cookiesinheaven

"All of us at Share Our Strength are thrilled that long-time hunger advocate and Academy Award-winning actor Jeff Bridges has joined our efforts to end childhood hunger in America by 2015 as the national spokesperson for our No Kid Hungry Campaign™.

Jeff has been a hunger advocate for more than 25 years, having started the End Hunger Network in 1984. He's passionate about the issue and believes that now more than ever, we have the opportunity to end childhood hunger.

Jeff took the No Kid Hungry Pledge during the filming of the campaign's new television public service announcements, which we look forward to sharing with you. If you haven't already, please join Jeff in taking the pledge. By doing so, you'll help us build the public will necessary to end childhood hunger in America." - Billy Shores, Share Our Strength

"Millions of our kids can't learn in school because they are hungry," Bridges says on his official website. "Public charities, food banks, and church pantries are doing more than ever before, but they can't keep up with the need.

Labels: children, food insecurity, Hunger, Jeff Bridges, Share Our Strength

Congress is poised to cut food stamps, taking away an extended benefit created by the 2009 stimulus before its original expiry date and setting up an unprecedented “cliff” in food stamps, now known as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits. To demonstrate how hurtful this might prove, hunger advocate Joel Berg recently spent a week eating according to the SNAP budget.

....The cliff in food stamps means that one month, a family will receive a set amount of money, about $4.50 per person per day. The next month, they will get less. In his week eating according to the SNAP budget, Berg shopped for the first three days as if he received full benefits. For the second two, he shopped as if he received cut benefits. The result? Less food, or less healthy food. - Washington Independent

Labels: childhood, food insecurity, Food Stamps, poverty

....as we head into this future that's been "set in stone for us already," it's important to note that 10.9 percent of U.S. households, representing 12.6 million families, already qualify as "food insecure" by USDA standards. For these folks -- and for people in the global south who have been rioting in response to being priced out of the food market -- spiraling costs may be impossible to accept, no matter what the former Conagra guy says. They will be forced into wrenching decisions -- what to eliminate from their budgets to keep the food coming. - Grist

Labels: Food, food insecurity, prices