Talk isn't important here. Action is.

I can't stand seeing kids go hungry. It's not a controversial position by any stretch. I don't know of anyone who says they're against making sure kids have enough to eat. But talk isn't important here. Action is. That's why a big chunk of my focus in Congress is dealing with issues of food insecurity, hunger, and nutrition. Our children are our future. Without them, we are nothing. That's why we need to invest in them and that means we need to make sure they have access to healthy, nutritious food. Food ought to be a fundamental right in this country. I don't know why this has become such a controversial idea. But then you see Republicans trying to cut funds to SNAP, ignoring the real outcomes of such decisions. You see kids worrying every summer when they're out of school whether they'll be eating that day. Again, actions speak louder than words. I won't ever give up this struggle. It's one of the most important things I can do in Congress, and one of the reasons I get up ready to fight each and every day. Express Donate: If you've stored your info with ActBlue Express, we'll process your contribution instantly: $5 $15 $25 $50 Paid for and authorized by the Re-Elect McGovern Committee. This email was sent by Jim McGovern PO Box 60405, Worcester, MA 01606.

Loss of SNAP Benefits Linked to Economic Hardship, Poor Health

Boston Medical Center

Sponsored ⋅ Paid for by Boston Medical Center · 

New research from Children's HealthWatch finds that a loss or reduction of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits due to income fluctuations has a negative economic and health impact on families and children.

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Loss of SNAP Benefits Linked to Economic Hardship, Poor Health | HealthCity | BMC

New research from Children's HealthWatch highlights the economic and health impact on families of a reduction or loss of benefits due to income fluctuations.

Unemployment in the United States is at its lowest point in 50 years. The economy is expandingand employers are hiring. After years of stagnation, wages are finally rising — and they're rising fastest among the lowest-paid workers. Across the country, state and city lawmakers have pushed the minimum wage as high as $15 or $16 per hour, more than double the federal minimum wage.

Ordinarily, this would all be good news for working families. But as a new study suggests, even small month-to-month increases in income can have unintended consequences for households that participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — commonly known as food stamps — to keep their fridge and cabinets stocked.

Families with young children who experience a reduction or cutoff in SNAP benefits because of increased income are more likely to experience food insecurity and report poor health following the benefit change, according to the study, which was published in the journal Health Affairs.

"These findings raise serious concerns about abrupt SNAP reductions and cutoffs for families whose income fluctuates," says lead study author Stephanie Ettinger de Cuba, MPH, executive director of Children's HealthWatch, a national network of pediatricians and researchers based at Boston Medical Center and the Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM). "The economic hardships these families face can take a serious toll on child and caregiver health, including through high levels of stress, inadequate nutrition, and compromised immune systems, leading to increased strain on the health care system."

From 2007 to 2015, Children's HealthWatch surveyed over 8,500 families in five U.S. cities who had participated in SNAP in the previous year. Of those families, 20% reported a reduction in SNAP benefits because of an increase in their income, while 16% reported benefits being cut off because of increased income. Compared to families with consistent SNAP benefit levels, those whose benefits were reduced or cut off were more likely to experience economic hardships, including food insecurity and energy insecurity. They were also more likely to forgo healthcare for family members because they could not afford it.

In addition, families whose benefits were reduced were more likely than their counterparts — including families who lost their SNAP benefits entirely — to report negative health outcomes, including children and caregivers being in fair or poor health and maternal depressive symptoms. Researchers say this seemingly counterintuitive finding could be explained by the possibility that income increases large enough to result in a cutoff may help buffer families from some hardships.

SNAP serves as a buffer against food insecurity for millions of low-income Americans. Food insecurity and other economic hardships have been associated with negative health, developmental, behavioral, and educational issues for children and their caregivers. The majority of SNAP participants with children have earned income. However, SNAP benefits are calculated on the previous month's income, and many low-wage workers have unstable working hours, seasonal jobs, or sporadic overtime hours that can result in unpredictable income fluctuations. When family income increases, it can trigger rapid reductions or termination of SNAP benefits.

The research team argues policymakers should consider ways to make SNAP reductions less abrupt for working families and to smooth the transition out of receiving benefits so that families have a chance to stabilize financially.

"Policymakers could take into account the timing and amount of income increases over a longer period to provide a more realistic picture of family employment and income stability," says Deborah A. Frank, MD, the founder of Children's HealthWatch and a professor of pediatrics at BUSM. "The unintended impacts on child health of benefit loss immediately following potentially short-lived income increases are too great for us to continue with the status quo."

