Children
Report: One in Six Children in the U.S. Are Hungry
Published May 14, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
A new report (pdf) released last week by Feeding America claims that one in six young children (those who are five-years-old and younger) in 26 U.S. states face a constant threat of food insecurity. That adds up to 3.5 million young children in this country who do not have adequate access to healthy food.
The statistics in the report—Child Food Insecurity in the United States: 2005 – 2007—were compiled using data collected by USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS).
Perhaps an even more disturbing statistic is that the rate of food insecurity in young children is 33 percent higher than the rate experienced by U.S. adults, where only one in eight live at risk of hunger. I personally find it deeply troubling that there are so many hungry children in this country who don’t have the ability to provide for themselves.
Happy Mother's Day!
Published May 10, 2009 @ 07:15AM PT
To my mom, who learned to drive a stick shift when she was newly divorced with a little kid because manual transmission cars were cheaper and we were broke;
To my mom, who went from weeping when all my winter clothes were stolen from the laundromat when I was little to being able to take me on a celebratory shopping spree after a big promotion by the time I was in college;
To my mom, whose life is far now from the projects where she grew up, which I know she doesn't forget;
To my stepmom, who I've been able to talk to in a way I couldn't talk to my bio-parents sometimes;
To my stepmom, one of the most thoughtful people I've ever met;
To my aunts, who raised me alongside my mom and dad, and raised my cousins too, in a big family jumble - an extra hug to those of them with no kids of their own who have been like mothers to us;
To my cousins and friends, especially the new moms out there, who are building their own families with care and joy and trepidation. May we care for one another and our kids the way my mom's generation cared for us. May we build new families with one another.
This is an open thread. Happy Mother's Day! Leave your thoughts and well wishes in comments, and don't forget to check out these Mother's Day posts at Change.org:
http://uspoverty.change.org/blog/view/mothers_day_reflection_theory_vs_reality
http://uspoverty.change.org/blog/view/when_mamma_aint_happy
http://animalrights.change.org/blog/view/animals_are_mothers_and_have_mothers_too
http://autism.change.org/blog/view/for_all_you_bad_mothers_out_there
When Mamma Ain't Happy
Published May 08, 2009 @ 05:18AM PT
Driving on a remote northern AZ highway, I spotted sheds of scrap lumber nailed together that shape jewelry “stores” operated by Navajo women.
Curious, and wanting pictures, I stopped. The windy, sunny but chilly day had me grabbing my jacket on the way out of my RV. I approached the open side of this lean-to and was greeted by Leona, the un-grandmotherly grandmother proprietor.
The brisk breeze whipping through the porous sides of this electricity-free shed made it cold. She said her matches were wet so she couldn’t light her little heater. I gave her my 3-hands-needed fire-stick, laughing with her about its non-Native American nature. With that gesture to warm our relationship, we began talking.
MS state-wide recovery needs a healthy, affordable Gulf Coast
Published May 06, 2009 @ 07:00AM PT
According to the state's insurance commissioner. And the missing ingredient thus far? Affordable housing!
Efforts to rebuild affordable housing and make homeowner’s insurance affordable in Mississippi’s Gulf Coast counties must become a priority if those three counties are ever to fully recover from Hurricane Katrina, State Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney says.
“If the Coast doesn’t come back, the rest of the state won’t come back,” Chaney said on Monday.
Chaney, addressing the Starkville Rotary Club on Monday, noted that 16 percent of the state’s population lives and works in Hancock, Harrison and Jackson counties, and little has been done since the initial year following Katrina to make substantial progress in rebuilding the communities in those counties.
“There is very little that has been done on the Coast since the initial year of cleanup,” said Chaney.
A major problem is a lack of affordable housing and the necessary insurance policies homeowners need, Chaney said.
Somebody get this guy on the Poverty in America lecture circuit! Finally, a genius in elected office! (Appointed office?)
I'm flying home from TN today. Diane's got my back this afternoon. Consider showing her non-profit HEAR US some love so she can keep criss-crossing the country as an advocate for homeless kids and families.
Mothers’ Day Reflection: Theory vs. Reality
Published May 06, 2009 @ 03:13AM PT
Julianna, a vivacious woman in AZ who works at a public school, finally took her 4 kids and left her abusive
spouse (who she later discovered wasn’t legally her spouse, another story for another day)—when she found out about the McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Act, the federal law that protects stability of education for students who lose housing due to hardship. Her kids could remain in their same schools even when staying with friends in another part of town.
We’d like to think that all homeless families have nice shelters and all will be OK. Not so. Julianna’s family was unable to use local shelters because she has a teen boy—and many shelters, unbeknownst to most, don’t let families with older boys stay together. Splitting up their already traumatized family was not an option. Floors in a rotating series of friends’ houses became the erratic drill.
It's Derby Day!
Published May 02, 2009 @ 07:00AM PT
And that's all I'm going to say about the Kentucky Derby, letting Stephanie take the floor if she'd like. I'm flying to Kentucky today to join my boyfriend as he continues his fieldwork. Looking forward to it; I visited Louisville last year and really liked it. This weekend we're in Lexington. Any Kentucky readers here? Any recs for us?
So what's happening in Kentucky? Let's take a look, shall we?
Kentucky GOP Senator Jim Bunning may retire.
The jobless rate is 9.8%; it rose in every county in the state. KY got a line of credit from the feds to pay unemployment, but needs to "shore up" the fund to continue making payments. The state is facing a possible $1B shortfall.
The state has halted a prison early-release program. Matt?
What is Obama's position on devastating mountain top removal?
(Photo by Steven T. Moga, used with permission)
Learn From Our Mistakes? Here’s a New Law!
Published May 01, 2009 @ 05:00AM PT
I was one of many who vehemently protested implementation of the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), the welfare bill scathingly referred to as “homelessness creation” by those of us working with families and adults we knew would inevitably fall through the cracks. Skeptical of welfare changes fueled by the “one-size-fits-all, get a job, hoist your bootstraps” mentality, we knew when the boom’s inevitable crash occurred people on the bottom would get crushed.
Recent reports of rising family homelessness rates sadly validate our position.
To no surprise, Forbes just published an article confirming our worst fears. In addition to the downward-spiraling job market, states facing budget shortfalls are slashing expenditures
