From Feeding America’s Hunger Action Center: A new study sponsored by the ConAgra Foods Foundation in cooperation with Feeding America shows that 3.5 million children under the age of five are food insecure.
“The startling fact that so many very young children in this country do not have adequate nutrition necessary to grow and develop into healthy adults is heartbreaking. It is all the more tragic when one considers that it is also entirely preventable,” says Vicki Escarra, president and CEO of Feeding America.
Learn more about the alarming results of this Child Hunger Study—Child Food Insecurity in the United States: 2005 – 2007.
Food Stamps are one way to address “Food Insecurity.” But you have to qualify, and you have to know that you qualify to apply. Below are the eligibility requirements:
Eligibility
Eligibility for the Food Stamp Program is based on financial and non-financial factors. The application process includes completing and filing an application form, being interviewed, and verifying facts crucial to determining eligibility. With certain exceptions, a household that meets the eligibility requirements is qualified to receive benefits. Legal immigrants who are children or disabled can now get food stamps, as can legal immigrants who have legally resided in the United States for at least 5 years. Other legal immigrants and any undocumented immigrants are ineligible for food stamp benefits. Also, many able-bodied, childless, unemployed adults have time limits on their receipt of food stamp benefits.
A household is defined as a person or a group of people living together, but not necessarily related, who purchase and prepare food together. Households, except those with elderly or disabled members, must have gross incomes below 130 percent of the poverty line. All households must have net incomes below 100 percent of poverty to be eligible. Most households may have up to $2,000 in countable resources (e.g., checking/savings account, cash, stocks/bonds). Households with at least one household member who is disabled or age 60 or older may have up to $3,000 in resources. Currently, program benefits provide an average of nearly 90 cents a meal per person.
Here’s a post of a great short by the folks from Brave New Films, called: Who’s Keeping Burger King Workers Below the Poverty Line?
“What would you do with an extra $18,000 in your pocket?
That’s the amount of extra cash each and every Burger King employee in America would have received last year if Goldman Sachs (one of the fast-food chain’s largest owners) had shared its bailout billions with rank-and-file workers. Instead, Goldman Sachs squandered 6.5 billion of our taxpayer dollars on bonuses for their financial staff. These were some of the highest bonuses on Wall Street! Meanwhile, Burger King workers earn wages averaging just $14,000 a year — well below the federal poverty line for a family of three.
Goldman Sachs has been having it their way with Burger King workers for too long. It’s high time you had it your way with Goldman Sachs. Tell the Wall Street giant how they could have used the $6.5 billion blown on bonuses. We’re looking for the most creative, constructive, or comical ideas to curb corporate greed and help fix the financial crisis. We will send all ideas to Goldman Sachs as a reprimand for their wastefulness. The winner of the Have It Your Way with Goldman Sachs contest will have their idea featured in our next video. The contest ends March 3.
Pass this video and contest to your friends and family. Tell them working people all over the country are pushing back against Wall Street excess. We’re joining with SEIU and others to stage demonstrations and hold Goldman Sachs accountable! And tell them it’s time to end this era of corporate greed and impunity.”
There are two major deterrents to getting food stamps:
1. It’s embarrassing
Joel Berg (“All You Can Eat: How Hungry Is America?”) tells the story about a panhandler, begging for money for food, close to where he lives in Brooklyn. When Berg told him about various soup kitchens and food cupboards and suggested he get food stamps (still the best resource for getting food when you have no money), the guy said, “I can’t apply for food stamps because my family would be ashamed if I got help from the city.”
2. The paperwork and application process is beyond difficult and time consuming
Two-three trips to a government office, wait for hours, and get very little for all of that (the average monthly allocation in 2007 was around $95, or less than $25/week).
The USDA prints the requirements for eligibility on an envelope to potential food stamp applicants. Guess how many requirements? 27!! That’s right. TWENTY-SEVEN. And that’s just to apply.
Thanks so much for visiting The Cost of Hunger Production Blog. Pardon our dust, we’ll just be a bit. Check back soon for lots of content, clips and stories about this important topic and the feature documentary.
Hunger affects more than 49 million Americans, 17 million of whom are children. That means about one in four kids in the US worries about not having enough food. With Philadelphia poverty rates running double the national and state levels, surveys suggest that one in four Philadelphians or 360,000-plus people are experiencing food insecurity. 108,000 [...]more →
