On June 9, 2010, Melissa Boteach, manager of the Half In Ten Campaign, and Sophie Milam, senior policy counsel at Feeding America, released an article detailing the need for better access to summer meals for low-income children. As schools begin to let out this month, many children will face a summer of skipping meals or consuming the cheap, but empty calories that contribute to our nation’s obesity epidemic.

More than 31 million children benefit from the national school lunch program, 62 percent of whom receive free or reduced-price meals. But only one in six of these kids will receive a similarly subsidized summer meal during the summer months. This column outlines specific policy solutions to address the “summer hunger gap” as Congress considers the Child Nutrition bill.

The full article could be read here.

On Friday, June 4, 2010, the Half in Ten Campaign sent a letter to members of Congress urging them to support funding for a supplemental federal poverty measure and for the development of an additional economic indicator reflecting what it takes to “make ends meet.” Already, 349 organizations from 42 states have signed onto this letter in support of this funding.

A new supplemental poverty measure will enhance the ability of policy makers to allocate resources by providing a more adequate account of the constraints American families face today and how well federal programs are working in providing pathways out of poverty. The additional “make ends meet” indicator would represent a more secure level of income for families not only to meet their basic needs, but to get a foothold on the bottom rungs of the middle class. Together these two indicators would provide better information to Members of Congress in crafting policy to promote family economic security.

Read the full text of the letter below.

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One of the biggest antipoverty initiatives in President Barack Obama’s budget is his proposal to “make work pay” for low-income families through improvements to the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), which will be considered after Memorial Day.

These two policies will make a huge difference in lifting working families out of poverty. However, improvements to both the CTC and the EITC are set to expire at the end of 2010 without immediate Congressional action to preserve and build upon these vital programs.

To learn more about what is at stake in the months to come and find out what you can do to help build the campaign to preserve these critical tax credits, listen to an English- or Spanish-language podcast with Reverend David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World.

May 25, 2010

What is the Earned Income Tax Credit and why does it matter?

The Earned Income Tax Credit is one of the single most important ways to make work pay. The EITC is a refundable federal income tax credit for low-wage working individuals and families. Refundable means that if a worker’s credit exceeds the amount of taxes owed, they can receive the difference in the form of a tax refund. Congress originally approved this program in 1975 in part to offset the burden of payroll taxes and to provide an incentive to work. Today, the EITC remains essential to promote economic security and allow low-income workers maintain a decent standard of living.

The EITC is a public policy that reflects basic values—at its core is the belief that individuals who work full time at minimum wage simply should not be forced to raise families below the poverty line. The EITC helps these Americans earn a sufficient amount so that work pays more than welfare. Parents who earn $10,000 to $20,000 each year are eligible under EITC for the highest credit, and the credit amount decreases as annual earnings increase.

Download this fact sheet (pdf)

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May 25, 2010

What is the Child Tax Credit and why does it matter?

The Child Tax Credit is one of the most important ways to protect families’ economic security. The CTC gives working parents additional funds to help them cope with the rising costs of maintaining a household and raising their children. Depending on the family’s earnings, the CTC allows families to claim up to $1,000 for each child. It represents an essential way to help families achieve and maintain their basic quality of life.

Yet the CTC’s effectiveness depends a great deal on how the credit is structured. The credit was not able to meet its full potential in the past because program rules often denied low-income families the full benefits of the credit. In fact, annual earnings below $13,000 were not considered in calculating tax credit, denying the credit to those who needed it most. Congress made sensible reforms to the CTC last year that allow families to count their yearly earnings below $13,000, but these changes are temporary and are scheduled to expire at the end of 2010.

An end of these improvements would be devastating for low-wage families across America. A parent who works full time in a minimum wage position will have his or her credit reduced from $1,800 to $320 at the end of 2010 if Congress does not make the change permanent. This reduction would seriously threaten the ability of low-income, hard-working families to maintain their economic security and self-sufficiency. And it would push 600,000 children of working families into poverty.

Download this fact sheet (pdf).

