- Food stamps: Many Utah seniors shun them – or lack information – and admit hunger, By Julia Lyon, April 11, 2010, Salt Lake Tribune: ” Most nights around 5 p.m., Eldon Hendricks walks a few blocks from his Salt Lake City apartment to dine on a burger bargain fit for a retiree’s wallet. At $3.22 for two Arctic Circle burgers, fries and a bottomless drink, the fast food feast is about all his budget allows. This is what it’s like to be old in Utah for thousands of seniors: Eating well is a luxury they can’t afford. Some cross pricey items, such as meat, off the grocery list. Others choose between prescriptions and food, putting their health at risk. But few turn to the federal government’s food stamps program for help while participation in the program by families and middle-aged adults has skyrocketed…”
- Stigma lingers with food assistance program, By Brett Rowland, April 11, 2010, Northwest Herald: “Changes to the federal food assistance program, which is helping more people than ever before, allow some to keep their head up, but the stigma related to using what is commonly known as food stamps lingers. ‘People aren’t so shy anymore,’ said Eric Hendricks, general manager at Wisted’s Super Market in Woodstock. ‘Twenty years ago, they used to come up and whisper that they were using food stamps.’ But things are different now. Congress expanded the program and simplified the rules. ‘More people are accepting because of the economy,’ Hendricks said. ‘A lot more people are out of work and using them.’ In October 2009, 37 million Americans, including 1.5 million Illinois residents, enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, a record high for the United States, according to Hunger in America 2010, a study by the Greater Chicago Food Depository and Feeding America…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty