from the Omaha World Herald The perspective from the farm belt. The numbers with health insurance dropped by 1 million since the Bush administration began. - KaleBY CINDY GONZALEZThe percentage of people in Nebraska and Iowa lacking health insurance is rising, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday.The figures compare the 2006-2007 average with the average of 2004-2005.The census figures show that 12.8 percent of Nebraskans were without health insurance coverage in the most current two years, up from 10.5 percent.In Iowa, the percentage of uninsured went from 8.7 percent to 9.9 percent.Nebraska and Iowa were among 10 states that had a rate increase.Both states' rates of uninsured still falls below the nationwide 2006-2007 average of 15.5 percent. The percentage of Americans without insurance...
from the Des Moines Register The great thing about lending a hand is when your done, you want to do it again. This story profiles 3 girls from Iowa who helped the people of Appalachia. - Kale, Poverty News Blog Editor.By JULI PROBASCO-SOWERSThree Johnston High School students have returned from a trip they say makes them look at life more realistically, appreciate family more and be less materialistic.Haley Johnson, 17, and Kara Highfill, 15, both of Johnston, and Caroline Byrd, 16, of Urbandale just returned from a mission trip to Kentucky.Three crews totaling 12 people from Aldersgate United Methodist Church in Urbandale repaired and improved houses for families through the Appalachian Service Project."I just had such a great experience last time," Byrd said. "I learned so much from...
from the Des Moines RegisterBY PHILIP BRASHERREGISTER WASHINGTON BUREAUWashington, D.C. - The high prices for milk, grain and other commodities are hitting home at places like the Johnson County Crisis Center food bank in Iowa City.More people are struggling to buy food, even with food stamps. But at the same time, donors have cut back on contributions.The annual Boy Scout-led food drive brought in eight pallets of food last fall, four fewer than normal."A lot of the staple items - bread, dairy products in particular - have had a sharp increase (in price)," said Dayna Ballantyne, the food bank's director. "Across the board, our clients are finding they just aren't able to purchase food like they used to."The cost of feeding a family of four on a low-income budget has jumped nearly 6...
from the Rapid City JournalAlderman proposed idea after National League of Cities meetingBy Scott Aust,Say you're a single parent, behind on your rent, and your son walks in the door and hands you a stereo system he obviously didn't have the money to buy. Do you ask questions about where he got it, or do you pawn it to keep your family under a roof for another month?That's the kind of scenario policymakers, community leaders and service providers will get a chance to experience vicariously through poverty simulation workshops designed to raise awareness about the reality of living at or below the poverty line."You don't realize how tough it is for some people, just getting food and transportation," Alderman Lloyd LaCroix said after Wednesday's legal and finance committee meeting.LaCroix...
from the Des Moines RegisterBy REID FORGRAVEREGISTER STAFF WRITERClaudia Goldstone scrunches over the kitchen table in her Ames apartment. Before her sits a pile of bills, many of them medical bills for her 15-year-old autistic and mentally retarded daughter, Jacinda.Goldstone lists the financial shortcuts she takes to ensure that her working-poor family holds its precarious financial position:She cuts her own hair. She visits the food pantry monthly for 26 pounds of groceries for her family of four. And she picks up college kids' beer cans and work colleagues' pop cans because "those 5 cents adds up," Goldstone says, then she laughs her big laugh - one tinged with worry.Sounds like a family living at the poverty line, right?Not quite. Goldstone, 49, and her husband work full time and...
from The Chicago TribuneBy DAVID PITTDES MOINES, IowaThe number of households on food stamps more than doubled since 2000 as did the amount of money spent on the federally funded food assistance program, state officials said.In 2000 the average number of households each month on food stamps was 52,785. The annual cost of the program was $100.8 million. Last year the number of households grew to 109,652 and the annual cost of the program ballooned to $273.2 million, according to Iowa Department of Human Services figures.The state Bureau of Research and Statistics released figures Friday.The report shows dramatic increases in the number of households and the number of individuals using food stamps. An average of 241,340 individuals received food stamps each month last year, about 48 percent...
