Out of foster care, into college, By Michael Winerip, October 30, 2013, New York Times: “By definition, foster children have been delinquent, abandoned, neglected, physically, sexually and/or emotionally abused, and that does not take into account nonstatutory abuses like heartache. About two-thirds never go to college and very few graduate, so it’s a safe bet that those who do have an uncommon resilience. In a society where many young men and women live with their parents well into their 20s, foster children learn quickly that they are their own responsibility…”
Month: October 2013
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
- Food stamp demand rises in Minnesota as budget shrinks, By Jennifer Brooks, October 28, 2013, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune: “It’s the Wednesday dinner rush at the Friends in Need food shelf and a little girl stares wide-eyed at tables piled high with fresh fruits and vegetables. ‘Can we have some carrots? I love carrots,’ she asked a volunteer, who smiled and filled a bag for the family to add to their cart, next to donations of canned goods, cereal, milk, apples and baked goods in St. Paul Park. More than 554,000 Minnesotans get federal food assistance — one out of every 10 people in the state. A third are children. Another quarter are elderly or disabled adults. Contrary to popular stereotypes, a majority live in families where at least one adult earns a paycheck…”
- Cuts coming to food stamp program with more proposed, but how far should they go?, By Cliff Pinckard, October 29, 2013, Cleveland Plain Dealer: “There are more than 47 million people using the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), better known as food stamps. It’s a number that has doubled during the past decade, according to UPI. Just over 1.8 million people in Ohio use food stamps, according to 2012 data. The program costs the government $75 billion annually. But cuts are coming. A 13.6 percent boost that was part of the 2009 American Reinvestment and Recovery Act will expire on Friday. That will mean a cost reduction of $5 billion in 2014 and about $11 billion through 2016 for the federal government, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. It also will tighten the budgets of food stamp recipients…”
Low-wage Workers and Health Insurance Coverage
- A common story: Caring for others without health care for oneself, By Sandy Butler and Luisa Deprez, October 25, 2013, Bangor Daily News: “Helen, 45, works seven days a week caring for other people. While she plays an essential role in our health care system as a home care provider for people with chronic health conditions, she herself lacks health insurance. She earns $9.25 an hour and works irregular hours ranging from 20 to 40 each week. Helen, like many other hardworking Maine people, would have been eligible to receive health insurance through MaineCare — what Medicaid is called in Maine — if Gov. Paul LePage had not vetoed the bill to expand Medicaid this past June…”
- No easy answer for those stuck in low-income jobs, By Hannah Hoffman, October 25, 2013, Statesman Journal: “Kay Cullens opened the apartment door at 9 a.m. on a Monday in September expecting to see Lynn. What she did not expect to see was Lynn lying prone in her brown suede Lazy-Boy recliner, naked save for her oxygen mask and damp underpants. She did not expect to see Lynn’s eyes glazed over and staring at the ceiling. She did not expect to see her own health insurance vanishing with every word Lynn could not quite get out. Cullens, 55, has been a health care worker for 19 years, and for nearly five of those years helped Lynn with her daily needs. She is a member of Oregon’s growing class of low-income workers, a group whose livelihoods are increasingly precarious. With middle-income jobs disappearing, more and more Oregonians are trapped in jobs that barely pay enough to cover bills, and they have no clear path up and out…”