News
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90% of Black Children Receiving Food Stamps
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Food Pantry System Needs an Overhaul
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The Flawed U.S. Poverty Measure
Bing Wins Full Term to Lead Detroit
Published November 04, 2009 @ 04:58AM PT
Lots of Mayoral races last night, with specific marching orders to revitalize and continuously improve our cities. I'll be back later today with some thoughts on their different charges, but here's a quick round-up:
David Bing is elected for a full-term in Detroit.
Wunderkind Luke Ravenstahl is re-elected in Pittsburgh.
Bloomberg wins by less than anticipated in NYC for his self-appointed third term (basically).
Menino wins easily, but also by a smaller margin than usual, in Boston. He's now the city's longest serving Mayor, beginning his 6th term today.
Lawrence, MA elects its first Latino Mayor, William Lantigua - the first in MA.
In Atlanta and Houston, no decisions yet.
Any key elections in your neck of the woods?
And Maine voters, WTH????
Cities Ravaged by Recession
Published October 23, 2009 @ 12:01PM PT
The perfect storm of high unemployment rates, shrinking salaries and a painfully slow economic recovery has thrown many U.S. cities teetering on the brink of survival into utter desperation.
Last year, median income for American households dropped a staggering 3.6 percent -- the greatest one-year decline since records have been kept -- and the recession dropped an additional 2.6 million Americans into poverty. Worse, The Economic Policy Institute predicts that incomes could drop another $3,000 and the poverty rate could rise another 1.9 percent by 2011.
Coupled with the assertion that the number of homeless could rise by 1.5 million in the next two years, this news is especially bad for the ten poorest cities in America -- a group of metropolitan areas chosen based on per capita income, the percentage of the population earning less than half the poverty line, the percentage of food stamp recipients, the percentage of people under age 65 receiving public health care and the unemployment rate. (All these statistics come from 2008 Census Bureau data.)
USDA Study Aims to Make Food Aid More Effective
Published October 22, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
For the first time in the agency's history, the USDA will conduct a five-year analysis--the National Household Food Purchase and Acquisition Study (NHFPAS)--to document the food choices and expenditures made by families in the U.S. The study will provide the first hard data on where households purchase food and what factors are involved in making food choices, with the results being used by USDA's Food and Nutrition Services division to make federal food aid programs more effective.
This study is partially in response to a report commissioned by Congress this past summer that measured the extent and consequences of food deserts in the U.S. The authors of the study noted the need for a massive public-education campaign if consumer demand is the driving factor behind the lack of healthy food options available in low-income communities. I'm curious to see--through the results of the NHFPAS--if this assumption of demand is indeed accurate.
Poverty News Round-up
Published October 20, 2009 @ 01:25PM PT
Too many interesting tabs open in my browser to select just one story today. Here's the latest on poverty news and activism happening around the US:
- Thank you feds! For stepping in and telling Indiana that allowing private employers to use welfare data to screen potential employees is "inappropriate" and "not allowed." Ya think?
- If port cities Oakland and Long Beach, CA, have such similar demographic profiles, including lots of poverty, why is crime so much worse in Oakland? It's unclear, but fortunately there's a new police chief in town to try and reverse the city's terrifying trends.
- We've come a long way from the days of "No Irish Need Apply" - AG Andrew Cuomo in NY has charged EMC Construction with exploiting its workers, including using a three-tiered wage system for Irish ($25/hour), Black ($18/hour) and Latin@ ($15/hour) workers. Nothing encourages worker solidarity like abusive wage gaps!
- Mayor Bloomberg is creating jobs in NYC, but are they good jobs? The short answer: No.
- What the state gives, the market taketh away. Bloomberg builds or preserves 72k low-income housing units, 200k disappear due to vague and mysterious "market forces." Don't look under your beds at night, kiddies!
- And finally, let this be a lesson to other states: Indiana is pulling the plug on privatizing its welfare system, after thousands of eligible recipients lost benefits. One old measure they're bringing back in? Face-to-face interactions between recipients and case workers. Good to see we haven't quite eliminated jobs as we insist TANF recipients go find some.
(Photo of A.M. Walzer Co. US Inlay Puzzle Map by Marxchivist)
Students Purchase 400 Calories With $1
Published October 15, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
It's one thing when parents and teachers can monitor what children eat on a daily basis, but it's quite another when kids get to choose what to fill their own stomachs with.
Researchers in Philadelphia have found that when children choose their own before- and after-school snacks, the most popular choices are high-fat products like sugary fruit drinks, Sour Patch Kids and potato chips. The majority of the children studied were from low-income communities.
However, the most surprising part of the study was not how many calories the children purchased, but how cheap they were. With only a little over one dollar in their pockets, children were able to purchase a whopping 356 calories on average per day.
Signs of Trouble: United Way Collections and Surveys
Published October 09, 2009 @ 05:06AM PT
Mansfield, a gutsy little city of 50,000 in the middle of Ohio, might be a good place to take the pulse of our nation's war on economic doldrums. My recent visit there provided food for thought to share with Poverty in America readers.
Two ominous signs:
- The local United Way collection last year was $250,000 below target, and this year the GM plant is closing, an additional shortfall of about $200k from employees' UW contributions. Ouch!
- A surprising (not really) result of an informal poll of the 19 high school students I was speaking to at Mansfield's St. Peter's High School: When I asked how many either experienced homelessness or knew someone who had, 6 responded positively.
Poverty + Food Insecurity = Obesity
Published October 08, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
Nearly two years ago, researchers at Johns Hopkins University predicted that by 2015, nearly 75 percent of the population in the United States will be overweight or obese.
As our waistlines have continued to grow with the mass availability of highly processed packaged foods and cheap meat made possible by government subsidy programs, it might seem as though weight gain is a symptom of overabundance.
However, there is a very real link between being poor and being overweight, regardless of how contradictory these problems seem to be. When hunger is lurking and money is tight, many people tend to purchase the foods that offer the greatest caloric content for the price. Unfortunately, these products usually aren't fruits and vegetables.
The fact that there is a correlation between poverty and obesity is not news. It has been documented in studies, and can be observed first-hand in many low-income communities across the country. (However, new data suggest that gender and age are significant factors in the link between poverty and obesity, and that young girls may be the most at-risk demographic.)
