How widespread are summer nutrition programs?

Nationally, 2.8 million low-income children participated in the summer nutrition programs in July 2010, [according to the] most recent published data. FRAC looks at the number of low-income children who receive free or reduced-price lunch during the regular school year as an indicator of the need for summer meals. Only 15 children for every 100 low-income children who relied on school lunch during the school year had access to meals through the summer nutrition programs.

The summer nutrition programs are present in every state, but there is tremendous variation in state participation. The District of Columbia serves the most needy children, feeding 80 children for every 100 low-income children who participate in school lunch during the school year; Oklahoma serves the fewest, feeding only four low-income children for every 100 who participate in school lunch during the school year.

Is demand and participation increasing or decreasing?

Demand certainly is increasing for these programs. The number of low-income children who participated in school lunch during the school year grew by 2.6 million from school year 2005-2006 to school year 2009-2010, because of the increase in need caused by the recession. At the same time, budget cuts in many states caused school districts to eliminate or reduce their summer programs. The decrease in programs where food can be served makes it more difficult for the summer nutrition programs to respond to the increased need. As a result, even though summer nutrition participation dropped by about 40,000 children from the summer of 2006 to 2011, the program went from serving 1 in 6 low-income children who participated in school lunch in 2006 to 1 in 7 in 2010, because of the increase in need.

With tight state and school-district budgets, how can participation be increased in 2012?

Efforts at the federal, state and local levels and within the public and private sectors must be redoubled in order to rebuild the summer nutrition programs so that nutritious summer meals are getting to the children who need them. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is helping to lead the charge by organizing the National Summer Food Service Program Awareness Week. It also is important for nonprofits and schools to embrace new provisions included in the 2010 child-nutrition reauthorization law — the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act — that support summer food expansion and outreach efforts.

At the state level, some state agencies, such as the Arizona Department of Education, have taken aggressive steps to grow the program, recruiting more sponsors and sites and conducting outreach to families. And, finally, even if they scale back summer school, schools must recommit to meeting the nutritional needs of their students during the summer.

Is there research on the impact of these types of programs?

Despite the popular image that summer is a time when children play and stay active, recent studies show that this often is not the case. Many children are less active and eat lower-quality meals than they would if they had access to safe, recreational programs and the summer nutrition programs. Also, hunger becomes more acute during the summer months. USDA research shows food-insecurity rates increase for households with children in the summer, and the increase is even greater for states with low summer nutrition participation.

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Q-and-A: Crystal FitzSimons of the Food Research and Action Center on the Summer Food Service Program originally published by SmartBlogs

Scheduled to fly out of Chicago one recent evening, I ran into numerous difficulties including a nearly missed flight, conflicting and just plain wrong information, and rude personnel. I couldn’t find an employee who was either informed or interested. These challenges weren’t the real problem in my book. The issue was almost certainly a severe case of unhappy employees. What was the reason?

Statistics say that almost 50% of us don’t trust our leaders. Think about it. The world’s most admired companies are at the top of the heap for a reason. It’s no surprise that Fortune’s recent top 10 picks included Apple, Google and Southwest Airlines. What’s their secret?

Here are five key questions you can ask yourself to put your company at the top of the list:

• What’s your reputation? Credibility, knowledge and expertise really do count. When it comes to your reputation, clients and customers want to know three things: One, that you know your stuff; two, that you’ve done it before and can do it again; and three, that you know your stuff.
• Does the company clearly communicate its goals and direction? Recently, I worked with a client whose goal was to become best-in-class in its category. When we surveyed employees, the client was startled to learn that its team could not clearly articulate the company’s vision. Take the time to find out if your crew truly understands your firm’s goals. You may be surprised.
• Does top management exhibit genuine concern for employees’ well-being? In a recent training session, I overheard two participants complaining about recent organizational changes in their company. The kicker? Their boss agreed with them (publicly) that the changes were driving the organization into the ground. Did he earn their trust and respect? Not likely. Face it: Employees will know it if you’re all talk and no walk. Now’s the time to reassess.
• Do employees feel their work is valued? A Gallup poll says almost 50% of employees are not engaged in their work. Taking the time to make sure everyone knows the work they do is important can result in a big payoff: engaged employees and satisfied clients.
• Do employees have clear accountability? This one starts at the top. Make sure everyone understands his or her level of accountability and responsibility. If you’re wondering exactly how important trust and respect are to your business, remember Enron. ‘Nuff said.

I admit it, I’m picky. I think good leadership comes down to this: Our employees want to work for — and our clients want to work with — leaders they like and respect. So do your homework: Choreograph it carefully. Me, I’ll be watching TV.

