>> welcome to the board of supervisors meeting of neighborhood services and

safety committee . i am david campos chair of the committee and we have supervisor mar and commissioner yee will join us short she. mr. clerk do we have any announcements. >> yes please silent all cell phones and devices and speaker cards somebody submitted to the clerk. >> thank you. can you call the item on the agenda today? >> the item is review the tenderloin hunger task force and assessment for the tenderloin and the food security task force's annual report. >> thank you. this has been cosponsed by mar, kim, cohen, campos and yee and i know this is a very important issue, very

serious issue, and i know many people are in the audience here in city hall and thank you for coming to this meeting. i know many people are watching with i will turn it over to the hearing sponsor who has done tremendous work over the year in making sure that the issue of food security is a priority so with that supervisor mar. >> thank you chair campos. i want say it's a honor to be here with so many great people doing work everyday to make sure people are well fed nutritiously and that we do everything we can as a city to end and reduce hunger in our city of san francisco. i want to thank the chair for his incredible work as well. there are six cosponsors working with me and the

coalition of people to make the goal of san francisco hunger free by 2020. we just got done with a hearing on the vision zero process in san francisco to end traffic fatalities within 20 years and i think this is a urgency as well that is critical. i really didn't understand the issues of hunger and food security until i took the snap challenge last november and i know many people in this room from the project and leadership of open hand and others have gone through it year to year and you gave me a sense what it feels like to be hungry at night and what i would do if my child was in that situation as i am and mung ree and not able to concentrate at school

or work and from the report one in four people at risk for food insecurity and hungry at nights and in the days as well so the initial hearing that many in this room build up to gave us data and human stories from the testimony so the tenderloin task force is a changing landscape and food services in the tenderloin in san francisco and the food security task force lead by terry the co-chair of the food bank and many others, the security of food san francisco and those studies and the hearing in number have established the tremendous need in our city, and not just city wide but each district as well and provided with high priority

recommendations that we as a city can achieve with our strong actions and support, and at the end of the hearing, this hearing which is the second part from november's hearing or actually the end of last time we introduced a resolution pass by the board of supervisors that committed our entire city to ensure that all san franciscans are food secure by 2020 and we asked for solutions to improve food security from city departments and many are here today and our food security task force and many of the recommendations and findings will be presented today. i wanted to thank the five cosponsors, the six of us but also the food security task force and the tenderloin task force members here today. the community living campaign,

adult and aging services, children youth and family, episcopal services of san francisco, glide foundation, meals on wheels of san francisco, protect open hand, salvation army, public health rltion san francisco human service agency, san francisco and marin food banks. sf environment, st. anthonys, tenderloin development corporation dn -- and center for vulnerable populations and many others that are with us. also the executive directors and staff of community and public agencies providing low income san franciscans. many consumers and cats and senior disability folks here and educators and researchers and students studying hunger and food insecurity. i wanted to thank chris of the report and those

that assisted with the research as well. what we know of san francisco insecurity are a couple of butet points and i will highlight it and i know paula jones will highlight this as well. nutritious and this food is essential to health human and maltrusion affects development, insecurity, disease and institutionalization. supporting this local economy. this supports the local economy and ensures better outcomes. one in four san franciscans lack nutritious food and this is in every neighborhood in san francisco. what the resolution from december included and in

ending hunger in sf by 2020 it included targeted intervention for calfresh enrollments and funding and policies to ensure home bound seniors and disabled adults are served within 30 days and in an more than within 2-5 days so this is a critical one. funding should really be allocated so that we can insure people can -- home bound seniors and disabled adults can be served in 30 days and even quicker in an emergency. determine the additional cost of providing shelter meals that meet nutrition standards and look at vouchers for healthy food at retails and increase the services to seniors and youth

and food security among the single room occupancies, make data sets available. san francisco planning department to consider food security matters as part of the planning process for the general plan updates and major area plans. at today's hearing we will hear what from our solutions and also the cost for our city to end hungs ree by 2020. i wanted to begin with a presentation by the members of the food security task force and it will be followed by public comment. also ending hungry by 2020 will take the room and collective impact and collective effort to change the policies in the city and improve the programs to meet the emergency and chronic needs of one in four san francisco residents. we're going to hear from dr. paula jones from the department of public health, tiny worthhiem

from the human services agency, linda lau from adult and aging services. healthier tuft from children youth and families. the unified school district. usf general hospital. the marin food bank and from chairing our food security task force and i would like to introduce dr. paula jones. >> thank you supervisor mar. thank you supervisor mar for

sponsoring this hearing and for others sponsoring this hearing. i'm going to just bring up the powerpoint hopefully. >> maybe we can get some help. >> thank you derek. i would like to thank nick from supervisor mar's office for all of his help in planning for this presentation. thank you very much. i appreciate this derek. so today as supervisor mar said we're here as part two of the hearing on food security and improving food security in san francisco and ending hunger and today i'm going to first of all summarize quickly some of the key concepts from the last hearing that we overviewed with you and then move quickly into the high priority solutions going over first of all -- gina will discuss how to maximize

