Latest news with #FoodShare
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Joining national efforts, Wisconsin Republicans support ‘junk food' bans
Rep. Dan Knodl (R-Germantown) looks at the root beer float made by Rep. Ryan Clancy (D-Milwaukee) during the Assembly Public Benefit Reform Committee. Clancy made it as he was arguing the definitions in the bill were arbitrary and unclear. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner) Republican lawmakers are seeking to implement a pair of bills that would prevent low-income Wisconsinites from buying 'junk' food and ban certain ingredients in school meals, taking inspiration from U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy's 'Make America Healthy Again' agenda. Rep. Clint Moses (R-Menomonie), the lead author on both of the bills, has said he wants to help ensure the food children and others are eating is healthy. AB 180 would bar participants in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — or, as it's known in Wisconsin, FoodShare — from purchasing soda and candy with their benefits. Under the bill, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) would need to submit a waiver to the federal government for approval to make the change to the program. Kennedy wants a similar policy implemented nationwide, and so far several states, including Arkansas and Indiana, have asked the Trump administration for a waiver that would remove soda and candy from SNAP eligibility. Moses said at a hearing on the proposal earlier this month that by allowing people to purchase those items with FoodShare, Wisconsin is 'facilitating consumption of harmful, additive-filled foods' and that 'instead, we should be supporting healthy, sustainable food choices for [people's] overall health of individuals, the health of our society as a whole.' Moses argued the restrictions wouldn't be a novel idea, since people already can't use their SNAP benefits to purchase alcohol, pet food and other items. SNAP currently also can't be used for hot foods (such as a meal at a restaurant), supplements and vitamins and nonfood items. He also compared it to the Women, Infants & Children (WIC) program, the assistance program that provides free healthy foods, breastfeeding support, nutrition education and referrals to other services to income-eligible pregnant and postpartum women, breastfeeding moms and children under 5. 'Most government money has strings attached to what that money can be used for,' Moses told the Assembly Public Benefits Reform Committee. 'Adding this provision is no different than the special supplemental nutrition program for the WIC program… WIC basically includes a list of good items or essentials that people can buy that does not include any of this other stuff.' UW-Madison food insecurity expert Judith Bartfeld says, however, that the programs are fundamentally different. WIC serves as a narrowly targeted nutrition program that provides specific foods for a defined group of nutritionally at-risk people. The SNAP program, meanwhile, is designed to serve as a 'supplement to existing income' and 'to fill the gap between a USDA estimate of what is needed to meet a household's food needs and the amount a given household is assumed to be able to spend on food out of current income,' Bartfeld wrote in an email to the Examiner. She said periodic state and federal attempts to restrict SNAP have been unsuccessful in the past, in part because of a 'reluctance to upset the balance for a program that is a backbone of the safety net.' According to DHS, the SNAP program helps nearly 700,000 Wisconsinites put food on their tables annually. A USDA study from 2016, the most recent year, found that 'there were no major differences in the expenditure patterns of SNAP and non-SNAP households, no matter how the data were categorized,' and that similar to other families, SNAP recipients spend about 20 cents of every dollar on sweetened drinks, desserts, salty snacks, candy and sugar. 'It's intended to provide extra resources to support buying food at the store — and its effectiveness in reducing food insecurity is well documented,' Bartfeld said. 'There have long been concerns that restricting how benefits can be used would make things more complicated for retailers, more stigmatizing for participants, unlikely to translate into meaningful health improvements, and would risk reducing participation and jeopardizing the well-documented benefits of SNAP on food security.' In addition, she said, 'identifying specific foods that are healthy or unhealthy is much more complicated in practice than it sounds.' Bartfeld said SNAP combats food insecurity because it provides additional resources to low income people and has become 'less stigmatizing and easier to use.' Restrictions, she said, could end up having a negative effect. 'If putting restrictions on SNAP ends up making it stigmatizing for participants, more complicated for retailers or opens the door to an increasingly constrained program, there are real concerns it may become less effective as an anti-hunger program — which of course would have negative health outcomes; this is why the anti-hunger community has long opposed bans such as this, and considered food bans as a line better not crossed,' Bartfeld said. FoodShare cuts would cost Wisconsin $314 million a year, state health department reports Bartfeld said it's also unclear if a ban would improve health. Despite attempts to model health effects of a SNAP soda ban, she said, there is no empirical evidence proposed bans would meaningfully change diets or improve health outcomes. 