Posts by Greg Plotkin
-
Women and Children Hit Hardest by Hunger
-
Help YouTube Document Hunger in America
-
90% of Black Children Receiving Food Stamps
Going on Strike in a Recession
Published November 12, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
After nearly a year of negotiations with the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 99 in Arizona, two of the state's largest grocery store chains -- Fry's Food Stores and Safeway -- are bracing for a strike amid an ongoing labor dispute.
Key factors in the dispute include discrepancies over pay increases and a proposal from the companies that would have workers pay a health care premium (up until now, the companies have covered the entire cost).
With no resolution in sight, and a work stoppage looming as early as Friday, the companies have started to place advertisements for temporary employees to take over for unionized workers when/if they go on strike.
In addition, Fry and Safeway have now entered into a collaborative agreement to take "defensive measures" if the union workers strike against one company and not the other. Although neither store has said it would lock out unionized workers at the company that is not affected, that is exactly what happened in a similar situation in California during 2003-04.
How to Donate Your Ample Harvest
Published October 28, 2009 @ 09:48AM PT
Anyone who gardens can tell you that there's a certain point in September when you can't even give away all the extra tomatoes sitting out in your garden.
It was with this realization and the desire to alleviate hunger across the nation that led Gary Oppenheimer to found AmpleHarvest.org. Speaking with Mr. Oppenheimer this morning, I learned that AmpleHarvest.org was launched with the vision to become a comprehensive national database that allows anybody to find a neighborhood food pantry to donate garden produce to.
Although the site has only been live since May 2009, it already has more than 1,000 pantries registered to receive excess produce from neighborhood gardeners in all 50 states.
Mr. Oppenheimer highlighted the need for such a resource with a great example. With so few large food banks in states like Vermont, it's possible that if you had an extra bag of potatoes from your garden, you'd have to drive several hours away just to donate them. With AmpleHarvest.org, you can connect with a food pantry a few miles from your home.
Staying Warm This Winter
Published October 27, 2009 @ 11:13AM PT
In many regions across the country, the days are getting shorter and the colorful autumn leaves are slowly falling to the ground. This can only mean that the stinging cold of winter is just around the corner.
What this also means, particularly with unemployment rates still astonishingly high and the recession continuing, is that nonprofit organizations and government agencies are bracing for an increased demand for utility assistance over the next several months.
The main way that energy assistance funds are distributed in the U.S. is through the Low-income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) administered by the Department of Health and Human Services. However, instead of providing assistance directly to the general public, the Department makes block grants to individual states who then distribute checks to needy households.
Food Pantry System Needs an Overhaul
Published October 26, 2009 @ 10:05AM PT
With many food pantries around the country being operated by "little old ladies in sneakers," hunger advocates are beginning to worry about who will staff these indispensable operations once an exceedingly aging volunteer base can no longer do it.
After popping up in major cities and small towns alike during the 1970s, food pantries are now being hit with the greatest increase in demand (which has risen between 30 and 70 percent over the past year) they have ever experienced. This is especially troublesome for the elderly volunteers whose bodies simply cannot work any faster or harder.
Many are hoping that as the civically-minded baby boomer generation heads toward retirement, a new group of hunger activists will begin to pick up the slack. It's certainly good news that out of the three billion hours baby boomers spent volunteering last year, nearly 25 percent of that time went to collecting or distributing food.
However, with the recession wiping out many retirement accounts, there's no guarantee that baby boomers will be able to actually leave their paying jobs for the volunteer realm anytime soon.
The Flawed U.S. Poverty Measure
Published October 24, 2009 @ 09:00AM PT
New data released recently by the Census Bureau highlights a gigantic problem many Americans are already painfully aware of: the way the U.S. government measures poverty is extremely flawed.
Because official poverty estimates do not take into account factors like rising medical care, transportation, child care or geographical variations in living costs, the Census Bureau publishes alternative data using a poverty measure developed by the National Academy of Sciences.
This new data shows that there are 7 million more Americans living in poverty than initially reported by the agency last month, and brings the total poverty rate in the U.S. to nearly 16 percent. What I found most shocking is that the original Census Bureau figures failed to capture half of all elderly living in poverty (official estimate was 9.7 percent, but the new figures show 18.7 percent of persons 65+ currently live in poverty).
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.