enrollment in calfresh. linda from aging and adult services will talk about how to improve food security for seniors and adults with disabilities. staff will talk talk about expanding meals with children and we will talk about a healthy supplemental and update on all of the other items in the resolution that won't be presented today but you have all received a memo giving a status on those projects, and then we will hear from terry oly with the opportunities and the task force recommendations, so as you remember food security exists when the ability to obtain and prepare nutritious food is uncertain or not possible and in san francisco we look at an income level for proxy for food security and we feel it's a conservative estimate that

anyone living below 200% of poverty could be at high risk for food security and that is one in four san franciscans and basically in every district and to give you an idea income level is for a family of three less than $37,000 a year. now again the framework we raul used to look at food security and in the assessment was using a modified version of the world health organization, pillars of food security and food resources, adequate resources to purchase healthy food and access to either a grocery store or program in the neighborhood that is culturally and convenient to you and consumption and that gets at the ability to prepare food and your knowledge of basic nutrition and cooking and

safety and we qant fired using data how many housing units don't have kitchen. and this also relates in poor health. we have incredible researchers and that are advancing knowledge around the impacts of food insecurity on health and the cost to the health care system. we know this is poor intake and behavior like binging or rationing, extreme anxiety and cope with other issues that you have and higher health care cost and for children food security and proper nutrition is critical for emotional development and intellectual development and not having enough food really results in poor health and more hospitalization. for pregnant mothers it's sick and smaller

babies and for seniors impact on physical health. adherence to medication is decreased when you're food insecure and mental issues exacerbated and all of the costs are passed on to the other city departments so from last hearing that we had we gave you high priority recommendations basically based on their leverage potential or their invocative potential and also they were really targeted towards the most needy pop populations -- this was the framework we used to prepare the information for the resolution, so as you can see the calfresh participation would be under resources and you will see it talked in the presentation where in the framework these solutions fit so with that i'm going to turn it over to tianna who will

talk about increasing calfresh participation. >> hi there. good afternoon. i am with the san francisco human services agency. i'm going to tell you eatle a little about calfresh and increasing participation here in san francisco. there are about 51,000 individuals of receiving calfresh in the city and we think that's about half of the people who are eligible so we think as many 49,000 more individuals might be poor enough and hungry enough to be eligible for a calfresh benefit but not currently on aid. calfresh offers money on a ebt card which is like a debit card you use to buy food. an individual typically gets $5 a day on the card and a family gets roughly $238 a month so this program is

targeting the poorest of the poor. you have to be under 130% of the poverty level which is about $26,000 for a family of three, and there are certain groups within that group that are excluded. you can't be on ssi. you can't have a drug felony or undocumented, so we're targeting the lowest income and the benefit -- thank you, the benefit is not that much. $5 a day doesn't get you very far but it's a good deal for san francisco in general for the san francisco economy. san francisco currently contributes from our general fund only 3.6 million dollars. with that we get 97 million from the feds and that's for the actual benefit itself and 20 million from the feds and the state combined to assist in administration, so it's a total of $121 million to

provide calfresh for 51,000 people but we're only paying 3.6 million dollars here in san francisco. so not only are we bringing the money into the city and the 21 at ad min, and the benefit itself, but these dollars and a study showing that $5 of the calfresh benefit actually generates $9 of activity. if we were to increase it by 25% we would

generate as much as $43 million additional in economic activity. i don't you had to be convinced that it's worth to get more people on aid in san francisco -- >> can you explain that $5 of calfresh benefit leads to $9 of economic activity. can you give an example of how that works? >> i know it's count intuitive. this study found there is a multiplier for any calfresh dollar going into a community and as far as i understand, and i'm definitely not an expert on this i think the idea is i have my $5 a day. they're employing people and they're spending money and so forth. i would be happy to get you the study afterwards but i don't know the details, but this targets the poorest of the poor. we think

as many $49 million -- 49 million people might be eligible so it makes sense in terms of feeding our folks and as a financial investment to work on increasing enrollment for calfresh so why only half of the people entitled to calfresh in san francisco receiving aid? we did focus groups in four neighborhoods and three languages with perspective applicants that were recruited and the message was consistent. the paperwork and applying is arduous and it's true. the state is requiring a 30 page application. there are many report requirements and so forth. many don't realize they're eligible for citizen born children of undocumented parents are eligible. seniors not on ssi are actually eligible

for calfresh and these are examples -- i think a lot of misconceptions are out there and that's what we heard. there is a fear with immigration and if i receive it my family will be deported or have trouble brings other to the u.s. the cultural and logistical examples for example -- in chinatown we heard "it feels like going to the other side of the world and the stockton tunnel" and we heard stigma and pull the boot straps up and other cultural issues and not wanting to be dependent prevented people coming to our doors so what can we do about this? we have new state legislation that has reduced half of the reporting requirements so we make that makes a difference once people on aid and we want to embark on

