[GJM] Fw: [globalnetnews-summary] Food stamp recipients pinched by high food prices

[mary rose]

FYI and consideration.

This problem seems to be an international one not likely to
go away unless we can aid people in learning how to
container garden in small yards, patios and decks in
apartment buildings.  And begin community gardens on
any vacant land available.

When I see huge industrial complexes with large green
lawns dividing the buildings, I see place where food
could be grown with the companies occupying the
buildings financind the gardens.  The gardens would
be attended to by youth based on the successful
"Food From the Hood" program based in L.A.

http://www.foodfromthehood.com/2004-2005/food/Home/home.htm

What is needed is the funding to hire someone to start this program
who has vast experience in overseeing a large organic farming
enterprise.  And, a small headquarters building in an industrial park
from which to administer the program. It would be ideal to have
someone from the Food From the Hood program who has graduated
from college with a degree in agriculture and administration and is
familiar with the FFTH program.

The next step would be to set up Community Learning and Information
Centers in as many communities as possible so that we can begin
distributing information and training on how to immunize oneself from
outside influences such as chemtrails, etc.  These CLICs then would also
serve to create spaces in the community where hands-on-experiential
learning programs can take place in order to make every community
in the world self-reliant through utilizing sustainable living practices and
vitalizing ecosystems world wide to operate at peak capacity, thus
supporting more people.

CLICs would operate on the same principles we use here on the
Co-learner's list -- that is -- each center would be an information
exchange where everyone counts and everyone participates where
actively or by passively listening and learning.  .

And everything would be linked together by a major Internet website
accessible to anyone and everyone world wide.

We would become a self-actualizing, self-organizing, self-governing
community of 6+ billion persons/cells.  If you have heard Dr. Bruce
Lipton speak, or read his book: "The Biology of Belief" then you
know how he talks about the human body being a community of
50 trillion cells that have chosen to live together. It is entirely possible
for us to do the same if we consciously choose to do so and then
enact our choice.

While what we are talking about here is a mega, mega project we do
it just as we would eat an elephant -- bite by bite -- So it is not an
impossible task as long as each of us does our part, taking respons-I-bility
for so doing.  .

In order to mobilize people, we need two networks.  One of these I have
mentioned previously:  The Crystal Clearwater Alliance -- this network
takes care of the physical things such as creating sustainable living 
communities
worldwide.  The second is the Coherent Hearts Network which focuses on
creating coherent hearts and body/minds so that we are always functioning
in health and wellness.

Dr. Alam, bless his heart, keeps telling us there is only one God.  I
know differently -- inside each one of us there is a God or Goddess
waiting to be unveiled, we only need to make the choice to be or not
to be.

So, this is the plan, gang, how do we enact it?

mary rose We must be the change we wish to see in our lives.

Now read the message.


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Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 8:31 AM
Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Food stamp recipients pinched by high food 
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http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2004423780_webfoodstamps19.html


Food stamp recipients pinched by high food prices

By DON BABWIN

The Associated Press

CHICAGO -- Danielle Brown stands outside a South Side market at midnight, 
braving the spring chill for her first chance to buy groceries since her 
food stamps ran out nearly two weeks ago.

For days, Brown said, she has been turning cans of "whatever we got in the 
cabinet" into breakfast, lunch and dinner for her children, ages 1 and 3.

"Ain't got no food left, the kids are probably hungry," said Brown, a 
23-year-old single mother who relies heavily on her $312 monthly allotment 
of food stamps -- a ration adjusted just once a year, in October.

This is what the skyrocketing cost of food looks like at street level: Poor 
people whose food stamps don't buy as much as they once did rushing into a 
store in the dead of night, filling shopping carts with cereal, eggs and 
milk so their kids can wake up on the first day of the month to a decent 
meal.

"People with incomes below the poverty threshold are in dire straits because 
not only are food prices increasing but the food stamps they are receiving 
have not increased," said Dr. John Cook, an associate professor at Boston 
University's medical school who has studied the food stamp program, 
particularly how it affects children.

