1 in 7 …oh SNAP ! /s

I just had to tell my son to sign up for SNAP after he was laid off.

Thanks for the post.

My brother, the Republican, was shocked with I mentioned that this is a Depression. He didn’t think so because there weren’t soup lines. I pointed out that food pantries are the soup lines today.

Also, food pantries get some media attention in the Thanksgiving-Christmas season, but they are on the front lines all year round and need whatever support we can provide.

and under the gop’s tax giveaway to the wealthy that obama is promoting, the very poorest among us see a tax increase

this is like they are no longer even faking it, they simply want the middle class to deconstruct

Peterr,

My son(of whom I am very proud) and I worked the local mobile food pantry this morning. Last time when the weather was good we had 350 show up. My town (pop.2500) is in NE Iowa and this barely scratches the surface of the poverty in rural America.

Today, a half inch of ice and snow brought out enough clients that the food was gone in two hours. Sometimes I feel I fell asleep in Bedford Falls and woke up in Pottersville.The gratitude of those we served today was humbling to say the least.

I watched no less than 4 hours of Bernie, called him and told him to keep on telling truth to the BUBBLE.We have a depression here and need to show compassion for those less fortunate than ourselves.

There are a couple of cynical reasons why people are given food assistance.

1. Hungry people get angry and lose their fear of oppressors and fight revolutions.

2. Agribusiness profits are maintained.

I think the total distributed in 2009 was over $63 billion. I figured that from 39.68 million recipients, $133.12 monthly per person times 12 months.

I was laid off unexpectedly with no notice in September but was working as a “private contractor” so my lost job did not qualify me for unemployment and is not included in the unemployment statistics.

I am getting Food Stamps now. I like getting them, but maybe we would be better off if people were allowed to get hungry so they would get angry enough to throw off our chains.

I live 30 miles north of Music City, USA – the moronic imbeciles of the long-defunct confederacy voted in November – for EVERYONE who will do them HARM.

Marsha Blackburn did not even bother to put up a sign in her District she was so confident of her re-election – NOT A SINGLE SIGN IN THE RETHUG GERRYMANDERED district which begins south of Nashville in Williamson County, the WEALTHIEST county in Tennessee – goes up north AROUND blue Nashville, to Clarksville, which is the EXACT SAME TOWN as Fort Campbell, Kentucky (10st Air Assault, USArmy – highes suicide rate in the military, highest domestic violence in the country and highest REDEPLOYED solderis in the miliary) and then triangulates west to the edge of blue Memphis – in other words, 90% of her district is RURAL, UNEMPLOYED, UNINSURED and drug-addled.

The Great Flood of Nashville last May TOOK OUT thousands of jobs and made our unemployment rate to be around 20% in REALITY – not in the convoluted counting done by DC – this is INSANITY at its highest – there is also a 48% high school drop-out rate and one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in America – but lets not worry – Tennessee has a CHURCH on every corner and the American Evangeliban is telling everyone POTUS is not American.

Gawd, what a county………………….this is only going to get WORSE with the Rethuggery Obstructionist Party of Teabagging Fewls in the House.

Lucky me, I’m a 99er so that makes me a 1. When Rachel asked Austen Goolsbee the other night what they were going to do about the 99ers his response was priceless. My heart goes out to them he said. Of to the bank I go with that effort.

Also if you know anyone struggling right now, give them some money. $25, $50 find some way to help out a little without making us work through one more system. We are not getting help right now so reach out to
someone to offer a hand of support right now.

Sorry for the typos – I am really po’ed today.

Heavy,

I am in YOUR SHOES – there are MILLIONS who have spent TWO YEARS working on 1099s and have no UI benefits left – they don’t even both to count us – they could care less. BTW, I only got 13 weeks of UI due to the fact that one-quarter in 2008 I worked on a 1099 – so it sucks FAR WORSE than DC even has a clue.

JClausen,

You could not be more correct – my little holler in Tennessee has a population of about 4,000 and the food pantry has been empty since last summer.

Thank you and your son for what you did this morning.
Living in NW Ill. we cannot be very far from you and I can tell you that I cannot even take the car out of the garage because of solid ice on the driveway and with the incline, I would end up in the field across the street.
Blizzard warnings for later today for both our areas. Stay safe and once again, thank you.

That one in seven also doesn’t count those who don’t qualify: for instance, my neighbors on disability, who are scratching by with health benefits in this state recently cut.

C-span is regaling us with everything but Bernie’s Speech, we’ve Sebalius with an informative Anti-Smoking Cigarette Packaging Labeling News Conference from Tuesday, now we have Napolitono telling us all about us with “Homeland Security & Local Law Enforcement” from Monday. Can’t be letting the Hoi Polloi on to what is really being done to them! Must…Suppress…Truth! After all it’s the Murikun way!

My fellow teachers and I opened an in-school food bank last year because the local church-sponsored relief agency went under due to falling donations. Although we are hurting ourselves from 6 straight years of pay cuts and 40% increase in our health insurance we still have it better than many of our students’ families. We know that we very well may be next since the state has cut and cut and cut school funding to the point that the only thing left to cut is the teachers themselves.

To the shock and awe of the conservative Republican majority in our school, the families who partake of our offer of help are literally at the end of their ropes (rather than welfare queen freeloaders), they are exceedingly grateful and insist on volunteering to help “pay” for their food and supplies, and they usually cry while thanking us profusely.

What we are doing is probably not kosher and will be destroyed eventually by some bureaucratic rules or state/federal statutes but for now we are doing what little we can, in a very low-key way, to ease the pain of others and help our children eat decently on the weekends when the school cafeteria is closed.

This kind of grassroots effort is fairly easy to start and the benefits to those in need and to us are immeasurable.

That’s about to go up. I’m going to have to apply soon.

Bless you one and all.

and 40% increase in our health insurance

I just got a notice of another rate increase – my private health insurance, that I’ve been buying for 15 years, as of January will have gone up 60% since the health care bill was signed. All a coincidence, I’m sure.

All a coincidence, I’m sure.

Oh, of course. I think you should just cancel it and invest that money in something else. This nice bridge I have for sale for example. ;)

Yeah, I’m sure the rich will be giving that $137,000 per million tax reduction to the soup kitchens, homeless shelters & food pantries.

Ironic isn’t it that two states with the highest % of folks on food stamps have the worst Senators [MS & TN]. It would be interesting to go down the rolls of the jurisdictions represented by the other Neanderthals.

My friend does the books for a local food bank, the busiest in my county. A couple of things she mentioned. When she and her husband needed firewood (easy to get here as we are surrounded by a large national forest, plus a ton of private forest land), she had no problem getting folks who use the food bank to do this and to do a good job. A lot of loggers are out of work and want to work. Nothing will happen there until the whole mortgage mess is fixed.

On the other hand, they get donations of bread to include whole wheat and artisan breads, and a lot of the poor won’t take the artisan bread at all and will only sort of accept the whole wheat, they prefer white bread.

The contrasts in who is using the food bank is stark.

I wish we could help, but all of our extra money (over $1,500 a month) is going to pay off company debts, since our business income is virtually non-existent. We have cut back on pretty much everything to make a dent in these loans. We have one more loan, where the lender has a right to go after our house for non-payment, so it is our priority. The rest just have to wait until we get to them.

Thanks for spreading the word, Peterr.

The stats are horrendous and I had no idea it is so bad.

St. John’s food bank is directed by a man who has an incredible capacity to get all kinds of donated foods from businesses, in addition to a few cans from individual donations. Thank God there are regional food banks that feed the neighborhood centers. But his connections have been an incredible gift to our downtown community. This coming Tuesday night we’ll again be hosting the Safe Ground group – organized homeless folks who in better climates are living in tents (or not) on the river. We prepare a nice hot meal for them and give them warmth and safety for a night. They have developed a system of “elders” from among themselves that developed their own rules of participation and monitor the behavior of the participants. In the winter, the group lives as nomads between the several churches who are participating in this response. Most are recently homeless from loss of employment and housing. But there are also some
MH problem folks, some of whom are older women who are particularly vulnerable. We desperately need all kinds of special shelter service programs.

And lots and lots of donated foods for the many food closets at churches and social agencies who are trying to serve the many homeless and potential homeless individuals and families.

Blessings to all

You’ve mentioned my biggest pet peeve. I truly don’t understand why we can’t just cover psych medications for people regardless of income. With the medications they can be productive folks, who don’t need any other assistance. Without the medications, they are a concern for a community because they become a threat to themselves or others or, if in the system, they are provided housing and other supplements. To get the medications, they can’t work, but if they are on the medications most are fully employable. The stupidity of it all is stunning.

The hardest part of being unemployed for me is social isolation. I am no longer travelling to the shopping centers and I am not travelling to the bookstores. I am not paying for continuing ed classes at a local college and I stopped going to the church I used to go to. I try to engage by helping others. Like bringing them firewood. But it is pretty lonely out in unemployment land.

Does anyone know how to send this post–and the comments that follow it–to foreign newspapers (Der Spiegel, The Guardian, etc.)? Perhaps if this sort of information made front-page news in OTHER nations, our leaders might get a clue of just how serious the problem is in OUR nation. Of course, our leaders may not be shame-able . . . but foreign headlines could not hurt.

Food stamp numbers have gone up every single month since Obama took office.

Every single month!

Here’s a chart:
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5/imageroot/gono/SNAP%20November.jpg

This establishment myth of a ‘new normal’ and economic recovery is a dog that won’t hunt.

I been listening to Bernie again today, here,

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/SenateSession4656

He starts about one hour in and gives you an overview of the topics he’ll cover over the course of hours.

