amendments to the Bill. The House budget converts SNAP to a block grant, and assumes cuts of $125 billion over 10 years.

Senate:

The Senate Budget Committee will debate its budget resolution on Thursday, March 19, and consider amendments in Committee. Consideration by the full Senate will occur next week at the same time as the House floor action. Votes are expected in both chambers mid-week.

While the Senate budget proposal does not include “reconciliation instructions” for the Agriculture Committee, the proposal recommends massive potential cuts that are broad and ambiguous, but could result in more than $1 trillion in cuts to social safety net and welfare programs, including SNAP, school lunch and other child nutrition programs, Supplemental Security Income for the elderly and disabled poor, the Earned Income Tax Credit, among other programs.

About Us: The Food Research and Action Center (www.frac.org) is the leading national organization working for more effective public and private policies to eradicate domestic hunger and undernutrition. Visit our Web site (www.frac.org) to learn more.

Spring Is Must Coming…..

Garden meetings are starting to sprout
The January thaw is clearly over….12 inches of snow on the ground and a forecast of -6 degrees tonight!!

But the gardeners are clearly starting to emerge from under their clutter of seed catalogues……
Extending the Season for Vegetable Gardening
Join us to learn some tips and techniques of cold weather gardening to make the fullest use of your space and time. The ideas, concepts and tools are intended to help the home or market gardener start vegetable growing earlier in the spring, extend the harvest later into the fall, and even overwinter some plants for a real early start.

Extending the Season for Vegetable Gardening
10am – Noon
Saturday, Feb 21
Parish Hall
St Timothy’s Episcopal Church
24th and Ashworth Road
West Des Moines, Iowa
Google Map

Our meeting will consist of a panel discussion followed by your questions. Panelists:
•    Dan Goldman is a local horticulturist who provides technical consulting and training on both a paid and volunteer basis.  He has formal degrees     in vegetable production and horticulture, with research experience in several states.
•    Tim Diebel is the owner of Taproot Gardens, a 10 acre small farm with a small greenhouse. Tim recently built a two-row low tunnel in the garden     where he plans to try some early seeding of selected varieties.
•    Dr. Jo Anna Hebberger is a retired horticulturist who recently added a small greenhouse to her property in which to start native plants.
•    Tim Goldman is one of the co-ordinators at the Faith & Garden Garden. Tim will talk about the challenges of erecting a large high tunnel.
•    We anticipate one or two other panelists joining us

There is no charge or registration form to complete to attend this meeting. But if you would like to attend, please reply to this message by Friday February 19, That way we will have enough chairs, coffee, tea, etc for everyone.

In your reply, please tell me how many will be attending with you and add any questions you might have about extending the growing season, row tunnels, high tunnels, etc. I will pass your questions along to the panelists.

Eat Greater Des Monies and FoodCorps Des Moines Present
2nd Annual It’s Almost Spring Meeting
Saturday, February 28, 9:00 am – 12:00 pm
Hiatt Middle School, 1214 East 15th Street
Google Map

Join Eat Greater Des Monies and FoodCorps Des Moines for a morning of networking, resource sharing, and garden planning for the 2015 growing season.

Members of school, community, and faith-based gardens are invited to come to connect with one another and with local professionals to share tools and tips. If you are part of a garden group with an organization, we encourage you to bring several of your cohorts so you can leave with a solid plan for this spring!

We’ll enjoy breakfast in the morning and a potluck lunch towards the end of the meeting. We invite everyone to bring their favorite dish to share… brownie points for using local foods, and kale points for a recipe using garden produce!

Tentative Agenda includes:
9:00-9:30 Welcome and breakfast networking
9:30-11:30 Breakout Sessions and Open Space

Workshop topics include:

• Food Safety in the Garden- Mary Krisco, ISU Extension
• Composting & Soil Amendments- Bob with Blooming Prairie Nursery
• Butterfly & Hummingbird Gardens- Blooming Prairie Nursery
• Planning Your Garden- Marlie Wilson, IA FoodCorps Fellow
• Seed Saving- Greg Van Den Berghe, Urban Ambassadors
• Volunteer Management- Tim Goldman, Faith and Grace Garden
• Extending The Growing Season- Dan Goldman, Faith and Grace Garden

An open space session will follow the scheduled breakouts, providing time for small group discussion of additional topics.