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Want to earn trust and respect? Ask these questions originally published by SmartBlogs

Bernard Markstein

residential properties and a Congress that sees compromise “as a four-letter word” — as Bernard Markstein, chief economist at Reed Construction Data, put it — all contribute to a feeling of uncertainty about the country’s economic growth, particularly in the architecture, engineering and construction industries hard hit by the recent recession. That was the consensus of three economists speaking at a recent webinar sponsored by Reed Construction Data.

In addition to problems in the housing market and severely repressed housing starts, office and retail construction have slowed and federal, state and local funding cuts negatively affect some needed infrastructure improvement and transportation work.

But not all is gloomy

Ken Simonson

Ken Simonson, the chief economist for the Associated General Contractors of America, said, “I have more good news than I’ve had in several years.” He proceeded to list several multibillion-dollar plant construction projects announced over the past few months — some that will start this year, some in a few years. All that will translate into construction spending, which is a noticeable change from mid-2008 through 2010, when so few projects were being built.

The oil shale effect

Much of that work is among power and manufacturing plants, which have seen a 22% and 40% increase in spending, respectively, between March 2011 and March 2012. This is in good part from the oil shale boom in the U.S. Construction employment rose 16% in South Dakota and 8% in West Virginia in that period. Simonson said this trend likely will continue.

And then there’s housing

Twenty-three percent of homeowners with mortgages are underwater nationally — some by as

Kermit Baker

much as 50% to 60%, although the average is closer to 34% to 35%, said Kermit Baker, chief economist at the American Institute of Architects. And, because one-third of the home-for-sale inventory is made up of distressed properties, we’ll “see continued downward pressure on sales until the distressed properties are worked through,” and we “can expect to have a large number of foreclosed homes enter the market for years to come,” Baker noted.

But, again, an upside

As banks and homeowners ready these distressed properties for sale, the remodeling sector has grown and will likely continue to do so, Baker said. Last year, an estimated $300 billion was spent on home improvement, $8.5 billion on distressed properties alone.

In addition, the Architecture Billings Index, a nine- to 12-month leading indicator of construction activity, has been trending up and appears particularly “healthy” in the commercial and industrial areas, Baker said. He’s forecasting that the commercial area will grow 11.4% next year.

What could stall the slow recovery?

The three agreed that the situation in Europe, energy prices, Congressional inaction and gridlock in Washington, D.C., could derail the “spotty recovery,” as Simonson put it.

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3 economists look at the construction industry and economic recovery originally published by SmartBlogs

Being able to access capital is a huge issue for small businesses, and it’s not one that applies only to companies in the startup phase, said panelist Roz Alford, founder and co-principal of ASAP Solutions Group. Every stage of growth for a business requires funding, so it’s an issue that keeps coming up.

In many cases, it seems the biggest restriction is a lack of education about capital access, Alford said.

“The best time to get credit is when you don’t need it,” said panelist Laura Yamanaka, founder and president of teamCFO. You need to be prepared when you turn up to ask for credit. You should never show up at a bank and be surprised by its response to your loan application.

You also need to know the rules for loaning from a bank because they changed in recent years, Yamanaka said.

Banks want business owners to demonstrate they have a steady cash flow, that their business makes enough money to to repay debt, said panelist Patty Tuttle, senior vice president of Wells Fargo Mid-Atlantic. They also want to see that the business owner has a realistic outlook and a plan to deal with obstacles. In addition, banks will look at the business’ other debt and record of repaying.

Developing a relationship with your banker is an important part of getting a loan, Tuttle said. You want to make sure your banker knows your business plan and goals. That will help the person help you do what it takes to get necessary funding. That help often includes assistance to improve a business’ creditworthiness.

You need to find a good banker and get to know the person so well that he or she knows you in line at the grocery, not only when you show up at the bank to talk business, Yamanaka said.

Standard bank loans aren’t the only way for businesses to secure money. Loans backed by the Small Business Administration can be easier to secure and might carry more flexible terms, said Jeanne Hulit, associate administrator for the SBA’s Office of Capital Access.

Not all banks make SBA-backed loans, so you want to find one that does, Hulit said. You also want to find out which banker works on SBA loans because that’s the person you need to get to know.

A newer option for securing capital is crowdfunding, which involves soliciting investors via the Internet, said Andy Guggenheim, counsel for the House Committee on Small Business. Recent legislation laid out the framework for this, and the Securities and Exchange Commission is working out details to regulate it.

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Capital is still hard to come by for some small businesses originally published by SmartBlogs

The human body is commonly understood as one unit with many functioning parts, and the body’s resilience and ability to overcome trauma and illness is renowned. But medicine, author Mark Hyman says, has remained in the mode of: Isolate the problem, attack it (probably with drugs), cure it and move on — until the next crisis.