'In contrast, there is real-world evidence that incentivizing healthy food purchases can modestly impact food choices,' Bartfeld said. 'And SNAP has a nutrition education program (SNAP-Ed, which goes by FoodWise in Wisconsin), that appears to increase healthy eating — even as, ironically, that funding is currently at risk.' The GOP-bill that passed the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday included 'some of the largest cuts in the program's history' the SNAP program, according to CNBC. The bill would expand work requirements to qualify for benefits, likely leading to reduced participation, cut federal funding and leave it up to states to fill in the gaps and it would entirely eliminate funding for the education program. According to Wisconsin DHS, the cuts would cost the state approximately $314 million every year and would put 90,000 people at risk of losing benefits. The bill now goes to the Senate. Bartfeld said this is one of the challenges with some of the recent 'health-focused' SNAP proposals across the county as the other proposed cuts and restrictions to the program are unrelated or 'often run counter to health.' 'That interest in benefit cuts is happening in tandem with increasing attention to food choices does mean that food programs are at the center of the action, and it can make it challenging to differentiate proposals that are really about health from those that are more fundamentally about regulating the low income [population] and paring back assistance,' Bartfeld said. Moses during his testimony described the proposal as part of a 'national movement basically to really make our food supply healthier.' He said it shouldn't be partisan and noted former First Lady Michelle Obama's campaign to improve school meals. 'I expect to receive full support from not just the Legislature but the governor as well,' Moses said. Democrats on the committee didn't appear on board with the legislation. Rep. Ryan Clancy (D-Milwaukee) expressed concerns about the legislation focusing on low-income Wisconsinites and including unclear, arbitrary definitions. Clancy asked Moses about low-income families using benefits to celebrate Halloween and special occasions. Moses replied that 'if their kids really want candy, they can go into the neighbor's house then they could trick or treat, and they'd probably get all the candy they want, but the benefit would be that the taxpayers wouldn't be paying for it.' 'People that are on SNAP… they are taxpayers as well,' Clancy said, 'so I don't want to categorize folks who are experiencing, hopefully, temporary poverty from being taxpayers. They're chipping in for, you know, health care benefits and everything else.' He added, 'We're, I think, just targeting low-income people with this.' Clancy demonstrated his point by pulling out a bottle of Snickers-flavored iced coffee, a seltzer water and, at one point, a cup of ice cream and a bottle of root beer. He poured the root beer into the ice cream, saying the milk in it would make it acceptable to purchase under the definitions in the bill. The definition for 'soft drink' is 'a beverage that contains less than 0.5 percent of alcohol and that contains natural or artificial sweeteners' and 'does not include a beverage that contains milk or milk products; soy, rice, or similar milk substitutes; or more than 50 percent vegetable or fruit juice by volume.' 'A root beer float is totally fine right? By taking this sugary thing, adding it to another sugary thing, this is now legal for somebody to use their FoodShare benefits,' Clancy said. Committee Chair Rep. Dan Knodl (R-Germantown) told Clancy to stop, saying that the hearing 'isn't a cooking show.' Another bill — AB 226 — would target 'ultraprocessed' foods in schools by banning certain ingredients from meals, 'Ultraprocessed foods' were one of the top concerns recently outlined by Kennedy and a report the Trump administration commissioned, and Kennedy has expressed interest in banning other additives as well. Among the additives the bill identifies are brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, propylparaben, azodicarbonamide and red dye No. 3, which can be found in candy, fruit juices, cookies and other products. Moses told lawmakers on the Assembly Education Committee that additives named in the bill are either in the process of being banned by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or have been subject of peer-reviewed studies that found links to adverse side effects if consumed in significant enough amounts. For example, Red No. 3 and brominated vegetable oil are both no longer approved for use in food by the FDA. 