It’s a sad state of affairs that we are now in a depression..yes DEPRESSION, folks. The WH doesn’t want to admit that, do they??

Is anyone home in the WH? apparently NOT!

“Obama to Convene CEO Summit”
I guess to discuss the record profits Corporations have made, on the backs
of tax payers?
Just like Obama let me go talk to the people I bailed out
with tax payers money. Obama we know, we get it, you love WALL STREET
and hate MAIN STREET.

Obama needs to Convene a SUMMIT with WORKING PEOPLE!
To discuss why all of his economic ideas have FAILED!

Obama you! yes you!!! are the main the reason DEMS loss control of congress in 2010. You bailed out WALL STREET OBAMA and IGNORED MAIN STREET.
it is that simple!

Obama you fought for the BOB DOLE HEALTH CARE BILL in the middle of
a Depression. Yes you did this OBAMA!

Obama what can you honestly say about the DEFICIT? give us all a break!
have you looked a your TAX BILL SCAM with the REPUBLICANS at ALL?

14% of the USA is on FOOD STAMPS and this number is going up, and you want
to go talk to rich, about getting richer.

Again is anyone HOME at the WH?

Bernie Sanders must be the only person in DC, that cares about the USA.

I am so glad to see you highlighting this issue Peterr. I volunteer three hours a week at the Montana Food Bank Network, a statewide agency that supplies food pantries and other agencies around the state. They have seen the number of agencies they serve more than double in the last year and a similar increase in demand from the existing partner agencies.

So, in light of Matthew 25, where are all the religious conservatives? Why have we not heard from the Christian Coalition, the Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, or any of the other organizations proclaiming to uphold Christian values on this issue? Until they take a stand to end hunger, house the homeless, and provide medical care to all, I refuse to call them Christian, as their putative savior has already condemned them to burn in hell.

Thanks for highlighting this Peterr. This is one of my hot-button issues.

Albeit a bit dated from 2007, here’s a look inside what a foodbank is like that I filmed.

Part 1
Part 2

just one of MANY indicators that the US economic system is one of the biggest failures in the history of humanity. Sure the system can generate more wealth than any other system in history. But it can not distribute wealth EQUITABLY: it is a TOTAL failure; a disgusting, indecent, perversion; a plague upon humanity that voraciously steals every natural and human resopurce imaginable to funnel wealth, power, and advantage into the possession of a tiny, tiny percentage of the population.

They’re too busy screeching about being labeled hate groups, the war on Christmas, and their status as a persecuted minority to actually worry about the poor. They are not Christians. In fact, they are anti-Christ in the truest sense of the word.

Unfortunately, supplying the medications would help but is not a complete solution. As someone who’s seen it in the family, I can attest that sometimes people will just stop taking their medication for various reasons even when it’s available. I do agree that everyone having access to medication who needs it would be a step forward though.

Argh–this should have been a reply to Sue@23.

I am awed by all the people commenting here about what they are doing to fight hunger. Thank you so much!

And I am demolished and demoralized when we have a President that is apparently “working his ass off” with Republicans to ensure that the tax polices of Bush and Reagan that created this mess get to continue.

GlenJo,
I’m aware there is a lot more to it, but I’ve seen too many people who finally accept they need to take medication, regardless of the side effects, but can’t get them unless they are on government support.

I do think that if someone didn’t have too lose most of their dignity to get the meds they need, there would be less sigma.

I didn’t see a lot of mental illness in my 21 years of military service. Although, I still remember a personnel clerk with severe, chronic depression. One of the best personnel clerks anywhere, but his illness kept him from getting recognition and further promotion. What I saw when I worked in an admin capacity at a mental health agency was eye-opening.

The Obama Administration is completely incapsulated within the proverbial DC Bubble. To pay for Michelle Obama’s Kids Obesity Program the White House wanted the House of Representatives to cut the Food Stamp Program. They just don’t get it. Fortunately, Speaker Pelosi would not consider such an outrageous reallocation of budgetary funds.

Let’s hope she remains opposed to the payroll tax holiday until Obama gets a better working knowledge of the Social Security Program. He hasn’t proven himself trustworthy to handle Social Security or Medicare. Don’t forget that Obama chose most of the Cat Food Commission and he wanted Congress to authorize regulatory authority for their final product without a vote from Congress. Again, we were fortunate that Congress rejected that proposal.

o/t:
Sen. Lieberman and the Obama Admin. have extra-legally bullied PayPal, VISA and MasterCard into stopping their processing of donations to Wikileaks. The Patriot Act declares that interference with commerce is a criminal violation of the law, so clearly, Lieberman, the Obama Admin, PayPal, VISA and MasterCard have violated laws of the Patriot Act. Let’s see some investigations and some felony indictments in the next few weeks.

You’re right, but even the Ancient Romans were well aware of and utilized your #1 reason. They called it “Bread and circuses”.

I hope they are getting healthy biological food, at least. Look for the silver lining.