Kathy McCann, a 54-year-old mother of three, doesn’t have a plate - she has a platter. And it’s full. She’s a single parent. She’s a full-time student. And she works any odd job she can find, including one as a seasonal landscaper.

Here in Arkansas, it sometimes appears that we have escaped the worst of the recession. Arkansas’s unemployment rate of 7.5 percent remains well below the national average. Why then do one in four Arkansas children have insufficient food — among the highest rates in the nation?

Much of the work at the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy this month has centered around the culmination of nearly two years of organizing in the Western Tidewater area educating citizens on childhood obesity. The Interfaith Center is hosting an event for key stakeholders and citizens on October 23, 2010, in Suffolk, Virginia, in a local congregation that has been an active participant in this work.

The Minnesota partners—A Minnesota Without Poverty, Joint Religious Legislative Coalition, and Affirmative Options—planned and staffed a booth on children and poverty for a Children and Youth Rally at the Minnesota State Capitol on October 10. More than a thousand people attended the youth-organized rally, which featured speeches by Minnesota’s senators, two major party candidates for governor, Children’s Defense Fund President Marion Wright Edelman, and public radio show host Garrison Keillor.

Members of the Colorado Half in Ten campaign prepared an informational session for the Serious Women, Serious Issues, Serious Action conference on October 2 to discuss the need for poverty reform and how we can make the goal of cutting poverty in half a real possibility. LaTerrell Bradford led the discussion, talking about how she has struggled with poverty and how poverty reform measures have assisted her in rising out of poverty.

Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families partnered with the League of Women Voters and the Legislative Taskforce on Reducing Poverty and Creating Economic Opportunity and other community partners to host a forum on the deepening problem of child poverty in Fayetteville, AR on October 20.

Earlier this year, Colorado Springs business owner Amy Mullins struck gold when a federal government job subsidies program allowed her to hire two new employees, increasing revenues at her medical lab testing facility by 32 percent. “These are employees that in May I would not have been able to hire on my own, nor possibly entertain keeping,” says Mullins.

More than 50 people attended the Arkansas Advocate for Children and Families’ Policy Cafe in Bentonville, AR, this month to learn about children’s issues and share their concerns with our staff and volunteers. They included representatives from our partner organizations, parents, school officials, students, and others who want to learn more about partnerships such as Half in Ten and other poverty-related work in Arkansas and how they can help drive policy change on these issues in the state.

A Minnesota Without Poverty issued a call to artists—painters, writers, photographers, dancers, and others—to submit their depictions of “enough.” Artists have until next spring to submit their works.

The Colorado Half in Ten Campaign is educating and reaching out to individuals across the state for their support in reducing poverty. The campaign attended multiple fairs and other events to provide information about policies that will help reduce poverty…