- More children held in grip of poverty, By Bill Ruthhart and Will Higgins, June 22, 2010, Indianapolis Star: “At its inaugural summer Breakfast Club program a year ago, the Lord’s Pantry served seven hungry people. Earlier this month, the program’s summer kickoff meal drew three times as many, 17 of them children. The increase in demand for food at the Breakfast Club reflects the increase in poverty nationally, especially children in poverty. Nationally, 22 percent of American children will be living in poverty this year, according to a new study. And a local expert says that rate likely is similar in Indiana. ‘There are lots of kids in this neighborhood, and a lot of them need some help,’ said Julie Molloy, who runs the pantry that serves Stringtown families on the Near Westside. The analysis by the nonprofit Foundation for Child Development found that two years after the recession began to ravage the U.S. economy, children are living on the edge at a rate not equaled in two decades…”
- Report says one in 10 Terrebonne children lives in extreme poverty, By Naomi King, June 18, 2010, Houma Courier: “Children in Lafourche Parish are more likely to live in extreme poverty than in Terrebonne, according to a report released this week by the Southern Education Foundation. The report says 14.3 percent of children lived in extreme poverty in Lafourche Parish in 2008, while 9.9 percent of children in Terrebonne lived in extreme poverty that same year. That’s about one in seven kids in Lafourche and one in 10 children in Terrebonne. Louisiana’s extreme poverty rate will only grow, local and regional child-care officials say, because of lingering effects of the national recession and the ongoing oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, which has prevented fishermen from harvesting and led the federal government to ban new deepwater drilling…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty