No vacation from hunger in Metro area, By Catherine Jun, July 26, 2010, Detroit News: “Access to nutritional food becomes dicey in the summer for many impoverished families, who are forced to go without the free or reduced-cost breakfast and lunches they depend on during the school year. Though a federal program serves free lunches in poorer neighborhoods in the summer, it continues to drawn just a small fraction of these families. And as more households fall into poverty, experts say childhood hunger is growing more acute, and agencies, churches and community centers are taking matters into their own hands to fill the hunger gap. ‘We are hearing more and more about kids suffering,’ said Susan Goodell, president and CEO of Forgotten Harvest. The Oak Park-based food rescue agency this summer is using donations to deliver 1,000 brown bag lunches a day to children in Detroit and Pontiac, including the Spring Lake Village Apartments on Carriage Circle. The effort amounts to a 56 percent increase in food distribution this summer over last, Goodell said…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty