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Food stamps
Quick Hit
by Steven Ross Johnson
3:38pm
Thu Jan 5

Bleak Picture For Illinois Food Banks In 2012

By most measures, 2011 will be remembered as one of the most challenging years for many of the state’s food banks, pantries, shelters and soup kitchens.

Efforts to feed those residents who don’t know where their next meal is coming from has been a daunting task - as the level of demand has risen to some of its highest levels in recent memory.

With government and private donations on the decline, many charitable food providers have been forced to do more with less in order to continue operating, which has raised concerns that conditions for the state’s hungry might get even worse in 2012.

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Quick Hit
by Matthew Blake
9:57am
Tue Dec 20, 2011
2 comments

Addressing Chicago's Growing Hunger Problem

With the holiday season in full swing, the news is grim for hunger in Chicago – more and more Cook County residents don’t know where the next meal is coming from and food pantry donations are down.

Also, Congress is scheduled to reauthorize the farm bill next year – and the new legislation might include cuts in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, i.e. food stamps.

On Monday, hunger relief workers and city officials testified at a City Council hearing on food insecurity in Chicago, convened by the committees on Health and Environmental Protections as well as Economic, Capital, and Technology Development.

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Quick Hit
by Aaron Krager
2:39pm
Wed Sep 21, 2011

New Study Provides Food Insecurity Rates For Cook County

For the first time, data pertaining to food insecurity and hunger exists on a neighborhood and suburban level for the Chicagoland area. The numbers reveal stark contrasts between Chicago neighborhoods as well as suburbs. Citywide, a staggering 20.6 percent of the population suffers from food insecurity, which is defined as reduced quality, variety or desirability in a diet that leads to disrupted eating patterns and reduced food intake.

The study by the Greater Chicago Food Depository (GCFD) is based on U.S. Department of Agriculture numbers released in the Food Insecurity in the United States 2009 data set.

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PI Original
by
1:08pm
Fri Aug 5, 2011
4 comments

Poverty, Food Stamp Use Hits Record High

Poverty

The most recent numbers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) shows the country now has a record-breaking number of people receiving food stamp benefits. Alabama saw a huge uptick following a major natural disaster but one root to their problem is their high poverty rate --something the Chicago-area knows well too.

Quick Hit
by
3:16pm
Thu Apr 14, 2011

Harsh Words As Controversial Food Stamp Bill Passes House

There were harsh words in the heated debate on a House bill that requires the Department of Human Services to see how much it costs to print pictures on LINK cards. HB 161’s sponsor Rep. Chapin Rose (R-Mahomet) was accused by fellow legislators of picking on poor people, physically intimidating Democrats in a “bullish” manner, and creating the “most wasteful spending of our time in state government.”
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Quick Hit
by Micah Maidenberg
9:05am
Thu Mar 17, 2011

Bill Would Make It Harder To Use Food Stamps

Food assistance has been a lifeline for Illinois families hammered by the worst recession in decades and its aftermath, but legislation in Springfield is now advancing that would restrict who could actually use LINK cards, the state's electronic food stamp program.

In a largely party line vote, with all Democrats save one voting against and all Republicans voting in favor, legislators passed HB 161 out of the House Human Services Committee yesterday. The Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law notes the bill would prevent more than one million people in Illinois from directly using a LINK card; only heads of households accessing foodstamps would be allowed to do so. The 1.8 million residents here currently use foodstamps -- a record high number -- live in 850,000 households, the Shriver center reports. "Other members of the household, including the head of household's spouse, children, parents, and other relatives living in the household, would not be able to go to the store and use the [LINK] card," the Shriver center writes. Stay tuned on this one.

Quick Hit
by Adam Doster
3:02pm
Mon Jan 17, 2011
1 comment

Number Of The Day: 857,282

That's how many Illinois households were enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) this December, according to data obtained by the Sun-Times. The figure represents a 12 percent jump from one year ago.

Illinois' unemployment rate may be falling, but hunger continues to rise. In 2009, 17.2 percent of Illinois households qualified as "food insecure," meaning that at one point in the year, the family did not have enough money to purchase food. The Greater Chicago Food Depository -- which provides food to over 650 pantries, soup kitchens, and shelters in Cook County -- told the paper that it's witnessed "a roughly 65 percent to 70 percent increase in individuals served at its pantries since 2007." And while Congress included additional support for the successful (and stimulative) food assistance program in the Obama administration's economic recovery package, emergency funding will be cut short earlier than anticipated because Republicans insisted that a critical state aid package this summer be "deficit neutral." If these trends continue, lawmakers in the capitol may have to rework the terms of that Faustian bargain.