'Our school lunches should not be filled with substances that negatively affect our students' health, even including their mental health,' Moses told the committee. Moses said the bill would 'bypass the need for federal action while not forcing schools to risk loss of federal funds to pay for existing school lunch programs.' He also noted that other states, including California, are also working to ban the ingredients. The bill would go into effect on July 1, 2027. An earlier version of the bill only included free- and reduced-price meals, but it was amended after concerns from the Department of Public Instruction and the School Nutrition Association of Wisconsin. Both now support the bill. The Department of Public Instruction said the legislation aligns with positive trends in nutrition. 'With an increased focus on farm-to-school programs and the use of local food, school nutrition programs are helping to improve the nutritional value of meals,' Kim Vercauteren, policy initiatives advisor for the DPI Division for Finance and Management, said in testimony. 'Many schools and school nutrition vendors are already committed to providing meals that utilize unprocessed foods, which can be enjoyed without harmful, nutritionally useless additives. These programs not only encourage the use of healthy food, but educate students on healthy lifelong choices.' Members of the Healthy School Meals For All Coalition told the Wisconsin Examiner that they support the proposal, but also they hope it isn't the only thing that lawmakers do to help improve school meals. The coalition of school food stakeholders has been advocating for free school meals for all Wisconsin students and for improving the quality of food served to students. 'We appreciate the fact that they're looking out for the well-being of our students and see the work that we do,' School Nutrition Association of Wisconsin President Kaitlin Tauriainen said in an interview. 'We're hoping that some of these steps will allow us to build more of a bridge so we can understand each other's point of view — whether that means taking steps to grant more access to food for kids or jumping right into the full meals for all free meals for all, which is something you know we certainly want.' Tauriainen said that school nutrition professionals are focused on feeding students the healthiest food possible, although the ingredients listed in the bill already aren't common in school meals. 'I would say the majority of our manufacturers that we've talked to don't have those additives in their food,' Tauriainen, who is the child nutrition coordinator for the Ashwaubenon School District, said. 'So it's really kind of a non-issue.' Allison Pfaff Harris, farm to school director with REAP Food Group, a Madison-based nonprofit, said she appreciates that the bill is trying to address the school food 'supply side.' She said, however, that school nutrition programs need support in moving away from other processed ingredients not mentioned in the bill. Operating on limited budgets, school nutrition programs 'turn to those quicker ingredients, which are going to be more processed foods,' Pfaff Harris said, adding that 'not all processed foods have those food additive ingredients.' Pfaff Harris suggested pairing Moses' bill with other improvements. She said the 'big ask' for the coalition is no-cost school meals, but smaller steps would also be significant. Guaranteeing that the breakfast reimbursement for schools is 15 cents per meal could improve the supply chain and nutrition programs, she said. DPI prorates payments because it lacks funding to pay the full cost; Pfaff Harris said the current reimbursement rate is about 7 cents. 'This is one piece of the puzzle, but it's a small piece in the giant puzzle,' Pfaff Harris said. Pfaff Harris said the discussion about healthy meals is also challenging because there have been recent federal decisions cutting resources that help schools serve fresh ingredients. Wisconsin was set to receive $11 million in funding for 'Local Food for Schools' programs, but it was cut by the Trump administration. 'You're having these bills introduced, which is a good thing, but … from my perspective, if we really wanted to make a difference in school nutrition programs and help them to be able to do more scratch cooking and semi-scratch and fresh ingredients, it's getting that funding back,' Pfaff Harris said. Rep. Francesca Hong (D-Madison) asked Moses about free school meals and other proposals, saying it could improve his bill. Moses said her suggestions seemed like a completely different bill altogether. 'It doesn't matter to me if it's reduced or people are paying for it. I want [the meals] to be safe …' Moses said. 'Essentially, it's not the intent of this bill.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
ABC News
23-04-2025
- General
- ABC News
How Geelong's green waste is feeding its most vulnerable residents