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We Can't Provide Service to a Million on the Backs of a Handful - 407,259 Readers, 215 Donors: Can't Work. That's what we have in 11 days of fundraising for October. A few people have taken a moment to chip in to this month's funding drive, and we greatly appreciate that. But many, many more have not. We can't provide service to a million on the backs of a handful. Help out, it's really painless. / Marc Ash, Founder Reader Supported News

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Climate change and human conflict drive food insecurity in poverty-stricken communities around the globe. (photo: B. Bannon/UNHCR)

Pope Francis Says Link Between Climate Change and Hunger Is Undeniable

By Andrew McMaster, Global Citizen

17 October 17

peaking at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on World Food Day, Pope Francis addressed the need for governments around the world to acknowledge that climate change and migration were leading to increases in world hunger.

Francis received a standing ovation after a stirring speech in which he said all three issues were interrelated and require immediate attention.

"We are called to propose a change in lifestyle and the use of resources," Francis told the audience. "We cannot make do by saying 'someone else will do it.'"

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The Catholic leader's words came on the heels of a recent UN report that showed an increase in people suffering from chronic hunger on account of climate change-related disasters and conflicts.

Global Citizen campaigns on the UN Global Goals for Sustainable Development, including zero hunger and climate action. You can take action on these issues here.

For the first time in over a century, the number of chronically hungry people increased, rising by 38 million people between 2015 and 2016. The UN report noted that 815 million people fit the definition for chronic hunger in 2016, comprising about 11 percent of the world's population.

At the heart of this rise are climate change and human conflict, both of which drive food insecurity in poverty-stricken communities around the globe.

The Pope called on leaders to take immediate and cooperative efforts to reduce resource consumption and waste creation.

Greed and negligence on a planet with limited resources was harming the world's poorest people, Francis said. He warned against understanding these problems through the lens of pity, noting that pity "is limited to emergency aid."

Instead, Francis proposed an integrative solution based on love, solidarity and fraternity. Love is a powerful tool for good Francis said, because it "inspires justice and is essential to bring about a just social order."

In a visceral reminder to world leaders on just how devastating the effects of climate change and conflict caused migration can be, Francis commemorated his visit to the FAO by unveiling a marble statue of three-year old Alan Kurdi, a Syrian-Kurdish migrant who was found dead on the shores of Greece in 2015.

The statue depicts an angel wailing above the boy's corpse. The Vatican said the piece represents represents the tragedy of human migration.

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/46343-pope-francis-says-link-between-climate-change-and-hunger-is-undeniable

Here's How to Support Puerto Rico as It Recovers From Devastating Hurricane Maria 
Remezcla 
Excerpt: "With the island expected to go without power for months, Puerto Rico now needs our help. The US territory is in the midst of a financial crisis and already struggling in many ways." 
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End food insecurity this holiday season

In this season of celebration and plenty, we must not forget those who are going without.

According to the Greater Boston Food Bank, one in nine people in Eastern Massachusetts don’t know where their next meal is coming from -- and that number is rising. In Western Mass., more than 235,000 people face hunger in their daily lives.

There are lots of steps that Congress can take to alleviate food insecurity in America -- and now is the time to enact the solutions.

Today, I’m joining with my Democratic colleagues to call on Congress to take action. Click here and sign the petition to join us.

More and more families are living without food security. About 450,000 people in Massachusetts alone rely on assistance to put food on the table. And regulations have made it even harder to apply for help.

We cannot sit by while families go hungry. As the wealthiest nation in the world, we can and must do more to strengthen food assistance programs across the country.

This holiday season, let Congress know that it’s time to take action for the millions of American families who live day-to-day without food security. Add your name to our petition.

Thank you.

Ed

Paid for by The Markey Committee

Contributions or gifts to The Markey Committee are not tax deductible.

