follow us:    Issue #41, October 19, 2015 Quote of the Week “Members of Congress…can either continue to cut and put more people into poverty, or they can stop these cuts so our nation can grow and eliminate poverty.” Bridget Kaminetsky, 9 to 5 Colorado, Public News Service, October 12, 2015     SNAP Progress on Poverty at Risk with Congressional Spending Bill – Public News Service, October 12, 2015 Nearly one in six children in Colorado lives below the poverty line, according to recent analysis of Census Bureau data by 9 to 5 Colorado, and the 2016 Congressional spending bill contains additional cuts to programs that have reduced poverty. Last year, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits lifted 4.7 million out of poverty, and each year from 2011 to 2013, the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit lifted nearly 148,000 Colorado residents, including 82,000 children, out of poverty. “Members of Congress…can either continue to cut and put more people into poverty, or they can stop these cuts so our nation can grow and eliminate poverty,” said Bridget Kaminetsky of 9 to 5 Colorado.     DeKalb County residents increasingly turning to SNAP program for help – DeKalb Daily Chronicle, October 13, 2015 Poverty, plus low-paying jobs that don’t pay livable wages, have helped increase the number of SNAP recipients in Illinois’ DeKalb County from 4,375 in 2005 to 12,895 in September 2015. This nearly 300 percent SNAP participation increase greatly exceeds the county’s 12 percent unemployment rate. DeKalb’s increase in SNAP participation has helped Illinois become the Midwestern state with the most SNAP recipients.     Georgia DFCS aims to improve customer service for food stamp recipients – Augusta Chronicle, October 13, 2015 Georgia’s Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS) has instituted its new “One Caseworker, One Family” model for managing SNAP, Medicaid, and cash welfare payments. “We implemented this new model in August and are seeing promising improvements, including a reduction in customer complaints,” said Susan Boatwright of DFCS. For SNAP recipient Angela Jones, the change has made the process of renewing her benefits “easier than it has ever been.” Boatwright used to spend an hour on hold with DFCS; now DFCS is contacting her and she is able to renew her benefits through a mailed application.     I get food stamps, and I’m not ashamed – I’m angry – Vox, September 16, 2015 Christine Gilbert has relied on SNAP benefits, on and off over the last 16 years, to buy food when her low-paying jobs, underemployment, or financial emergencies made it impossible to pay bills and keep her family fed. The longest time she was on the program was 18 consecutive months. Working a full-time job, or multiple jobs, and arranging transportation leaves little time to prepare food, so she relies on a few staples. She gets angry when people assume that she is lazy or uneducated. “The most underpaid workers are often the ones you’d miss if they weren’t there,” she writes in this op-ed. She notes that her time and labor are not as highly valued as those making the assumptions, and that “it’s legal to deliberately keep me in poverty.”     How Can Fresno End Poverty? – KVPR, October 12, 2015 The CalFresh Program (the state’s name for SNAP) only reaches two-thirds of eligible Fresno, California, residents, and increasing program participation is one strategy to help end poverty in the city, according to Chris Hoene, executive director for the California Budget & Policy Center. In addition, participation by low-income workers in the state and federal Earned Income Tax Credits could increase Fresno household incomes by 75 percent.     School Breakfast Program More low-income students receiving school breakfasts – Politico, October 15, 2015 According to latest New Jersey School Breakfast Report, the state has seen a nearly 75 percent increase in School Breakfast Program participation over the last several years. Schools adopting the breakfast after the bell program have helped increase meal participation, while the number of children in the state eligible for free or reduced-price school meals jumped from 136,000 in 2010 to 237,000 in 2015. Serving breakfast after the bell “means that tens of thousands of children are now receiving the nutrition they need to concentrate and learn,” said Cecilia Zalkind, executive director of Advocates for Children of New Jersey, in a statement.     Summer Meals Regional summer meals summit Wednesday in Colby – HD News, October 9, 2015 Participants in the Northwest Kansas Summer Meals Summit, held October 14*, discussed ways of reaching more children in 2016. According to FRAC, only seven Kansas children received free summer meals in 2014 for every 100 receiving free or reduced-price school lunch, which ranked the state 50th for summer meal participation. Only 44 of the 105 counties in Kansas had summer meal sites. “In 2015, we were down to 35 counties without a site,” said Rebekah Gaston, of Kansas Appleseed. “That’s a significant improvement in one year, but with one-third of Kansas counties still having no sites, we have a long way to go.” *Hosted by Kansas Appleseed, the Kansas Department of Education, and the Kansas Health Foundation.     Child Poverty Lifting California’s Kids Out of Poverty – The Huffington Post, October 14, 2015 More than 20 percent of California’s children are living in poverty, according to the latest Census Bureau figures, and an Urban Institute report on 40 years of data found that children who grow up in poverty are less likely to finish high school, go to college, or stay out of jail than more wealthy children. California’s child poverty problem is worse than the national average, and these statistics do not take into account the fact that the state has a higher cost of living, notes the California Budget & Policy Center. Improving the state’s child poverty rate will take a commitment to improve nutrition and health care systems for children ages zero to five, as well as creating jobs with wages a family can live on, paid sick leave which recognizes that parents must take time off for their children, and tax policies that keep working adults out of poverty.     Child Care and Economic Inequality When Child Care Costs More Than Rent, Women Stay at Home – Slate, October 7, 2015 The average price of child care for two children, in nearly 81 percent of U.S. towns, costs more than rent, according to the Economic Policy Institute. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services states that child care-related expenses should not exceed 10 percent of a family’s income. There has been a 168 percent jump in child care and nursery school costs since the end of 1990, compared to 76 percent rise in consumer prices. Women are usually the ones to quit a job because of the high costs, mainly because they are more likely to be am infant’s initial primary caregiver. High child care costs sustains a system of inequality and makes child-rearing and working outside the home affordable only to the rich.     About Us: The Food Research and Action Center (www.frac.org) is the leading national organization working for more effective public and private policies to eradicate domestic hunger and undernutrition. Visit our Web site (www.frac.org) to learn more. Click here to unsubscribe from this e-mail.

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