For many Victorians, the fate of the grass clippings and garden waste they pop into their green bins is a mystery once it leaves the kerbside. About 750,000 tonnes of organic material is picked up every year within 57 of 79 council areas across the state. For some Geelong residents, including Hamdieh Mohmmadi, it ends up on their plates — but in a slightly different form. Ms Mohmmadi has been shopping at one of Geelong Food Share's social supermarkets for eight years. Hamdieh Mohmmadi shops at Geelong Food Share's social market monthly to save money. ( ABC News: Natasha Schapova ) The products here can be purchased with food vouchers, and together with Food Share's distribution service, feed about 20,000 people each week. Over the past year, some of the fruits and vegetables stocked at Geelong Food Share have been sourced locally from the Geelong Botanic Gardens, where produce is grown with the help of compost produced from green waste from across the municipality. "I make soup with them and Iranian food, Iranian cooking," Ms Mohmmadi said. "It helps me save money, I do shopping here and we save money for electric bills … and the kids." How does it work? Each year, the City of Greater Geelong collects 30,000 tonnes of green waste, transforming it into 18,000 tonnes of compost as part of its circular economy. It's one of the only Victorian councils with its own processing facilities, meaning compost can be made locally instead of being transferred to commercial providers. A waste truck transports the organic material to a transfer facility in Moolap, where it is hand picked to remove contaminants. City of Greater Geelong's head of waste operations Andrew Lucas says Geelong is one of the only municipalities that processes its green waste locally. ( ABC News: Natasha Schapova ) "People use the green bin for things other than green waste," City of Greater Geelong Council's waste operations coordinator Andrew Lucas said. Treated timber, soil or building material are often found in the green bins which, in Geelong, should only have twigs and small branches, plants, leaves and grass clippings. Rules for disposal can differ between councils but in Geelong, Mr Lucas said about 2 per cent of the green waste collected was contaminated. "We really want to encourage people to put the cleanest material in, it gives us the best chance to actually make a quality product at the end of the process," Mr Lucas said. Once the material is hand-picked it is placed into a giant shredder, known as a grinder, with the product then loaded on to a truck to a site in Anakie. The material is placed into windrows where a machine then turns and irrigates it. ( ABC News: Natasha Schapova ) There it's positioned into large windrows about 100 metres long where a machine irrigates and turns each row about five times. Turning the material mixes and aerates it to maintain a high temperature to accelerate decomposition and nutrient production. The product is then placed into a pile to mature before it's put through a large screen that breaks it down to a specific size, depending on the market, before it's bagged. About 2,000 tonnes is given to Geelong Botanic Gardens each year, with the remainder used within council programs or sold to local agricultural markets. Fuelling produce Liam Kelly is a horticulturist at the Geelong Botanic Gardens where he manages a garden, growing about 25 different types of vegetables and 12 fruit trees. The garden harvests about four crates of produce every couple of weeks, which is donated to Geelong Food Share. Liam Kelly is in charge of the garden which produces a variety of fruits and vegetables for Geelong Food Share. ( ABC News: Natasha Schapova ) "Not everyone can afford to go down and even buy some groceries let alone have some healthy food in their house as opposed to getting your takeaway every night," Mr Kelly said. For the past year, the Geelong Botanic Gardens has been experimenting with the council's compost, which Mr Kelly said had helped to increase the garden's yield. "All the organic matter that's been added into the soil has improved the structure of the soil," Mr Kelly said. Horticulturist Liam Kelly says the compost has increased the yield of the vegetable and fruit plants in the gardens. ( ABC News: Natasha Schapova ) "It's helped retain moisture in the garden and I haven't had to use any fertiliser in the garden whatsoever." Over the summer season the garden sprouted corn, squash, zucchinis, cucumbers and pumpkins. "The idea is to show people that you can do this at home as well, doesn't matter the size of your backyard," he said. Local food as an educational tool For Geelong Food Share, the produce donated by the Geelong Botanic Gardens acts as an educational tool to customers, through an accompanying leaflet explaining its life cycle. "It's part of the whole package of teaching people about healthy eating," Geelong Food Share head of impact Felicia Bell said. "That really encourages people to eat more seasonally, which is healthier." Geelong Food Share head of impact Felicia Bell says the local produce also educates customers about eating healthy and seasonal products. ( ABC News: Natasha Schapova ) Ms Bell said projects like the one at the botanic gardens promoted the growth of peri-urban farming, which was becoming increasingly important over the next two decades amid urban sprawl. "We have to have these green spaces that are local so there's less food miles and [to encourage a] circular economy," she said. "We know the cohort of people [accessing our supermarkets] is changing and the cost-of-living crisis is only getting worse, so we need to make sure people are being looked after and being fed." Reducing waste going to landfill The state government set