RSN: Five Prerequisites for War Against ISIS, The Native American Community Faces Dangerously High Rates of Food Insecurity, Exclusive: US Accused of Covering Up Death of Six Children in Syria Air Strike

It's Live on the HomePage Now: 
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Robert Reich | Five Prerequisites for War Against ISIS 
 
Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog 
Reich writes: "We appear to be moving ever closer toward a world war against the Islamic State." 
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The Other Laquan McDonalds: More Questionable Killings by Chicago Police 
Justin Glawe, The Daily Beast 
Glawe writes: "Chicago cops killed 19 males last year. Autopsies, police statements, and media reports for several of those killings do not add up." 
READ MORE

Sanders Claims More Women Donors Than Clinton 
Bradford Richardson, The Hill 
Richardson writes: "Roughly 301,000 women have donated to Sanders's campaign compared to 240,000 for Clinton, a more than 60,00 edge as of the last reporting period." 
READ MORE

Blame the West's Interventions for Today's Terrorism
Stephen Kinzer, The Boston Globe 
Kinzer writes: "Interventions multiply our enemies. Every village raid, every drone strike, and every shot fired in anger on foreign soil produces anti-Western passion. Some are shocked when that passion leads to violent reaction. They should not be." 
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The Native American Community Faces Dangerously High Rates of Food Insecurity 
Alex Zielinski, ThinkProgress 
Zielinski writes: "New studies find that 60 percent of counties with a native majority face dangerously high food insecurity rates. And 23 percent of the small U.S. Indigenous population has terrible access to 'adequate food' - almost twice the national average." 
READ MORE

Exclusive: US Accused of Covering Up Death of Six Children in Syria Air Strike 
Simon Hooper and Bilal Abdul Kareem, Middle East Eye 
Excerpt: "A Syrian father has accused the American military of attempting to cover up the deaths of six of his children and the serious injury of two others in a US-led coalition air strike." 
READ MORE

Here's How the Airline Industry Could Cut Its Emissions in Half 
Nick Stockton, Grist 
Stockton writes: "Saving fuel, by reducing carbon emissions, can help save the planet. And those cuts could come at little to no cost to airline companies." 
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reflecting

From Congressman McGovern:

Thanksgiving is a special time for us to reflect on all that we are grateful for.

I wanted you to know how grateful I am for you and for all of the ways you have supported our efforts this year. Democrats all throughout Massachusetts would not have been successful this year without your help. You have so much to be proud of, and I hope you’ll will take a moment to celebrate and give thanks for those accomplishments.

Earlier this month, I participated in Monte’s March, a 26 mile walk for hunger to raise awareness and money for those in our communities who go without enough to eat every day. As you celebrate with your family and loved ones over the next few days, l hope you will keep these families and individuals in your thoughts, and, if you are able, consider making a donation to a local food bank or other charity working to end hunger.

To learn more about organizations that are working to end hunger here in my district, across the country and around the world, please click here. Share with your friends and family on Twitter and Facebook by adding #declarehungerillegal.

Let us resolve to continue fighting to lift up our neighbors in Massachusetts and across the country.

Thank you for everything,

Jim
 

Paid for by the Re-Elect McGovern Committee.

PO Box 60405
Worcester, MA 01606            

CounterCurrents: IPCC Report Predicts A Dark Future For The Planet, Climate Crisis Is Increasing Insecurity, et al

Dear Friend,

If you think the content of this news letter is critical for the dignified living and survival of humanity and other species on earth, please forward it to your friends and spread the word. It's time for humanity to come together as one family! You can subscribe to our news letter here http://www.countercurrents.org/subscribe.htm. You can also follow us on twitter, http://twitter.com/countercurrents and on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/countercurrents

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Binu Mathew
Editor
www.countercurrents.org


IPCC Report Predicts A Dark Future For The Planet
By Countercurrents

http://www.countercurrents.org/cc310314.htm

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group II report published today in Yokohoma, Japan paint a dark future for global humanity and other species on earth. It predicts violent conflicts, food shortages and infrastructure damage in the coming decades, while a growing number of animals and marine species will face increased risk of extinction. The report was compiled by more than 300 authors from 70 different countries with contributions from thousands of global experts


Climate Crisis Is Increasing Insecurity
By Farooque Chowdhury

http://www.countercurrents.org/chowdhury310314.htm

Climate crisis generated increased insecurity is now boldly visible. IPCC, the global scientists’ panel on climate change, for the first time, has connected climate crisis to possibilities of conflicts


Climate Crisis: Reduce Meat, Dairy Consumption
By Countercurrents

http://www.countercurrents.org/cc310314A.htm

Greenhouse gas emissions from food production may threaten the UN climate target of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius, finds a research at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden


Beautiful Sunsets (and Sunrises) In Art
By Subhankar Banerjee

http://www.countercurrents.org/banerjee310314.htm

The question is: What is the long–term stress acidification from Arctic haze might put on the fragile Arctic ecology? While we don’t know this yet, the haze might also be contributing to the rapid polar melt


