When: Tuesday, December 8, 2:00 – 3:00p.m., Eastern time

In just one year, the number of people in households that sometimes lacked the money for enough nutritious food rose from 36 million to 49 million – the highest number on record. Among them were 17 million children – 4 million more in 2008 than in 2007.

This is called food insecurity. The recession is making it worse.
It is hurting children.

Learn More:

• What the USDA food security survey means
• How to use the data compellingly, simply, and accurately
• Research showing how food insecurity hurts children
• What policy choices can halt this very disturbing trend

Presenters:

• James D. Weill, President, Food Research and Action Center (FRAC)
• Dr. Deborah Frank, Founder and Principal Investigator, Children’s HealthWatch; Professor of Pediatrics at Boston U. School of Medicine and Director of the Grow Clinic at Boston Medical Center
• Deborah Weinstein, Executive Director, Coalition on Human Needs
• Moderator: George A. Braley, Senior Vice President of Government Relations and Public Policy, Feeding America

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Thanksgiving for All Americans In light of the latest data on poverty and food insecurity in the country, Melissa Boteach of the Half in Ten Campaign and Jim Weill of the Food Research and Action Center call on Congress and the President to act by investing in nutrition assistance and job creation. Read more and download the memo »

Alexandra Cawthorne of Center for American Progress and Melissa Boteach of Half in Ten write for the The Hill’s Congress Blog about the importance of extending Unemployment Insurance Benefits as soon as possible.

Another week passes and still no up or down Senate vote to extend unemployment insurance. This is no time to play politics. This is no time for “dithering.”

According to the National Employment Law Project, every day 7,000 additional workers are running out of unemployment benefits. That means that since the House passed its bill to extend unemployment insurance on September 22, approximately 266,000 workers have been left high and dry while the Senate continues to delay a vote on this crucial legislation—and 7,000 workers yesterday, 7,000 workers today, and 7,000 workers every day that the Senate puts off this vote are being pushed closer and closer to this brink. Read more »

It will be difficult to create a policy goal to cut poverty in half, without an accurate measurement of who is actually in poverty.  The current poverty measure just doesn’t cut it.  It has been in use since 1959 and fails to account for changing living expenses, regional differences in price, and many of the forms of income assistance that can pull people out of poverty. On June 17, 2009, Rep. McDermott (D-WA) reintroduced the Measuring American Poverty (MAP) Act of 2009, or H.R. 2909. Read more »

This January, Half in Ten joined with the National Employment Law Project,  NELP, to urge Congress to include urgent reforms to the Unemployment Insurance system in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or ARRA.  The antiquated unemployment insurance system had failed to ensure equal benefits for low-wage workers, part-time workers, workers who left work due to “compelling family reasons,” and long-term unemployed individuals.  Low-wage workers are only one-third as likely to collect unemployment benefits, even though they have double the chances of being unemployed.  For this reason, UI reform was one of the 12 steps that the Center for American Progress Task Force on Poverty identified to cut poverty in half in ten years.

Congress listened to advocates, and included unemployment reform in ARRA, allocating $7 billion for the project. And these reforms have begun to reach unemployed workers across the country.  Earlier this week, the National Employment Law Project (NELP) released a report (PDF) detailing the “unprecedented wave” of unemployment insurance reforms that has swept across the country since the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) became law on February 17th, 2009.   Read more »

From Coalition on Human Needs, a Half in Ten partner:

When Congress passed its Budget Resolution on April 27, it generally endorsed the President’s priorities.  The Budget Resolution only answers some of the year’s policy-making questions:  what, and, at least as far as the annual appropriations bottom line is concerned, how much.  Advocates were pleased with the “what” answers:  Congress committed to grapple with comprehensive health care reform and climate change, two of the President’s top priorities.  The Budget Resolution also commits Congress to many other legislative tasks, including reauthorizing child nutrition programs, making student loans cheaper by reducing the role of private lenders, and creating a home visiting programfor new parents, as the President proposed. 

Read more »

Rabbi Steve Gutow and Melissa Boteach of the Jewish Council of Public Affairs wrote for the Washington Post’s On Faith section on the religious importance of gaining an accurate picture of poverty.

Our ability to gauge how many people are really left behind in our society is reduced to a simple and outdated statistic. This would not do if we looked at people as they are and not as they were… if we put faces to our numbers… if we followed the message of the book of Numbers.

While the inadequacies of the federal poverty measure may seem like a technical and wonky issue, how we determine the factors of poverty will wind up enabling us to conquer the reality of poverty. 

Read more here

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently announced that the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program will receive up to $5 billion of emergency funding to help families affected by the economic downturn. This new Emergency Fund is authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and will directly go toward assisting States, Territories, and Tribes that have seen an increase in TANF caseloads or program expenditures.  

TANF is a block grant program that provides assistance and work opportunities to low-income families by awarding states federal funding to develop their own public assistance programs. 

The Emergency Fund will be subject to the same rules and regulations as the TANF grant fund, and will provide funding to eligible jurisdictions through FY2010. All States, Territories, and Tribes that have experienced increased participation or program costs in the past two years are eligible to apply for the Emergency Fund.

The TANF Emergency Fund will help jurisdictions expand and improve much needed assistance programs, and is an example of a recovery initiative directly aimed at helping families most impacted by the recession.

Last week, while the House of Representatives debated Fiscal Year 2010 Budget Resolution, the Congressional Progressive Caucus introduced an alternative budget that features our goal to cut poverty in half in ten years. For the past three years, the Congressional Progressive Caucus has presented an alternative budget that, among other provisions, proposes significant investments in economic recovery and social welfare programs. Included in this year’s Progressive Caucus Budget was a $90 billion per year investment over the next ten years, dedicated to the goal of cutting poverty in half in ten years. These monies would increase funding for various programs that aid in decent affordable housing, anti-hunger programs, and more quality child care. Half in Ten thanks our allies in the Progressive Caucus for using their budget to continue the conversation around a half in ten goal.

CPC Introduces Alternative Budget

President Obama’s proposal for the 2010 Federal Budget includes dramatic strides in the fight against poverty and for increased opportunity.  We must ensure that these important steps remain in the budget legislation as it moves through Congress.

• Call your Senators now at (202) 224-3121 in support of President Obama’s budget priorities.
• Ask organizations you belong to to sign a statement in support of the President’s budget priorities.

The budget makes investments we need to rebuild the economy from the bottom up, opening up access to jobs in renewable energy, transportation, health care, and education.  It puts us on a path towards health care for all Americans. The budget builds on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to provide protections against some of the worst ravages of the recession, making tax credits permanent that will lift at least a million children and their families out of poverty. 

It invests in Head Start; education for low income students; Pell Grants to make college more affordable; better nutrition for low-income children; and affordable housing.  It recommends fair sources of revenue to pay for these investments responsibly, while recognizing the needs of low and moderate income families.

But there is no guarantee that these priorities will stay in the budget as Congress sets to work on it. Members of Congress need to hear from us that fighting poverty and increasing opportunity must be be key principles of the budget.

• Call your Senators now at (202) 224-3121 in support of the President Obama’s budget priorities.
  
• Ask organizations you belong to to sign a statement in support of the President’s budget priorities.

Learn More: The President’s Budget:  A Dramatic Shift in Priorities from the Half in Ten partner Coalition on Human Needs

Read more »