A Unique Angle To Outreach
USDA has been placing even greater emphasis of late on outreach efforts to customers in historically underserved communities. But employees in northeastern Illinois have launched an outreach initiative that they feel has a unique angle to it.

Employees at the USDA Service Center in Kankakee County, Ill., have initiated a special outreach project with small acreage and/or limited resource farmers in that county’s Pembroke Township which involves hands-on educational farming demonstrations.

What makes it unique, they feel, is in the number of local agencies and organizations that are participating in the hands-on demonstrations.

“From USDA, we have participation from the Farm Service Agency, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Rural Development, and the cooperative extension personnel from the University of Illinois,” noted Merrill Marxman, FSA county executive director for Kankakee County and co-coordinator of this particular outreach initiative.

“But we also have participation from a multitude of groups in the private sector locally, including a farm equipment company, representatives from farm advocacy groups, local soil and water conservation district personnel, community social service groups, and individual farmers,” added Bob Gotkowski, an NRCS district conservationist in Kankakee County and Marxman’s co-coordinator.

“I’m pretty sure that there’s not another rural outreach project out there, in USDA, that touches base with all these types of groups at the same time,” said Stephen Scates, FSA state executive director for Illinois, based in Springfield.

“We also think our effort is unique because we’re reaching out to the row crop producer, the truck farmer, and the livestock producer, all at the same time,” affirmed Marxman.

Gotkowski said that the workshops--which receive financial assistance from NRCS’s Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), a conservation education program--have covered such topics as how to write grant applications, speciality mushroom growing, financial recordkeeping, managing produce after harvest, weed control, drip irrigation, and free-range poultry. They are led by local USDA personnel, local farm business representatives, and/or local farmers themselves.

NRCS’s Bob Gotkowski (left) and FSA’s Merrill Marxman (center) help local Kankakee County organic farmer Basu to load seed on his planter so he can plant organic corn on a demonstration plot on his 50-acre farm.

“Our intent,” Marxman emphasized, “is to help our local small acreage and/or limited resource farmers sharpen their skills, broaden their horizons, increase their opportunities, employ conservation and environmentally sound farming practices, and become more self-sufficient.” He said that over 92 percent of the population of Pembroke Township is black and more than 50 percent of the township’s population lives at or below the poverty line, and the area’s sandy soil is generally of marginal quality for crop production.

Marxman and Gotkowski worked with Basu, a local organic farmer who uses one name to reflect his African heritage, who offered the use of his 50-acre farm to USDA to use as a demonstration plot to practice a number of the farming techniques being described in the hands-on demonstrations.

“For instance,” Gotkowski noted, “Basu was the first to use conservation methods to protect topsoil by employing wind breaks and contour buffer zones around his field--just as they had been discussed in an earlier outreach demonstration.”

“We’ve got more on-farm demonstrations planned for this summer,” Marxman observed. “And we’ll continue this outreach initiative which we think is welcomed as a helpful--and popular--tool.”

--Ron Hall

The Food Stamp/Nutrition Link
“Some people still think that food stamps simply help people avoid hunger. However, food stamps play a valuable role in promoting good nutrition and good health.”

Barbara Hallman was describing the renewed emphasis that the Department is placing on the link between food stamps and good nutrition. Hallman, chief of the State Administration Branch with the Food and Nutrition Service’s Food Stamp Program, is head of an FNS team working to promote good nutrition messages to food stamp participants.

“We’re working to reframe the Food Stamp Program--which FNS administers--toward nutrition,” added Alice Lockett, an FNS nutritionist and part of the team. “It just makes sense to emphasize this, as we reach out to low income Americans. And it’s part of our larger effort to reinforce the nutrition aspects of all our FNS nutrition assistance programs.”

“It’s a simple yet very powerful message, that 'Hunger does not discriminate’--or, in Spanish, that 'El hambre no discrimina’,” affirms FNS’s Dawn Addison (seated, 2nd from right). She and FNS colleagues Alice Lockett, Pat Seward, and Barbara Hallman (L to R) are reviewing one of the 24" x 33" posters, printed in both English and Spanish, which they recently created to promote good nutrition messages to participants in FNS’s Food Stamp Program. It’s part of an effort to put more emphasis on those messages. -- Photo by Pam Faith

“Our public education initiative lets eligible individuals and families know that the Food Stamp Program can help them make ends meet--and also improve their nutrition,” noted FNS program education coordinator Pat Seward.

She pointed out that FNS is now focusing on the three groups most under-represented among food stamp recipients: the working poor, the elderly, and legal immigrants.

Secretary Dan Glickman launched the Food Stamp Program’s education initiative to focus on those three groups with a formal kickoff in Baltimore last August. That campaign includes the use of posters, flyers, and brochures. All materials are printed in English and Spanish.

“We’ve incorporated compelling images of representatives of those three groups,” Seward affirmed. “The visuals and the messages help us publicize food stamps and also stress the value of using food stamps for good nutrition and good health.”

She said that the educational materials are available on FNS’s web site, on the USDA home page, at www.fns.usda.gov

FNS program analyst Dawn Addison noted that FNS has established a toll-free number, 1-800-221-5689, to help people learn more about food stamps and determine if they are eligible.

Lockett said that, to help publicize the nutritional message regarding food stamps, FNS printed the USDA Food Guide Pyramid on its promotional literature for the Food Stamp Program. “The Food Guide Pyramid,” she explained, “represents the government’s guide to a healthy diet.”