Adam Smith's Invisible Hand Is At Our Throats
By John Scales Avery

http://www.countercurrents.org/avery310314.htm

For the reasons mentioned here, we can see that an economic system where selfishness and greed are exalted as the mainspring for human actions lacks both a social conscience and an ecological conscience. Both these dimensions are needed for the long-term survival of human civilization and the biosphere


MH 370: Respecting One's Friends
By Chandra Muzaffar

http://www.countercurrents.org/muzaffar310314.htm

As someone who for many years has defended the peaceful rise of China as a global power as a positive development that will lead to the emergence of a more equitable multi-polar international order, it is imperative that China demonstrates greater sensitivity towards its neighbours. It should never be seen as a nation with a narrow, blinkered view of its own interests with little empathy for the honour and dignity of other people, especially those who are its true and tested friends. The MH 370 tragedy has brought this issue to the fore


I Didn't Sign Up For Third
By Tim Gatto

http://www.countercurrents.org/gatto310314.htm

Everything you hear in the Mainstream media is suspect. Everything that comes out of Congress is suspect. The President lies to his people. The government spies on us. This is something I didn't sign up for


Crimean crisis: The smell Of American Hypocrisy In The Air
By Kourosh Ziabari

http://www.countercurrents.org/ziabari310314.htm

The United States is imparting a clear message by adopting this insincere and hypocritical approach toward Russia, which is also a message to other countries: We can invade your countries, we can kill your citizens, we can rule you tyrannically, we can behave in any way we desire, but if you do something which doesn’t please us, we will impose sanctions on you, we will banish you from international organizations, and we will come down on you like a ton of bricks. This is how the American hypocrisy works


Of UN And Harassment Of Kashmiri Students
By Abdul Majid Zargar

http://www.countercurrents.org/zargar310314.htm

The democratic credentials of India touched a nadir when 67 Kashmiri students studying in a Meerut University were charged with sedition and expelled from the university for cheering for Pakistan cricket team. Since then news of hounding & harassment of Kashmiri students are pouring in from many other Indian States as well. Though charges of sedition have since been dropped, the other charges of rioting & promoting enmity between different group etc. still remain, jeopardizing the career of many a meritorious student

Shame!

When a nation allows its children to go hungry rather than raise taxes on the Welfare Wealthy or allows Big Corporations to pay no taxes, how does a person continue to consider themselves a member of the political party that supports that policy and not be ashamed?

The Hungry Child

	We were homeless. My mom. My big sister and me. We slept in the car. . . We went to IHOP and we only got one pancake and we shared it. That was our breakfast... When I was tired of sitting in the car, I would talk to my mom. She would always say a prayer so we could have a better life. We should buy kids good food when they are homeless. We should help them out. -- Jasmine, age 7
	There are six people in our family. But only five sit down to dinner. That’s because my mom doesn’t eat. She wants to make sure we have enough food.

Some children cheer when schools close for winter storms, but there are hungry children in America right now for whom another snow day this week meant another day without access to school breakfast or lunch. Despite criticism some big city mayors have kept schools open on snowy days this winter so their children would not go without food. These same children suffer over the weekends. While some schools have food pantries and send children home on the weekends with backpacks filled with food, it is still far, far from enough and only a drop in the bucket of need. Schools report students who arrive hungry on Monday morning or cry when they miss the bus or it’s late because that means they’ve missed breakfast.

The record 16.1 million children living in poverty, including over seven million living in extreme poverty, leaves millions of children suffering from hunger in our nation with the world’s largest GDP. In 2012 more than one in nine children in the United States lived in households where children were food insecure, meaning they lacked consistent access to adequate food; more than one in five children — 15.9 million — lived in households where either children or adults or both were food insecure. In some families, like Jasmine’s, hunger compounds other crises like homelessness, making them even worse. In many others hunger is almost hidden—a quiet secret of parents struggling to recover from the recession and no longer able to stay afloat. Food pantries have reported that some of the same community members who were once regular donors helping to fill the shelves are now regular visitors in need of help themselves.

Black and Hispanic households with children were more than twice as likely as White households to have food insecure children, but White households comprised the largest group of households (43 percent) with food insecure children. In 2010 and 2011, three-quarters of households with food insecure children had one or more working adults, 80 percent of whom worked full-time.

Children’s physical health and brain development depend on access to nutritious food, especially in the earliest years of life. Hunger and malnutrition have devastating consequences for children. Federal nutrition programs continue to be a critical support to ensure children’s daily nutritional needs are met: they put food on children’s plates, help build healthy minds and bodies, and help lift families out of poverty. A recent study found that needy children who received food assistance before age five were in better health as adults. Food programs are particularly crucial for younger children, as they are more likely to be in poor health, experience developmental delays, and be food insecure when their families’ food benefits are reduced or ended. These programs work. Yet they are not reaching every child in need.

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, which serve over 22 million children — more than one in four children in America — were cut in the recent farm bill by $8.6 billion over 10 years. An estimated 850,000 households, including 1.7 million people, will see a reduction on average of $90 a month in their food assistance. This cut comes on top of the substantial across-the-board benefit reduction that took effect in November 2013 and affected all SNAP households. These cuts are morally offensive and economically indefensible, especially when so many non-needy farmers and others will continue to get agricultural welfare subsidies. SNAP is the only defense against the wolves of hunger for 1.2 million households with children who had no cash income other than SNAP in an average month in FY 2011; FY 2012 is expected to show an increase. It is shameful that Congress continues to treat poor Americans like second class citizens by cutting supports they desperately need.

Like SNAP, the school lunch, breakfast, and summer feeding programs, which provide meals to children in school and during the long hot summer months, are crucial and effective anti-poverty investments that help combat child hunger. They also play a vital role in ensuring children are fed and able to succeed in the classroom. In one study, children who were food insecure in kindergarten saw a 13 percent drop in their reading and math test scores by the third grade compared to their food-secure peers. In FY2012, more than 21 million children received free or reduced-price lunch through the National School Lunch Program and nearly 11 million children received free and reduced price breakfast. When school is out, though, it’s a different story.

The long summer break can be the worst time of all for our young as hunger does not take a summer vacation. The Children’s Defense Fund’s latest report shows only 10 percent of the number of children who relied on free or reduced-price lunch during the school year received meals through the Summer Food Service Program. Despite the fact that it is 100 percent federally-funded and has the potential to create local jobs for cafeteria workers, bus drivers, and others, too many states and communities drag their feet, create mindless bureaucratic hurdles, and make it as difficult as possible to get resources to serve meals to hungry children during the summer. I have never understood why and it should be stopped. Click here to see the 10 best and 10 worst states for child enrollment in Summer Food Service Programs.

It is crucial to start asking about and planning right now for summer feeding programs in your community to make sure there is no child hunger crisis in your area this summer. Encourage local congregations, organizations, community centers, parks and recreation departments, and others to open their doors and feed hungry children this summer. These entities are eligible to become summer feeding sponsors and sites. If you have a connection to a local service or civic program discuss this issue with them and encourage them to take advantage of the opportunity to help hungry children get food. Adults and older children can volunteer to help prepare or serve meals at local sites. Visit the USDA’s website to learn more.

There should be no hungry people—especially no hungry children—in any community in rich America. Jasmine, Vanessa, and millions of children like them deserve better.

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Marian Wright Edelman is President of the Children's Defense Fund whose Leave No Child Behind^® mission is to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities. For more information go to www.childrensdefense.org.

Mrs. Edelman's Child Watch Column also appears each week on The Huffington Post.

25 E Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001 Tel: (800) 233-1200 Children's Defense Fund© 2014 All rights reserved.

Allowing Americans to go hungry is NO compromise!

Thank you Senator Markey for standing up for what's right!

Leo Maley

THANK YOU, Senator Edward J. Markey, for your vote against cuts to SNAP. The Massachusetts delegation was great on this. Still, the forces of heartless inequality can chalk up a "win." Not to worry, though, b/c Obama says its OK: "As with any compromise, the Farm Bill isn’t perfect – but on the whole, it will make a positive difference not only for the rural economies that grow America’s food, but for our nation." Yeah, right. http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/197416-senate-sends-farm-bill-to-obama

 

Edward J. Markey

Today, I voted against passage of the Farm Bill which cuts the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by $8.6 billion over ten years. SNAP is the most... effective anti-hunger program we have. In Massachusetts, 125,000 households may lose $70 per month in food assistance. Instead of stopping wasteful aid to the wealthiest farmers, the Farm Bill slashes SNAP benefits for the poorest Americans, the elderly and disabled. http://1.usa.gov/1gKnX9L