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Hungry American Kids

Hunger in America. That sounds strange doesn’t it? Typically when we hear about hunger crisis, we direct our minds to invision a far away land in a “impoverished” country somewhere in Africa. The truth is, hunger has struck Americans.....and not just adults but our very own children. Over the last few years, the media had focused on school performance in our schools and claiming, for a lack of better words, American kids are getting “dumber”. What if the source of this problem isn’t in the curriculum, but it is that the rumbling bellies are messing with kids’ ability to perform their best in school? Repeatedly it has been tested and proven that there is a correlation between food insecurity and students not performing well in school. Not only does malnutrition effect them mentally, but physically in their health. Failure of the immune system is directly correlated to lack of proper food. In response to recent media attention on child hunger in America, women like Lauren Puryear in New Jersey are couponing to donate food to those in need. Foundations such as No Kid Hungry are also working to improve the hunger crisis in our youth. It is so heartbreaking that our very own American kids are going hungry. Did you ever have to worry about going hungry as a kid?

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#DennysDiners Support No Kid Hungry #DennysDiners

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Economics: U.S. food costs rising with inflation, hunger a 'silent crisis'

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Breakfast is getting more expensive. Prices are up from last year, from meat to fruits, squeezing still-struggling consumers.

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Hunger Crisis: Charities Are Strained As Nearly 1 In 5 New Yorkers Depend On Aid For Food

It’s a quiet crisis. In a city of plenty, a staggering number of people are struggling to feed themselves and their families.

Nearly one in five New Yorkers, 1.4 million people, now rely on a patchwork network of 1,000 emergency food programs across the city to eat.

That represents an increase of 200,000 people in five years — straining the charities that are trying to help.

The two biggest, City Harvest and the Food Bank for New York City, now provide nearly 110 million pounds of food annually throughout the five boroughs.

The hunger crisis erupted when the Great Recession set in.

The number of city residents receiving aid under the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps, soared from 1.3 million in 2008 to 1.8 million today.

Yet, with so many people in need, the biggest benefit reduction in the 50-year history of food stamps took effect Nov. 1.

That’s when a temporary increase in benefits — pushed through by President Obama in 2009 as part of his economic stimulus program — lapsed.

New York households receiving food stamps saw their benefits decrease by an average of $30 to $50 a month, depending on a complex formula that takes into account family size and income.

For a typical family of three, that meant a drop to $189 a month, down from about $220.

Food pantry and soup kitchen operators said the impact was swift and dramatic: Although the economy had rebounded since the financial crisis, those at the bottom of the ladder had not fully shared in the recovery.

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N.J. woman uses couponing to feed 30,000 people in need

When she first learned about couponing, her eyes lit up.

Not because of the potential deals on her groceries. For 29-year-old Lauren Puryear, she realized that couponing was the tool she’d been looking for to bring thousands of meals to people in need.

She has set a goal of delivering 30,000 meals to people who are food insecure by her 30th birthday.

Read more

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Summer means poor children are not getting 2 free meals a day at school so if you’re able, please consider donating to your local food bank.

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States Spend Hundreds Of Thousands On Welfare Drug Testing, Turn Up Barely Anything

As state legislatures convene across the country, proposals keep cropping up to drug test applicants to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, or welfare. Bills have been introduced so far in Montana, Texas, and West Virginia, with a handful of others also considering such a move. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker ® has gone further, proposing to drug test applicants for food stamps and unemployment benefits. They follow recent bills put into action in Maine, Michigan, and Mississippi.

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Stuck between the safe choice and what feels right...

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Now that's what I call sprinkle donuts