This is especially a problem when moving beyond the deadliest diseases of yesteryear to confront what he calls “chronic lifestyle-driven diseases.” Isolating and tackling the problem won’t work when it involves someone’s entire lifestyle. Instead, while we think of the body as a collection of systems, we must build medicine to be systems-driven. “There’s no such thing as breast cancer. … There’s no such thing as heart disease. It’s basically a set of imbalances that are derived from multiple insults,” he says.

The problem is speediness. What we may know takes time to become science, to become medical practice. But regardless, “functional medicine” is the next wave, where we treat the body’s illnesses for the causes and consider the whole system rather than the symptoms.

“So the future of medicine is systems medicine. It’s predictive, it’s preventive, it’s participatory and it’s personalized,” Hyman says. “So this is the future of health care, and functional medicine provides a roadmap to solve the problem of chronic disease for so many different things.”

Big Think is a forum in which top experts explore big ideas and core skills defining the 21st century. Learn more from its editors, fellows and guest speakers.

• Education in North Korea
• Winemakers’ Secrets Revealed!
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Rethinking disease, rethinking health care originally published by SmartBlogs

Vaynerchuk illustrated the necessity of this message when he asked the nearly full ballroom of attendees, “How many of you think Twitter is stupid?” and half of them raised their hands. Then similar numbers raised their hands to say they once thought cellphones and the Internet itself were stupid, but all admitted they use both today.

The arguments people are having about social media today are the same ones they had about those now-ubiquitous developments just 10 to 15 years ago, Vaynerchuk said. And arguing instead of getting on board is just a waste of time, he said. “Innovation doesn’t care about anyone,” it just flows on and will run you over if you don’t jump on and ride the wave.

It also isn’t helpful to disparage social media when you haven’t even tried it out. “I love it when people have a whole lot to say about Facebook and Twitter and they don’t even have an account,” said Vaynerchuk. “Shut your mouth!”

All business owners, he said, are just in one business: the attention business. Today, people’s attention is fragmented and harder than ever to capture. To get it, you have to use new methods and strategies; you have to use social media.

“People aren’t looking at billboards, they aren’t even looking at the freakin’ road anymore,” said Vaynerchuk, who admitted to using traditional advertising in the past and explained he believes it is grossly overpriced today.

Companies had it easy when they could take a broad-sweeping approach with billboards, newspaper ads and television commercials, but today, businesses have to work harder to reach out to individuals, Vaynerchuk explained. We’ve gone back to a small-town way of doing things, where the way you treat individual customers matters because they are going to tell others about the experience they’ve had with your business.

“We’re living in an era where word-of-mouth is on steroids,” he said. People aren’t just talking to their neighbors and the folks they run into around town; they’re talking to the world via social media.

If you’re finally ready to get your business on social media, take a deep breath and try to relax with the help of these four simple tips from Vaynerchuk.

• Don’t worry about what you’re going to say; just get started and build from there.
• Don’t focus on trying to win new customers, but instead on treating your existing customers well so you can keep them and inspire them to endorse your business.
• Don’t obsess about ROI. There’s a certain amount of serendipity in word-of-mouth marketing, and the numbers don’t always tell the full story.
• Don’t ignore what people are saying on Twitter. It’s a great source of information about what consumers like, think and do.

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Gary Vaynerchuk explains why small-business owners need to stop debating social media and start using it originally published by SmartBlogs

Though “local” and “organic” have been hot restaurant trends for at least the past two years, Bern’s isn’t the only eatery that seems to be putting locally sourced and organic ingredients lower on the priority list. World-renowned chefs Thomas Keller and Andoni Luis Aduriz gave a joint interview to The New York Times that set the food blogosphere abuzz. The chefs see their main mission as creating amazing meals and are content to let promoting local and organically grown ingredients take a back seat.

Bloggers including Grist’s Twilight Greenaway quickly took Keller to task, calling his comments irresponsible and destructive. Environmentalist Laurie David called the chef’s stance shocking and said, “Why check your citizenship at the kitchen door?” Others responding to posts and tweets on the story saw the issue as less black and white, including commenters at Chefs Collaborative who eat sustainably when possible but draw the line at giving up coffee, tea and favorite dishes simply because the ingredients can’t be locally sourced.

Enhancing local produce options

Some agriculture researchers see benefits in growing crops closer to where they’ll be consumed. One project is designed to grow more broccoli — typically a West Coast crop — on the East Coast, with the help of federal farm subsidies. Congress began including specialty crops in federal farm bills in 2008, and growers get about $3 billion in subsidies, McClatchy Newspapers reported.

Researchers at the University of California, Davis, are using federal funds to “show how fresh fruits and vegetables with enhanced flavor can be successfully handled, without compromising food safety, so as to improve consumer satisfaction,” McClatchy reported.

Maybe they mean “papples”?