The Pyramid also appears on the back covers of the food stamp paper coupon books at the $2 level. A 'good nutrition’ message appears on the food stamp paper coupon books at all denomination levels.

If the posters and flyers surrounding FNS’s Pat Seward could talk to her, they would be uttering messages-–both in English and Spanish--that emphasize the value of using USDA food stamps to promote good nutrition. Those materials, which Seward helped to develop, are part of FNS’s recent public education initiative to let eligible persons know that FNS’s Food Stamp Program can help them make ends meet--and also improve their nutrition. --Photo by Pam Faith

Charlotte Duncan, an FNS food stamp program nutritionist with the agency’s Southeast Region in Atlanta, worked with regional public affairs specialist Steve Watson to develop a public service announcement which promoted the nutritional benefits of the food stamp program. “That PSA began running on radio stations in Georgia in December, and, to date, it’s still airing,” Duncan said.

Additional activities are underway across the country to educate the public about the nutritional benefits of the Food Stamp Program. For instance, Gilda Karu, acting food stamp program director for FNS’s Midwest Region in Chicago, worked with regional public affairs specialist Diana Pihos to 'spread the word’ by working with news media outlets which target racial or ethnic minorities.

“Translating good nutrition messages into the native languages of groups assures that they identify with those messages,” Karu said. “The local ethnic community can also serve as a powerful agent to assist in reaching people with minimal English language skills.”

“There are 17.6 million people who rely on food stamps,” pointed out Abigail Nichols, director of the Food Stamp Program’s Program Accountability Division. “So we want to remind them that healthy eating habits are the basis for good health.”

“And for the millions of people who are eligible--but are not participating--in the Food Stamp Program, we’re working hard to convey the message that the Food Stamp Program is a nutrition program that can help them have better diets, while providing the resources to afford them.”

--Ron Hall

Before Leaving For Abroad...

So, now that springtime is just around the corner--And That Flippin’ 'Corner’ Had Better Arrive Here Pretty Quick!--you may be planning that long-awaited spring vacation to 'de Islands, mon’ or to some other exotic port of call.

Have a great time--and be sure to send lots of postcards to your envious USDA friends and colleagues back at the office. But before you take off, you might want to check out a new web site created by specialists in the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. It’s designed to explain key government regulations pertaining to travel and offer tips for safe, sane overseas travel--with an emphasis on travel matters pertaining to agriculture.

According to Sue McAuley, an APHIS public affairs specialist who helped to develop the APHIS web site, that site--located on the USDA home page--provides 'one-stop-shopping’ for international travelers. “Our intent,” she advised, “was to offer a place on the Internet where someone could go to find out about which agricultural products--and also which pets, for that matter--they can and can’t bring into the U.S.”

That web site, which was completed and made accessible in December, is www.aphis.usda.gov/travel

Jim Smith, director of port operations with APHIS’s Plant Protection and Quarantine staff, noted that APHIS has plant protection and quarantine officers and technicians assigned to virtually all the ports of entry--including international airports and international seaports--around the United States. “Their job,” he explained, “is to prevent the introduction of harmful and invasive plant and animal pests and diseases, such as noxious weeds, insects, fungi, and parasites, into the U.S.”

“Those pests and diseases could threaten the abundance and variety of our U.S. food supply--as well as damage our natural resources.”

“Plus,” Smith added, “pests and diseases cost American taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars for higher priced food and fiber products, as well as increase the cost associated with control and eradication programs.”

APHIS’s plant protection and quarantine staffers inspect passenger baggage, mail, airline and ship stores or food supplies, vehicles, and cargo in the federal inspection services areas at U.S. ports of entry. Smith pointed out that in Hawaii and Puerto Rico, plus in some parts of Canada and some Caribbean countries, passengers may undergo a predeparture inspection before leaving for the U.S. mainland.

“Our inspectors,” he explained, “look for prohibited agricultural products and associated materials that could serve as pathways for introduction of invasive pests into this country.”

“Those products are forbidden entry into the U.S. or are allowed in here only under very specific conditions,” he added. “In fact, every year, our plant protection and quarantine port personnel intercept tons of agricultural contraband and associated material that could contain microscopic plant and animal pests and diseases.”

“With all that in mind,” Smith continued, “if international travelers were to access our web site before departing, they might be able to avoid a number of agriculturally-related travel problems before arriving in the U.S. mainland.”

The options on APHIS’s travel web site include “Traveling to the United States,” “Traveling with Your Pets,” “Safeguarding American Agriculture,” “Bringing Agricultural Products into the United States,” and “The Beagle Brigade.”

“For instance,” McAuley noted, “in the 'Traveling to the United States’ section, we point out that APHIS requires all travelers entering the U.S. from a foreign country to declare all fruits, vegetables, plants and plant products, meat and meat products, and animals, birds, and eggs.”

“Our web site offers details on how to make that declaration--and it also advises that failure to declare any such items may result in delays and fines of up to $1,000.”

McAuley said that the web site’s “Bringing Agricultural Products into the United States” section contains some guidance written in Spanish. It also includes a category titled “Why Are You Taking My...?”

“This entry,” she said, “is designed to explain why such items as fruits, veggies, and animals--as well as such items as hunting trophies, live snails, and even packing materials--are prohibited entry into this country, and what havoc such items have wreaked in the past when they did slip through.”

“So the next time you travel abroad, fly safe, eat hearty, and veg out--but look at our APHIS web site before departing, so you can eliminate at least one set of hassles when you return.”

--Anna Cherry

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