a extensive outreach campaign which i will tell you a little bit about that hopefully will address some of the issues so i am referencing enrollment application assistance when i say "outreach." it's about getting more people in the door but we're challenged by the fact people are leaving the back door that are eligible for calfresh and they're having trouble adhering to the extensive paperwork requirements and it's people who have been on aid. they're discontinued and within three months they reapply and are often found eligible. we think as many 25% of our cases that are discontinued within three months reapply, and that's difficult for the client obviously and a lot of work for the agency, so we're trying to do what we can to minimize that. one of the things we learned that a lot of the paperwork and forms are complicated and difficult to understand and people don't realize they're

going to be discontinued so with the help with code of america we launched a new texting initiative and we're sending text to people who are about to be discontinued telling them that. if you have questions call our call center and we are finding 50% of the people that we're texting are calling us and trying to remedy their situation. we've only sent 168 texts so far and that's because we need the client's consent so it's a slow roll out of getting that consent. so we're going to be doing and we're seeking funds to do more outreach in the community but we're hoping to do individually targeted outreach, so it's not just go out into a neighborhood and have events but actually make phone calls or contact by mail individuals that we think would be likely to be eligible, a select crew, and we identified 9,000 people

currently on medi-cal and eligible for calfresh but not receiving it. they're under the income threshold and we know there are 11,000 students receiving school fees eligible for not receiving calfresh so one of the issues in the budget with the supplemental in the next fiscal year budget is funding to hire a vendor who can dedicate itself to this individually target the outreach. without going into detail we need staff both in terms of cbo's and eligibility workers who process the applications in our office. we want to take them out to the neighborhoods. take them to designated activities whether it's a fair or getting parents at a pta meeting or sro and event and get residents to come, whatever it is and get the eligibility workers with the

appropriate language to go take applications. we don't have anyone doing that right now in terms of our own staff and we are seeking two teams of workers in the budget which i will tell you a little bit about. so we actually have found funds in this fiscal year to hire one team but we need position authority to hire them and that's something we're seeking that we don't have. in terms of the next year we are trying to get funds approved. it will be $142,000 of general fund to do that and authority for them. two units could do a lot. we haven't had outreach staff in almost 10 years. we would also like to be able to equip more cbo's. we only have one or two with staff doing application assistance. we would like to grow that and asking for

$55,000 more in general funds to have larger contracts in that department, so really we would like your financial support with the budget request, your support with the authority and in the big picture say if you have opportunities to leverage your media and give attention to the issues, particularly we hope to focus on the misconceptions, undocumented parents with documented kids and we hope to pull a article on that so if you have ways to help getting attention that is great or host an outreach event may is the calfresh awareness month and we're organizing a lot of activities so please follow up with me or paula and we would be thrilled. thank you. >> commissioner yee. >> i am just curious in regards

an outreach team versus cbos doing outreach. >> yeah. >> if you look at the cost -- have you done a cost analysis which one would be more effective? >> so when you look at this it looks like the cbos are much more effective but it's fewer people -- i mean this budget request -- >> that's why i asked. >> okay. so i don't have one easily handy but what happens with cbos they can go out and help with the recruitment and do the initial application but they can't do the eligibility interview and follow the process through but it helps but it's really not enough for us to go do interviews in the community, determine eligibility right then and there and give benefits on the spot which is what we're striving to do. >> thanks. usually the case of

one complementing the other. i am just curious in terms of reaching certain groups. i think you said it in your presentation, but at the sites with food pantries do you try to enroll them at those sites? >> at pant rees? >> yes. >> the san francisco marin food bank is the largest partner doing outreach and they have an extensive pantry network they work with and work on snap ed which is nutrition education for people on calfresh and often they provide application assistance to participants in the workshops. they work with the pantries, peopling coming in and they have success with different venues. we have people from the food bank who can give you detail on what their experience has been. >> i want to say it's wonderful

to go to the various food pantries with the staff and in the richmond district to see how the food bank and community based groups work together. i did have a question about the immigration status as a potential barrier. i know with the school district when free and reduced lunch numbers we looked at them to know how many were not accessing that a big out reach effort to parents were launched to make sure the applications were turned in and i am seeing if there are 50,000 people that maybe eligible for snap and you're targeting key groupings of people it looks like that's a really wise use of the resources and the additional staff as well, but i'm just wondering what the school district and also hsa or the other departments could do to

protect people's immigration status or address the fear they have releasing information to the federal g do you have thoughts to overcome the immigration concerns especially in an era even in the obama administration there have been deportations so the fear is real. >> right. i hope there will be a profile in the paper of a family receiving aid and the parents aren't documented and the children are and addressing in a palpable way what the anxieties are. maybe with a spanish speaking immigrant, somebody cantonese speaking and the anxieties are different between the groups. we're in a tricky situation because according to the lawyers i have spoke with we can't make the promise we