Tag Archives: SNAP

MLK died warning us about inequality back in the 60’s | Social #Activism on Blog#42

I came across an excellent mash-up of segments from Martin Luther King’s speeches on poverty and the end of an interview of James Baldwin in PBS’ “The Negro and The American Promise.” These two men expressed, in ten minutes and fifty three seconds, far more than Thomas Piketty did in a seven hundred-page book. Continue reading MLK died warning us about inequality back in the 60’s | Social #Activism on Blog#42

What If We Had Measured #Poverty Differently for the Past 50 Years? | CityLab

The Census’ Supplemental Poverty Measure paints a different picture of the poor and the social safety net.

In 1987, President Ronald Reagan announced defeat at the hands of the “war on poverty“—a war his predecessor Lyndon Johnson had waged since 1967. InThe Atlantic the year after, Nicholas Lemann explained why all anti-poverty programs need not be as “ill-fated” as the ones spearheaded over those decades.

Continue reading What If We Had Measured #Poverty Differently for the Past 50 Years? | CityLab

Cookbook Shows How To Eat Well On A #FoodStamp Budget | NPR

By Molly Roberts

When Leanne Brown moved to New York from Canada to earn a master’s in food studies at New York University, she couldn’t help noticing that Americans on a tight budget were eating a lot of processed foods heavy in carbs.

“It really bothered me,” she says. “The 47 million people on food stamps — and that’s a big chunk of the population — don’t have the same choices everyone else does.” Continue reading Cookbook Shows How To Eat Well On A #FoodStamp Budget | NPR

Thomas Byrne @Edsall: Cutting the #Poor Out of #Welfare – NYTimes

Thomas Byrne Edsall

Over the past three decades, Congress has conducted a major experiment in anti-poverty policy. Legislators have restructured benefits and tax breaks intended for the poor so that they penalize unmarried, unemployed parents — the modern day version of the “undeserving poor.” At the same time, working parents, the aged and the disabled are getting larger benefits.

Before 1996, Aid to Families With Dependent Children was the single most important program that provided direct cash payments to poor families, the overwhelming majority of which were headed by single women. Just under 60 percent of adult recipients were never-married mothers, and 24 percent were divorced or separated mothers. Continue reading Thomas Byrne @Edsall: Cutting the #Poor Out of #Welfare – NYTimes