poverty

50 Percent More US Kids Hungry in 2007

Raj — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 13:16:45 -0700

50 Percent More US Kids Hungry in 2007

By Michael K Sniffen

WASHINGTON (Nov. 17) - Some 691,000 children went hungry in America sometime in 2007, while close to one in eight Americans struggled to feed themselves adequately even before this year's sharp economic downturn, the Agriculture Department reported Monday.

The department's annual report on food security showed that during 2007 the number of children who suffered a substantial disruption in the amount of food they typically eat was more than 50 percent above the 430,000 in 2006 and the largest figure since 716,000 in 1998. ... read more »

Community Supported Agriculture and Food Stamps

Raj — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 13:08:02 -0700

An important part of the arguments I make in the book are about how poor people are denied access to food, even when they're not being denied access to food.

Take, for instance, the food stamp programme in the United States, where 36 million people went hungry last year. Food stamps are designed to ensure that working families don't run out of basic foodstuffs. Given the redlining of communities of poor people, supermarkets aren't going to come in and provide fresh fruit and veg. But processed food giants are only too happy to offer product that can sit on the shelves of corner stores for months before they're bought. ... read more »

Abahlali baseMjondolo

Raj — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 14:52:01 -0700

Over 1 billion people now live in slums and shack settlements around the world. Fighting this poverty, and the injustice that perpetuates it, are a number of shackdweller movements. In South Africa, a remarkable organisation has risen up to challenge the chronic poverty which they face - the Durban Shackdweller's Movement. Abahlali baseMjondolo (Zulu for "those who live in shacks") has fought off a range of illegal attempts by the government to gag, suppress and dispossess them. Find out more at http://www.abahlali.org