Baking & Snack - March 2009 - 15

NEWSFRONT
Stimulus act bolsters nation's
food assistance programs

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, passed by Congress
and signed into law by President Obama
last month, made major additional funding available to the nation's key food
assistance programs.
Additionally, businesses investing in
new plants or equipment may benefit
from an extension of a pre-stimulus
measure relating to "bonus depreciation" of new plants built and equipment
purchased in 2009.
The stimulus act strengthened the
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
Program (SNAP), formerly the food stamp
program, by increasing monthly benefits
for participants by 13.6% beginning April
1. The additional funding for SNAP was
estimated at about $20 billion.
The fiscal year 2009 maximum SNAP
benefit for a reference family of four (an
adult male, an adult female, one child
between 6 and 8 years old and one child
between 9 and 11 years old) was set at
$588 per month. The stimulus act raises
the SNAP benefits for the reference
family of four by $80 a month, to $668.
The Food and Nutrition Service of the
US Department of Agriculture (USDA) in
advising its regional directors explained,
"These adjustments are an entitlement

that go into effect April 1."
The act also lifts restrictions on the
amount of time individuals may receive
SNAP benefits through fiscal year 2010.
Thereafter, in determining futures benefits beginning with fiscal year 2011, states
shall disregard any period during which
an individual received SNAP benefits
prior to Oct. 1, 2010.
The Women, Infants and Children program (WIC) will receive $500 million in
additional funding for fiscal 2009, with
$400 million to support an anticipated
increase in caseloads and $100 million for
management information systems. WIC
participants (There were about 8.7 million beneficiaries in 2008.) receive checks
or vouchers to purchase specific healthful foods to supplement their diets.
Nearly three-quarters of individuals
receiving WIC benefits are children or
infants from low-income families with
the remainder being pregnant or postpartum women who meet the eligibility
requirements. WIC participation may increase to 9.1 million individuals in 2009.
The increase in funding for WIC has
particular import for the baking industry,
said Nicholas A. Pyle of the Independent
Bakers Association. Mr. Pyle said effective Oct. 1, the new WIC food package for

most program participants will include
whole-grain bread.
The stimulus act authorizes $100 million in grants awarded on a competitive
basis to enable schools to upgrade or
purchase new food service equipment.
Priority will be given to requests from
schools in which not less than 50% of
students are eligible for free or reducedprice meals under the Richard B. Russell
National School Lunch Act.
Senior nutrition programs will receive
$100 million in additional funding for
formula grants to states for nutrition
services to the elderly, including meals
on wheels and congregate meals.
The act provides an additional $150
million to purchase commodities for distribution by the nation's food banks.
In a provision related to business facility construction, upgrade or expansion,
the stimulus act extended for a year a
measure passed by Congress last year
that allows a business to more quickly
recover the cost of new capital expenditures. That measure departed from
the normal depreciation schedule and
allowed businesses to immediately write
off 50% of the cost of the depreciable
expenses for new plants and equipment.
- Jay Sjerven, Milling & Baking News

ABA workshop addresses commodity market issues
A workshop sponsored by the American
Bakers Association (ABA) Commodity &
Agricultural Policy Committee (CAPC)
provided members of US Congress a
glimpse into what a day in the life of a
commercial trader is like.
The workshop, "Futures Market Workshop," was held Feb. 12 at the Longworth
House Office Building in Washington, DC,
and featured presentations from several
ABA members who focused on key commodity market issues such as problems
with convergence, traditional trading tools,
impact of volatility on commercial hedgers
and categorization of market participants.
"Decreasing volatility within the comBAKING & SNACK / March 2009

ᮡ ABA members who presented on behalf of the baking industry included (pictured l to r): David Brown, vice-president of
procurement at Sara Lee Corp. and CAPC chairman; Mark Worthey, vice-president of procurement at Flowers Foods; James
Schick, director of procurement at Ralcorp Holdings, Inc.; and Hayden Wands, director of procurement at Sara Lee Corp.
modity markets is a key issue for the baking industry," said Robb MacKie, president and c.e.o. of ABA. "Traditional tools
bakers once used within the futures market

no longer work today due to volatility.
Holding this workshop will better educate
members of Congress to aid them in
addressing this complex problem."

Baking & Snack - March 2009

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