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Friday, December 27th, 2013

Demand for Food Stamps Soars as Cuts Sink in and Shelves Empty

Author:     KAREN MCVEIGH
Source:     The Guardian (U.K.)
Publication Date:     Tuesday 24 December 2013 08.00 EST
 Link: Demand for Food Stamps Soars as Cuts Sink in and Shelves Empty
Stephan:   This was the lead story about America in the Guardian. It is what people in the U.K. and, throughout the English speaking world, read about us. This is what we are becoming known for: Hungry children and old people, gun violence, religious fanaticism, corruption, the world's largest gulag, poor education, and inadequate healthcare. So much for the 'shining city on the hill.' More than anything else about the Theocratic Right, the gutting of the food programs, reveals its true character, a series of choices taken that are explicitly in opposition to Jesus' teachings which they profess guides their lives.

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS — For Denise Acosta, it was being laid off for the first time. For Diana Martinez, it was the death of her mother, leaving her as the sole carer for her severely disabled younger brother. For Johnny Hill, it was having to take responsibility, a year away from retirement, for her two young granddaughters.

Each of these hard-working women from San Antonio, Texas, have fallen victim to circumstances that turned their lives upside down, robbing them of their full-time jobs, the paychecks they once enjoyed and, in Acosta’s case, her home. Their stories vary, but they all belong to a growing group, America’s working poor, for whom the journey from getting by to hunger can be brutally short.
US emergency food providers brace as $5bn food stamp cuts set in
1 Nov 2013

Deep cuts to the US food stamps programme, designed to keep low-income Americans out of hunger in the aftermath of the economic recession, have forced increasing numbers of families such as theirs to rely on food banks and community organisations to stave off hunger.

An expansion of the programme, put in place when the recession was biting deepest, was allowed to expire in November, cutting benefits for […]

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