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May 24, 2010

A national dialogue is developing around America’s relationship with food. As it moves forward, there is a need to recognize that far too many low-income children simply do not have enough nutritious food to eat. More than 16 million of them live in food insecure households. This threatens the health and well-being of children and generally places great strain on their families.

The Obama administration, with the leadership of Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, has made a commitment to address the problem while Congress is in the process of reauthorizing the Child Nutrition Act. These circumstances provide a genuine opportunity for meaningful change. Charitable efforts and other policies aimed at reducing poverty also play an important role in finally achieving the goal of ending childhood hunger in America. This event will mark the release of a new Half In Ten/CAP paper, “Feeding Opportunity: Ending Child Hunger Furthers the Goal of Cutting U.S. Poverty in Half Over the Next Decade.”

Introduction by:
Winnie Stachelberg, Senior Vice President of External Affairs, Center for American Progress

Keynote Speaker:
Secretary Tom Vilsack, Secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture

Featured Panelists:
Joel Berg, Executive Director, New York City Coalition Against Hunger
Tianna Gaines, Parent Advocate, Witnesses to Hunger
Michelle Gilliard, Senior Director, Walmart Foundation
Jim Weill, President, Food Research and Action Center

Moderated by:
Joy Moses, Senior Policy Analyst, Center for American Progress

On Friday, May 14, the Half in Ten Campaign held a briefing on Capitol Hill to highlight the innovative anti-poverty work currently being conducted in a variety of sectors while calling attention to the need for greater federal leadership to continue to make progress across all sectors. Representatives from the philanthropic sector, the nonprofit community, and the Delaware state government each shared the best practices that have developed within their respective fields. Their successes illustrate ways to scale up and support their innovative work and also strongly suggest the need for federal leadership to enhance anti-poverty efforts for the future.

View the slides presented by Terry Schooley and Mari Brennan Barrera at the May 14 briefing.

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By Joel Berg | May 24, 2010

Read the full report (pdf)

Download the executive summary (pdf)

Download to mobile devices and e-readers from Scribd

Event: Ending Childhood Hunger in America

Child Hunger by the Numbers

Even before the worst of the current economic downturn, child hunger was a serious problem in the United States. In 2008, 16.6 million American children—more than one in five—lived in homes that couldn’t afford enough food for their families. The Great Recession has only made matters worse.

Child hunger in the world’s wealthiest nation is not only morally unacceptable, but it costs the U.S. economy at least $28 billion per year because poorly nourished children perform less well in school and require far more long-term health care spending. Further, food insufficiency severely hampers children’s emotional, intellectual, and physical development, and it strongly hinders the upward mobility of their parents.

President Barack Obama and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, or USDA, have set a national goal of ending childhood hunger by 2015. Reaching this goal is critical to cutting poverty in half in 10 years, which is the primary aim of the Half In Ten Campaign, a partnership among the Center for American Progress Action Fund, the Coalition on Human Needs, and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. Poverty and hunger are interrelated problems, and the steps we take to eradicate child hunger will ultimately lay a solid foundation for realizing the ambitious but achievable poverty reduction target. Likewise, limiting poverty will reduce hunger and make it far less expensive for the nation to end hunger entirely.

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The House of Representatives is expected tomorrow to consider H.R. 4213, also known as the “tax extenders” bill. This legislation provides much-needed help to American families and the economy by extending unemployment and COBRA health insurance benefits until the end of the year and providing fiscal relief to states to preserve critical health services and save jobs.

We asked Melissa Boteach, who is Manager of Half in Ten at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, to explain the tax extender provisions—what they are, why we need them, and what they will or won’t mean for the deficit.

Listen to the podcast (mp3)

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Deborah Weinstein
Executive Director, Coalition on Human Needs

Posted: May 18, 2010
The Huffington Post

Yesterday the Coalition on Human Needs sent out an alert asking people to call their congressional representatives in support of a bill that will extend the federal Unemployment Insurance program, provide aid to states, and fund important jobs programs. Early this morning I received some emails in response. One pointed out that joblessness is so bad that some have already exhausted all their benefits. Another talked about children’s services being cut in her state. They are going to call Congress. I hope Congress listens.

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