a target to divert 80 per cent of waste from landfill by 2030, but the total waste recovery rate has remained around 69 per cent since introducing the circular economy policy in 2020, according to the Victorian Auditor General's Office. Organic waste made up nearly half of all household waste in 2022-23 and more than a quarter of waste produced by businesses. Andrew Lucas said the project reduced the volume of landfill produced by council areas, while reducing carbon emissions. The Geelong Botanic Gardens receives about 2,000 tonnes of locally-made compost annually. ( ABC News: Natasha Schapova ) Australia generated about 14.4 million tonnes of food waste, garden organics, timber waste and biosolids in 2021-22, according to the most recent National Waste Report. Nearly 60 per cent of that waste was recycled or recovered through methods including composting and landfill gas capture. "We also don't want to send organic matter to landfill because it generates methane," Mr Lucas said. The compost is seperated into piles according to size and given time to mature. ( ABC News: Natasha Schapova ) "And although we do capture methane at all our landfills in Geelong, it's not the best use of landfill space." Within the next few years, the council will also be exploring how to expand its operations to include food waste in the composting process. The government's circular economy goals The federal government has committed to increasing its average resource recovery rate from all waste streams to 80 per cent by 2030, as part of the National Waste Policy Action Plan. Organics kerbside collection services are available in less than half of Australia's local government areas and are mainly concentrated in the south-east of the country. Sustainability Victoria aims to contribute to the national goal by spreading the initiative, implemented in Geelong, across the state and for all Victorian councils to offer a green bin service. "We'll see more and more compost, really high-quality organic compost being created at facilities all across the state and going back out into parks and gardens," Sustainability Victoria CEO Matt Genever said. Sustainability Victoria CEO Matt Genever says about 450,000 tonnes of compost and mulch are made annually from green waste across the state. ( ABC News: Natasha Schapova ) He said about 450,000 tonnes of compost and mulch were made each year from green waste across Victoria. But Geelong was only one of eight councils using the product in council and community settings. Sustainability Victoria awarded grants to eight councils last year to increase their use of compost made from green waste locally, through community education, storage solutions, and transport infrastructure. This includes Brimbank City Council, City of Yarra, East Gippsland Shire Council, Hepburn Shire Council, Monash City Council, Strathbogie Shire Council and Stonnington City Council. "We create so many resources in our society and the more we can invest in turning those resources back into new products like compost and like mulch the better value we get out of those while reducing our emissions," Mr Genever said.
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
$10 million in Trump food aid cuts to CT ‘cruelty for cruelty's sake,' senators say
Two U.S. senators are fighting to help Connecticut farmers and schools avoid more than $10 million in federal cuts from President Donald Trump's administration. Notices have been sent out about the cuts for two programs that affect farmers and consumers who are struggling to find affordable food. Some families have had difficulty paying $9 for a dozen eggs at a time of continuing inflation. Many working families are struggling to balance their budgets and 470,000 residents of Connecticut are classified as 'food insecure' in a sharp jump from last year, officials said. 'People are working. That's not the issue,' said Jason Jakubowski, president of FoodShare, a nonprofit that distributes food across the state. 'They have two, sometimes three jobs, but it's hard to make ends meet in today's world. … We live in a world where a box of Twinkies is cheaper than a bushel of apples.' Jakubowski stepped forward Monday at a press conference in Bloomfield with U.S. Sens. Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal about cuts being made by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency to the Local Food for Schools Program, known as LFS, and the Local Food Purchase Assistance Program, known as LFPA. The LFPA program covers 516 food distribution facilities, such as homeless shelters and food pantries across the state. The food comes from 131 small Connecticut farms that will be impacted, officials said. In addition, the state is expected to lose $5 million that allows public schools and day care centers to buy fresh food from local farms. Overall, Connecticut is expected to lose at least $10 million with direct impacts starting by July 1, officials said. 'Contrary to popular conservative impression, the folks who line up for food assistance in this state are almost universally folks that are working,' Murphy told reporters at the Foodshare warehouse. 