from The Quad City TimesBy Mary Louise Speer Bettendorf High School students will see if they can actually go two weeks without their favorite sodas, sports drinks, coffees and juice and only drink water.BHS Student Council representatives are asking students to take the money saved and donate it to the H2O project. The world hunger awareness project is part of Student Council’s “Punching out Poverty” campaign to support H2O and Oxfam International.The campaign “is more like a global view of what the Student Food Drive does in our community,” H2O organizer Andrew Sullivan, a junior, said.This is the first year for the H2O project, and the council has raised money for Oxfam before, World Hunger Awareness co-chair Heidi Behal, a senior, said. The double-pronged awareness event...
from the Scarlet and BlackBy Jeff RaderstrongPublished: Vol 124, Issue 10Millions around the world would relish the opportunity to experience Grinnell cuisine, bad though many say it is. Last Tuesday night, students contributed their $11 dining hall meal for a rice casserole to combat worldwide hunger.The Grinnell College Christian Fellowship (GCCF) hosted a “Poverty Dinner” in the old Quad dining hall, serving a fortified rice-soy casserole and asking for donations from students for Kids Against Hunger, a non-profit that packages and ships meals to starving children around the world. About 80-100 students showed up and contributed a total of about $265. The amount raised is enough to fund 1,186 meals, at about 25 cents a piece.The meals that Kids Against Hunger sends to over 40...
from Small Town Papers News Service By Jeanne Visserfor Sioux County IndexHULL, Iowa --Do you know what it’s like to be poor….to wonder how you’ll feed your children, pay the rent, look for a job or wade through piles of forms at a welfare office? The faculty of Boyden-Hull was given a small taste of that dilemma at an in-service program last Tuesday.‘The State of Poverty Welfare Simulation’ from Iowa State University Extension is designed to educate people about what it is like to struggle against poverty. Each teacher was assigned to a ‘family’ and given a role to play.In the simulation, each family was facing poverty. Some were newly unemployed, some were recently deserted by the ‘breadwinner’ and others were recipients of AFDD (Aid to Families with Dependent...
from the South West Iowa NewsHARLAN - From 1999 to 2003 the poverty rate among 12 southwest Iowa counties increased by more than 4.3 percent, according to economic development consultant Frank Spillers.Spillers and his wife, Kimberlee, of Atlantic-based Global Horizons, are facilitating three public forums to open a dialogue on the issue."Poverty is a community issue with a huge impact on positive economic development," he said. "The basis of our conversation is that the majority of our population is one paycheck away from disaster."He said his poverty figures are from U.S. Census data and cover Harrison, Shelby, Cass, Audubon, Adair, Pottawattamie, Mills, Montgomery, Fremont, Adams, Page and Taylor counties.Greg Connell, Shenandoah Chamber and Industry Association vice president,...
from Sioux City Journal In an effort to increase public awareness about the problems associated with poverty and low-income living, the Briar Cliff University Nursing and Social Work Departments will host a poverty simulation from 1 to 3:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Heelan Hall Auditorium.Renee Sweers, nutrition and health field specialist with the Woodbury County Extension Service, says the poverty simulation invites students to play individual roles in poor families whether it's seeing poverty through the eyes of a young child, teenager, young adult, working parent or as an elderly person. Students will also be asked to play roles that deal with the poor and lower-income families, including employers, bankers and property-owners."This activity was created to show students what it's like to...
from Valley News OnlineBy Becky Synacek, About 25 people gathered Sunday afternoon, Dec. 10, for dialogue on poverty and economic development in the Shenandoah Historical Museum's Delmonico room.The dialogue, led by Frank and Kimberlee Spillers of Global Horizons economic development company, was open to everyone."The goal was to look at economic development from a different point of view," said Kim Spillers. "Iowa is a low wage state and we need to determine whether or not we have the kind of wages here that people can live on."Another focus of the dialogue was to inform the public that not everyone was taught the skills of money management and that many people struggle to make ends meet."The majority of our population is one paycheck away from disaster," Kim Spillers said.Mark Heninger...
from The Waterloo Cedar Falls CourierDES MOINES (AP) --- The sprawling suburbs around this capital city have more to brag about than wide open spaces and quiet streets lined with new homes. Suburban Des Moines also has the lowest suburban poverty rate in the nation, according to a new report released Thursday.Last year, the suburban poverty rate in Des Moines was 3.7 percent, while suburban McAllen, Texas, had the highest rate at 43.9 percent, according to the report by the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. It studied the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas, examining changes from 1999 to 2005.Suburban Des Moines officials pointed to different factors for the low poverty rate in their communities, from high housing costs to an unwavering work ethic.Dennis Henderson, the...