This article first appeared on motherjones.com, March 9, 2015. By Tom Philpott The Dollar General in Austin’s gritty northeast - the neighborhood where I grew up - is a squat, warehouse-like structure about twice the size of a suburban convenience store. Amid the dull flicker of fluorescent lights and the grinding hum of a compressor [...]
We're currently reading this report from Health Affairs, a journal of health policy thought and research: "Exhaustion Of Food Budgets At Month’s End And Hospital Admissions For Hypoglycemia." ABSTRACT One in seven US households cannot reliably afford food. Food budgets are more frequently exhausted at the end of a month than at other points in [...]
Ellen Wagner, the Administrative Services Coordinator at Twin City Subaru in Berlin, Vermont, took the 3SquaresVT Challenge from November 17-23. Challenge participants were asked to live on the average 3SquaresVT benefit for one week, which, for a household of two, is $53. She shared her reflections with us. Over the past week I have had [...]
This is information on how a prolonged government shutdown could impact nutrition programs such as SNAP, WIC and Meals on Wheels. We received this information from Feeding America, the nationwide network of food banks, of which the Vermont Foodbank is a member. SNAP SNAP has statutory authority to continue distributing benefits during October. This authority [...]
This country needs to come to terms with our collective obligations as a civil society. There are not enough jobs for those who want to work and many of the jobs that our neighbors work at don't pay enough to support the basic needs of an individual, much less a family. McDonalds Corporation Corporation recently [...]
If Congress does not take bipartisan action on the federal budget this week, “sequestration” (DC-speak for deep, mandatory budget cuts) will go into effect. The budget cuts amount to $85 billion and will have disturbing effects on the economy, the nation’s poor, and the work of the Vermont Foodbank. In Mother Jones, Erica Eichelberger (“12 Ways the [...]