'The problem in this state is not employment. We're at near full employment. The problem is that work doesn't pay in this country. The cost of living is too high. Wages have been flat for too long. You can be working fulltime, and you can be working two jobs and not have enough money to pay the bills, to be able to put food on the table.' When compared to the annual federal budget deficit and the even larger accumulated national debt of $36 trillion, Murphy said that the food cuts do not make much economic sense. 'This is cruelty for the point of cruelty,' Murphy told reporters. 'These are relatively small programs that go a long way toward both supporting farmers and supporting families. By ending these two programs, all you're doing is hurting farmers and jeopardizing the food security of our families.' Murphy added, 'These programs don't save big amounts of money for the federal government. They don't balance the budget. They are effective, efficient and affordable programs that help families in need. This is obviously a really dire moment in which the president is willfully violating the Constitution and ignoring spending decisions made by Congress and intentionally throwing this country into economic and political crisis just for the sake of crisis.' Similar cuts are taking place across the country. In Massachusetts, Gov. Maura Healey decried the cuts. 'Donald Trump and Elon Musk have declared that feeding children and supporting local farmers are no longer 'priorities,' and it's just the latest terrible cut with real impact on families across Massachusetts,' Healey said in a statement. 'Trump and Musk are continuing to withhold essential funding in violation of court orders, and our children, farmers and small businesses are bearing the brunt of it.' Chuck Schumer postpones book tour amid liberal criticism over spending vote Like other cuts, the latest rescissions will be challenged in the federal courts, Blumenthal predicted. 'Donald Trump and Elon Musk threaten to Make America Hungry Again,' Blumenthal told reporters. 'They're not eliminating waste. They are laying waste' to programs. In a related matter, both Murphy and Blumenthal said that they still support U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York as the Democratic minority leader after bitter disputes last week over whether to allow a government shutdown. In a battle with Trump, Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives banded together to oppose a 'continuing resolution' to keep the government running, which was passed by the Republican-controlled House. In the Senate, it was expected at one point that the Democrats would block the resolution because Trump needed 60 votes to break a filibuster. Schumer originally opposed Trump on the issue, but then he switched sides when he said that a government shutdown would give more power to Trump than allowing the continuing resolution to proceed. In the end, Schumer's small group prevailed, even though the majority of Senate Democrats voted the other way. 'Being leader is a tough job. I don't envy Senator Schumer,' Murphy said. 'I said yesterday, and I said today that I continue to support Senator Schumer, but I want to see our tactics change. I want to see us fight harder. I want to see us take real risks to fight for our democracy. I don't think the American public would have blamed a shutdown on Democrats.' Blumenthal agreed, saying, 'I am going to be very vocally insistent on a stronger voice and a more battle-ready stance for our entire caucus.' Christopher Keating can be reached at ckeating@
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Resurrection Food Pantry helps hundreds become self-sufficient
GREEN BAY, Wis. (WFRV) – The Resurrection Food Pantry recently reached a milestone—not only for the number of families it has helped with healthy, free food but also for the families it has helped become self-sufficient. 'When I started volunteering at this pantry, we were a small congregation and were not able to keep up with the demands,' recalled Food Pantry Manager Larry Peterson. 'So, I went to four other churches in the area, and three of them said, 'We'll help support this.' One of them wanted to build their own pantry but said, 'Our neighborhood doesn't need a pantry, so we'll adopt you.' They currently contribute half of my operating budget.' Wisconsin Lottery launches Fast Play Games with instant wins, progressive jackpot In January, the pantry helped 321 households, or 900 individuals. This followed an incredible 2024, during which they distributed 271,465 pounds of food. Over the past two years, they have also helped 602 households become self-sufficient, meaning they no longer need the pantry. It is a key goal as part of the Hunger Task Force Hunger Relief Federation, organized by Hunger Task Force. Brewers announce pair of postgame concerts featuring Nelly, DJ Diesel (Shaq) 'The primary way we do that is by connecting people to FoodShare, which is also known as SNAP,' explained Hunger Task Force Executive Director Matt King. 'It's called SNAP across the country. In Wisconsin, it's known as FoodShare. It gives families who qualify a grocery benefit to buy food that is culturally and nutritionally relevant for their family.' Anybody running a pantry will tell you that it is not supposed to be an ongoing source of food. Rather, it is a safety net for emergencies and that first dignified step back. 'Helping people when they fall, as good neighbors do,' added King. 'So they can transition from that hard time back to good times.' Local 5's Michele McCormack saw this work firsthand when she worked for Hunger Task Force before joining WFRV. DNR to reopen Potawatomi State Park's observation tower The food pantry at Resurrection is open in the morning on the first, second and third Thursdays starting at 9:30 a.m. It is open in the evening on the fourth and fifth Thursdays starting at 5:30 p.m. It is located at 1024 Shawano Ave. in Green Bay. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
10-03-2025
- Yahoo
Here's a timeline of the 'Judy Justice' food stamp fraud case in Milwaukee
Katrina Weems, the Milwaukee woman who admitted on an episode of the TV show "Judy Justice" that she sold Wisconsin FoodShare benefits, has been ordered to pay restitution to the state. The case has gotten a lot of attention since 2023 when Weems and another woman, Java'la Elam, were charged after publicly talking about how they bought or sold food stamps on "Judy Justice" the year before. In the television show, Judy Sheindlin, a former family court judge in Manhattan, presides over a TV courtroom and arbitrates disputes. Earlier, Sheindlin starred in the long-running "Judge Judy" daytime show. Weems now must pay over $1,500 to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services as a condition of her probation in an arrangement that was reached Tuesday, online court records show. Here is a timeline of the entire case with links to the Journal Sentinel's coverage: In August 2023, Weems was charged with five felonies and four misdemeanors, including money laundering and unauthorized use of food stamps. Elam was charged in the same case with one felony count of illegally trafficking food stamps. On their episode of "Judy Justice," Weems and Elam sought to resolve a dispute over a used car sake. But they spent much of the episode discussing selling and buying food stamps, according to a transcript of the show quoted in the criminal complaint filed in Milwaukee County Circuit Court. On the show, Elam told Sheindlin that Weems was buying food stamps from Elam and others. "If I was to sell her $100 in stamps, she'll give me $50," Elam told the judge. Weems told the judge she uses the stamps to buy food and also gives the stamps away. She said she bought them from people who "need the money." Read more: 'Judy Justice' TV show appearance leads to two Milwaukee women charged with felonies In September 2023, Weems pleaded not guilty to the charges of multiple counts of money laundering and of misusing FoodShare benefits. Prosecutors alleged that Weems financed the purchase of other people's FoodShare benefits and laundered them by using their EBT cards for herself. At a preliminary hearing in Milwaukee County Circuit Court, Judge Brittney C. Grayson found there was probable cause to bind the case over for trial. Elam failed to show up for an Aug. 25, 2023, court date. A bench warrant for her arrest was issued that day. Read more: Milwaukee woman charged in 'Judy Justice' food stamp fraud case pleads not guilty In January 2024, Elam pleaded guilty in Milwaukee County Circuit Court to a felony charge of knowingly trafficking food stamps between $100-$5,000. She also pleaded to a misdemeanor charge of knowingly trafficking food stamps of less than $100. In court, Assistant District Attorney Nicolas J. Heitman requested that sentencing for Elam be adjourned, pending the resolution of charges against Weems. Elam agreed to testify against Weems during Weems' trial. Elam was later given three days in jail. Read more: 'Judy Justice' food stamp suspect pleads guilty, will testify against co-defendant In November 2024, a jury convicted Weems on six of the nine counts against her. She was convicted on three counts of money laundering and three counts of misusing FoodShare benefits, but was acquitted on three other counts. In January 2025, a judge sentenced Weems to five days in jail. Assistant District Attorney Nicolas J. Heitman argued during a sentencing hearing that Weems took advantage of some of Milwaukee's poorest and most vulnerable residents to enrich herself by selling their benefit cards. Weems denied the claims and said she was giving aid to desperate people who needed it or otherwise couldn't help themselves. Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Jorge Fragoso ordered Weems to six months behind bars, but stayed the sentence, and placed her on 12 months probation. Read more: Milwaukee woman who confessed to selling food stamps on 'Judy Justice' gets 5 days in jail In March 2025, Weems was ordered to pay $1,533.84 to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services as a condition of her probation in an arrangement that was reached March 4, online court records show. More: Milwaukee woman who admitted on TV's 'Judy Justice' she sold food stamps must pay restitution Journal Sentinel reporter Carey Spivak contributed to this report. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: What to know about 'Judy Justice' food stamp fraud case in Milwaukee