11:30-12:00 Local foods potluck and resources from FoodCorps
12:00 Tour of Hiatt Garden

We hope you can join us – RSVP today

Questions? Contact us at chelsea.krist@foodcorps.org or amy.joens@foodcorps.org.

Come out and enjoy this wonderful fall weather and help feed hungry people in our community.

We have turnips, peppers, sweet potatoes and lettuce to harvest. we are now planting garlic which will winter over to be ready for harvest in the spring. We are putting away tomato cages and tools. In short, there is lots to do.

Did I forget to mention broccoli? We have cabbage and brussel sprouts ready to pick, too.

The 6th Hope for the Hungry Conference will take place on November 8 at Plymouth Congregational Church from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.  The day will be facilitated by local author Debra Landwehr Engle and will include sessions on Hunger and Nutrition; Food and Land Rescue; and Bringing It All Together.  Lunch will be provided by the Connection Café – the free lunch program in downtown Des Moines.  More information is available at hopeforthehungry.blogspot.com.

The Faith & Grace Garden is in great need of a few truckloads or horse manure to be applied to the garden before fall plowing. If you have some or know of someone who does, please reply to this message. And many thanks!!

If you are thinning your flower beds and have extra fall bulbs, please sort them by color, bag them up, and drop them by the garden.

Garden produce harvested through October 21:
Units in Lbs     Total
Peas    115
Bush Beans    826
Broccolli    178
Cabbage    200
Caulifower    29
Cucumbers    45
Endmeme    147
Lettuce    412
Strawberries    20
Okra    35
Onions    554
Tomatoes    1,969
Purslane    25
Peppers    216
Cantalope    178
Water melon    286
Zucchini    157
Winter Squash    88
Potatoes    1,218
Radishes    150
Turnips    55
Sweet Potatoes    163
Eggplant    127
Total Harvested    7,193

Where does the food go?
DMARC    2,060
Eddie  Davis    90
Trinity Methodist    2,389
Lutheran Social Services    170
WDM Human Services    2,408
Eyerly Ball    76
Total Donated    7,193

Tim Goldman-745-9842 – timothyjgoldman@gmail.com

Many thanks to Todd and True Value Hardware…..

Mark Marshall is ready to start the Mantis roto-tiller donated to the garden by Todd and WDM Tru-Value Hardware as Margaret Young, Todd, Tim Goldman and Anthony Young look on.

Garden Produce through June 12:

Lettuce 170 pounds
Radishes 120 pounds

Where has garden was donated through June 12:

Trinity Methodist Church
WDM Human Services
Eddie Davis Comm. Center
Family Violence Center

Look at all the blueberries coming on!
We now have 88 bushes growing in the garden.

Garden Wish List:

Garden Gloves
Hoes
Garden Hand Trowels
Garden Spades

Lots is happening in the Faith & Grace Garden: About 300 tomato plants, 150 peppers plants 500 sweet potatoes plus lots of broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, asparagus, beans, lettuce, potatoes, spinach and radishes are now in the ground growing vigorously.

We also planted 44 more blueberry bushes on the west side of the garden.

Probably the best thing that has happened to the garden is all the leaf mulch we have spread. The last of the leaves that we collected last fall (thank you again!) will be all spread over the garden in the next week or two. The mulch holds in moisture and provides weed control which will be so important now as the weather warms up.

Students loading mulch into wheelbarrows to be spread in the garden

We are saying good-bye this week to lots of Dowling Catholic High School students as school ends. Their enthusiasm and energy will be missed for a couple of weeks until summer schools starts.

Last week Lauren Blanchard of Fox News was in the garden and here’s that story:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/05/21/gardens-rooted-in-faith-feed-hungry/

Garden Production through May 30:

Lettuce                                           90 pounds
Radishes                               80 pounds

Garden Donations through may 30t:

Trinity Methodist Church              80 pounds
WDM Human Services                80 pounds
Eddie Davis Comm. Center       10 pounds

Link of Interest:

If you have not seen the Iowa Hunger Directory, you should check it out.

The Iowa Hunger Directory is an initiative to profile all organizations fighting hunger from Iowa, serving as a comprehensive platform for those seeking to engage and collaborate in this area. The Directory includes a description of each organization along with contact information and a brief explanation of how Iowans can engage with them.

The Iowa Hunger Directory is made available through the World Food Prize Foundation:
www.IowaHungerDirectory.org