11/30/2009 - Food stamps and child poverty
Food stamps and child poverty in the news.
An interesting article in the New York Times published on November 28 about the increasing use of Food Stamps (or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program as the Food Stamps program is now called, officially). There is a related interactive map that shows usage by county. With a quick mouse-over, it looks as if at least 30% of youth are on food stamps in rural Oregon. One in six Oregonians are receiving food stamps. Apparently, Oregon has ranked 2nd in the U.S. for hunger.
The Oregonian ran an article yesterday about child poverty in Oregon: it's higher, and still rising, in rural Oregon than in metro or urban areas.
These aren't good things. We at TOC/OWA, with our partners, are helping people search for jobs, learn work-skills and get training for jobs. In many cases, we offer support payments so that those getting training and job searching have their needs met. But we are still in the midst of very difficult economic times and jobs are hard to come by. What can we do about child poverty and hunger in rural Oregon? Wouldn't it be really fantastic if answers were simple, straightforward, easy and inexpensive?
- Monty