Demand for food stamps soars as cuts sink in and shelves empty
More working Americans are lining up at emergency food banks and going hungry, as cuts to those programmes take effect
For Denise Acosta, it was being laid off for the first time. For Diana Martinez, it was the death of her mother, leaving her as the sole carer for her severely disabled younger brother. For Johnny Hill, it was having to take responsibility, a year away from retirement, for her two young granddaughters.
Each of these hard-working women from San Antonio, Texas, have fallen victim to circumstances that turned their lives upside down, robbing them of their full-time jobs, the paychecks they once enjoyed and, in Acosta's case, her home. Their stories vary, but they all belong to a growing group, America's working poor, for whom the journey from getting by to hunger can be brutally short.
Deep cuts to the US food stamps programme, designed to keep low-income Americans out of hunger in the aftermath of the economic recession, have forced increasing numbers of families such as theirs to rely on food banks and community organisations to stave off hunger.
An expansion of the programme, put in place when the recession was biting deepest, was allowed to expire in November, cutting benefits for an estimated 48 million people, including 22 million children, by an average of 7%.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/24/food-stamps-programmes-cuts-working-americans-texas
Skittles
(153,169 posts)it helps
blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)Hestia
(3,818 posts)What do they exact a mass of starving people to do? Die? Do they not know history?
Myrina
(12,296 posts).... with 'human interest' stories on the best sales, last minute sales, why are retail sales down etc etc ... well, clue #1 - people DON'T HAVE ANY FREAKING DISPOSABLE INCOME!!! Most of their money is going to meet essentials or pay the rent or keep the lights on and the kids fed. Nobody has extra money for the techie jewelery gadgety bullshit that makes up so much of Christmas anymore.
Think the capitalists will learn? SMH.
Amonester
(11,541 posts)They think they know everything.
Except that, and the fact that climate change(s) will come back to bite them in the ass too!