On the South Side of Chicago, people like Brown wait for the stroke of 
midnight, when one month gives way to another and brings a new allotment of 
food stamps.

Dennis Kladis began opening his family owned One Stop Food & Liquors once a 
month at midnight nine months ago to give desperate families a chance to buy 
food as soon as possible.

"I'm telling you, by the end of the month they're just dying to get back to 
the first," said Kladis, who has watched other area stores follow his lead. 
"Obviously, they are struggling to get through the month."

Jean Daniel, a spokeswoman for the Agriculture Department, which runs the 
food stamp program, said there is only so much the aid can do.

"Food stamps were designed to be a supplement to the food budget," she said. 
They "were never intended to be the entire budget."

As prices rise, the number of Americans relying on food stamps has also 
climbed by 6.1 percent in the past year, increasing from 26.1 million in 
February 2007 to 27.7 million in February this year. The sputtering economy, 
persistent unemployment and the mortgage crisis have all contributed to the 
increase. The Agriculture Department expects the overall number of 
participants to reach 28 million next year.

For Lynda Wheeler, who receives $281 in food stamps each month, the rhythm 
of life has been one of shopping for food, running out of food and then 
turning to churches, food pantries and friends for help. And all the while, 
she is doing things like cutting milk with water to make it last a bit 
longer.

"You get it on the first and it runs out by the 14th and 15th," said 
Wheeler, a single mom who brought her 14-year-old son and 2-year-old 
daughter shopping at midnight with the Link card, the Illinois version of 
food stamps.

Because food stamp allotments are adjusted every fall based on the federal 
food inflation rate, recipients are months away from getting any relief. But 
even when that relief comes, advocates said, it won't come close to keeping 
pace with rising costs.

The consumer price index for food rose 5 percent last year, the highest gain 
in nearly two decades. It is especially grim news for the poor.

Start with milk. Between March 2007 and this year, a gallon of milk jumped 
from just over $3 a gallon to nearly $3.80, according to the Bureau of Labor 
Statistics. During the same period, eggs climbed from about $1.60 a dozen to 
$2.20. Bread, chicken and tomatoes are all more expensive than last year.

Just last summer, the maximum food stamp payment -- $542 a month for a 
family of four with a gross annual income of no more than $26,856 -- was 
enough to cover the USDA's "thrifty food plan," a bare-bones diet that meets 
minimal nutritional needs. Studies show that allotment now falls about $25 
short, Cook said.

And just getting to the store is a lot more expensive. Since October, the 
cost of gas has shot up nationally from $2.70 a gallon to $3.62, according 
to the Lundberg Survey, a petroleum market research firm.

If the USDA pulls $1.7 billion from a contingency fund of $6 billion this 
year to support the food stamp program, as it expects to do, that would be 
the largest withdrawal since $2 billion was pulled out after Hurricane 
Katrina in 2005.

On Thursday, the Senate passed a five-year, $300 billion farm bill that 
includes $200 billion for nutrition programs such as food stamps and 
emergency food aid for the needy. Daniel said it was too early to say how 
that will affect benefits to food stamp recipients, and she knew of no 
provision in the bill to make the annual adjustment before the fall.

Diane Doherty, executive director of the Illinois Hunger Coalition, said 
she's seeing people more frantic for food than ever.

"The level of desperation is just frightening," she said. "People are 
calling, saying they have no idea what they are going to do."

But even as demand is rising, many food pantries nationwide have been forced 
to cut back on the amount of food given to individual families because 
higher fuel costs and commodity prices have sliced into private donations to 
the pantries.

For now, many of the needy, including many in Kladis' store pushing carts 
laden with soda pop, bags of cookies and chips -- much of it cheaper than 
healthier food -- are doing what they can to stretch their shrinking buying 
power.

"The bottom line is, a mother trying to feed her kids is not really picky 
about what she puts in their bellies," said Dan Gibbons, executive director 
of the Chicago Anti-Hunger Federation. "She just wants them full."