The Guardian’s Word of Mouth Blog reported on the latest hybrid fruit: a pear disguised as an apple. The fruit, developed in New Zealand, is actually a hybrid of two pear varieties, with the taste and texture of a pear but a distinctly apple shape. It might seem weird, but some of the most common fruits are the result of cross-breeding experiments, including grapefruits, lemons and several varieties of grapes.

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Is local growing less important? originally published by SmartBlogs

Last week, we asked: How much do you think the upcoming election cycle will influence your business in the coming years?

• Tremendously: 36.93%
• Significantly: 32.79%
• Moderately: 20.98%
• Not at all: 9.3%

A lot on the line. Clearly, big shifts for business are expected after the election. Whether it’s taxes, health care, the economy or other issue-based changes, the vast majority of you are expecting a shake-up during the next few years. Given that, how are you planning for that uncertainty? Clearly, there will be one of two outcomes. Are you creating a contingency plan for either direction? One other citizenship public service announcement: If the election will affect your business this dramatically, I certainly hope you’re planning on voting to have your perspective registered.

Mike Figliuolo is managing director of thoughtLEADERS and author of “One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership.”

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How much do you think the upcoming election cycle will influence your business in the coming years? originally published by SmartBlogs

Here are seven things failing team members do — and what you can learn from them.

1. Complain about everyone and everything. The worst co-workers are often the most negative ones. Employees who complain regularly about others — or about circumstances in general — do little to help the team and much to hurt it. The most effective team members stay positive and find good ways to provide feedback.
2. Gossip regularly (about work or personal issues). Nothing breeds distrust and paranoia like gossiping in the workplace. Team members who spread — or worse, start — rumors are literally sowing the seeds of discord. The best team members and leaders express an interest in colleagues’ personal life bust respect everyone’s privacy and dignity.
3. Hoard knowledge. There’s nothing wrong with a lust for learning, but ineffective team members often accumulate as many secrets as possible and are loath to share helpful information with co-workers. Hoarders think their unique knowledge is valuable, but they don’t realize that unshared knowledge is useless. The best team members establish themselves as experts by becoming go-to resources in their field of specialization.
4. Talk almost completely about themselves. There’s nothing wrong with self-promotion and increasing your visibility at work, but poor team members take this quality to a fault. They’re especially likely to use words such as “I” and “me” and take individual credit for their team’s success. On the other hand, the best teammates promote their team’s success, ask lots of questions, know when to listen and use words such as “we” and “us.”
5. Play the blame game. Every team member — from executive to entry-level employee — should learn to take responsibility for his or her actions. By casting blame, workers actually diminish their sphere of influence, personal autonomy, others’ trust in them and colleagues’ respect. The most successful team members take responsibility for success and failure and right any mistake if possible.
6. Look for reasons to exclude people. Some teammates try to create small, insular groups and find every reason to limit the size and definition of their team. Such focus on exclusivity only limits the team’s perspective and options. High-performing teams cast the widest net possible and examine every reasonable solution or resource.
7. Lack empathy. It might be easy for some workers to lose sight of their teammates’ feelings, but there’s almost never a good excuse for doing so. The worst team members show an actively callous disregard for colleagues’ well-being. On the other hand, the most successful ones keep lines of communication open, pay attention to colleagues and make themselves as approachable.

If you want to become an effective, brilliant team member, take a look at your poorest-performing teammates — and do the opposite. Once you master the skills of clear and effective communication, building positive relationships at work, promoting yourself and teammates, and taking responsibility for your actions, you’ll be on your way to becoming a highly effective team leader.

Joel Garfinkle is the author of “Getting Ahead: Three Steps to Take Your Career to the Next Level.” As an executive coach, Garfinkle has worked with many top international companies, including Cisco Systems, Oracle, Deloitte, Amazon, Starbucks, Google, Citibank, Microsoft and The Ritz-Carlton. You can view more than 100 articles on leadership communication, and subscribe to his Leadership Development newsletter to receive e-book “40 Proven Strategies to Get Promoted Now!” for free.

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Lessons on teamwork from really bad team members originally published by SmartBlogs

If your authentic leadership style isn’t obvious to everyone who meets you, you have work to do to build your Invisible Resume that helps you land the executive job — and then succeed once you’re there.

In this three-part video series, I’ve covered several diverse aspects of your Invisible Leadership Resume, your global perspective, your leadership presence and, below, your authentic leadership style.

Part III: Build your authentic leadership style

The secret to developing an authentic leadership style is that you have to develop it yourself and take full responsibility for it. In the video, I give an example of a small thing that set off a big change for a client of mine and started her toward developing her authentic — and powerful — style. Your authentic style is a key part of your Invisible Resume, and building it is a lifelong journey. I hope you’ll join me in a free webinar May 30 to start building your Invisible Resume today.

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Moving from managing to leading: Building your authentic leadership style originally published by SmartBlogs