Hungry American Families

Hunger isn't just a "Third World Problem." It's here, all around us. Second Harvest is running out of food locally (in the greater Milwaukee area) and nationally, and contributions aren't keeping up with the demand, which is getting larger every day, far outstripping their capacity to provide what hungry families need. Children are going hungry - maybe children in your neighborhood - kids you would never dream in a million years their families couldn't afford to buy enough groceries to feed them... But - have you noticed - their second car disappeared from the driveway? Harry and Sue look a little thin these days - they claim it's because they're following "The Biggest Loser" on the television? They turn down invitations to the neighborhood monthly pot-lucks after the last time, some months ago, when Sue showed up with a not too tasty tuna casserole instead of her signature Angus Beef Burgers? Harry has taken a second job at a local super market doing the 12 to 4 a.m. shift stocking shelves. Sue has taken over the health insurance for the family at her secretarial job because Harry's company, where he's worked for 18 years, eliminated all of those benefits, claiming the expense was just too great and it was either stay in business or provide health insurance and benefits for the employees and go bust. Yet, the boss and his sons and daughters-in-law are still driving their Mercedes and SUVs while claiming dire poverty. Sue elected the highest deductible health insurance plan available through her employer, but it's still costing $650 a month. That's a big chunk out of her gross salary of $45,000 (she nets about two-thirds of that after deductions for federal and state income taxes, Social Security taxes and Medicare taxes. This does not, of course, include deductions for the cost of Sue's family plan health insurance coverage and the monthly bus pass she buys, since Harry needs the van to go to and form work.) In 2008 Sue's employer gave her a 2.9% raise. She will not receive another salary adjustment until 2009. Harry and Sue's property taxes increased by 8.9% last year. We all know what's happened with the prices of gasoline, electricity, water, natural gas - all keep increasing by rates far exceeding 2.9%. Sue is lucky, though. Harry didn't get a raise at all. At this point, they are just barely hanging on. But lately Harry's been feeling sick. He's afraid - he's afraid he might have a form of cancer that runs in his family, but he doesn't want to go to the doctor - they can't afford the out of pocket cost with that high deductible plan. His group life insurance lapsed because he couldn't afford to pay the premiums after his employer stopped paying for the group policy. He can't talk to Sue about this. She already has enough to worry about. The gas-guzzling van needs work that they can't afford and they can't trade it in because no one wants a gas-guzzling van these days. The kids need dental work but they won't get it because Sue couldn't afford to continue to pay the monthly premiums for family dental coverage. They opted for an occasional pound of hamburger (on sale), instead. It's just stress, Harry thinks, that's making him feel sick to his stomach all the time. Just stress. By the way, Harry and Sue don't qualify for food stamps. They "make too much money." From The New York Times Food Stamps Buy Less, and Families Are Hit Hard By LESLIE KAUFMAN Published: June 22, 2008 Making ends meet on food stamps has never been easy for Cassandra Johnson, but since food prices began their steep climb earlier this year, she has had to develop new survival strategies. She hunts for items that are on the shelf beyond their expiration dates because their prices are often reduced, a practice she once avoided. Ms. Johnson, 44, who works in customer service for a medical firm, knows that buying food this way is not healthy, but she sees no other choice if she wants to feed herself and her 1-year-old niece Ammni Harris and 2-year-old nephew Tramier Harris, who live with her. “I live paycheck to paycheck,” said Ms. Johnson, as she walked out of a market near her home in Hackensack, N.J., pushing both Ammni and the week’s groceries in a shopping cart. “And we’re not coping.” The sharp rise in food prices is being felt acutely by poor families on food stamps, the federal food assistance program. In the past year, the cost of food for what the government considers a minimum nutritional diet has risen 7.2 percent nationwide. It is on track to become the largest increase since 1989, according to April data, the most recent numbers, from the United States Department of Agriculture. The prices of certain staples have risen even more. The cost of eggs, for example, has increased nearly 20 percent, and the price of milk and other dairy products has risen 10 percent. Rest of article. ************************************************************************************** Harry and Sue aren't real people - but I do know people like Harry and Sue. I work with them; I ride the bus to and from work with people like them.

Friday Night Miscellany

Bonjour darlings! That's about the extent of the French I remember being force-fed as a school girl. I was hopeless, never did learn to "roll" my "r"s, lol! Another work week is over, thank Goddess! Free at last! Now I have to try and squeeze into two days of forecasted crappy weather a week's worth of chores, including yard work (the backyard is still an awful mess, and with each storm it gets worse). I always lose that battle... There is so much depressing news these days - the situation in Burma with the Junta depriving thirsty, starving, homeless hundreds of thousands of people of much needed supplies because "they want to distribute it themselves" - yeah, right - right into the mouths of the army and forget the rest of the people. What's it to them if a couple hundred thousand people die as a result of a cyclone, heh? Less voters to deal with. And then, of course, there's every prospect of a new civil war breaking out in Lebanon because the Shiites just don't know how to get along with everyone else. Sorry guys - but you are one religion that should be wiped off the face of the earth - along with all adherents of Jerry Farwell. No difference as far as I can see. Not to be forgotten are our ever-rising gasoline prices, natural gas prices, the cost of food at the super-market, mass lay-offs, the sinking dollar - all blamed on China's voracious appetite for EVERYTHING - well, if the shoe fits. Speaking of China, how many children now have died from a "common ailment" called foot and mouth disease? Say what? I thought that was something cows and sheep caught, for Goddess' sake! The last thing I read, it was something like 223 children dead, and nearly 20,000 more infected. Oh - I know - they'll blame it on the USA - we force-fed tainted Coca-Cola to the babies as a way to kill a few hundred thousand and cut demand for scarce natural resources. What do they call the Politburo in China? Neo-Putinists? Whatever they're called, they'll order that the heads of a few not good-Communist medium level managers (everyone knows they're all corrupt, darlings) are chopped off accidentally in prison where they would otherwise be sentenced for the next 240 years. And the Glorious Leaders and their obedient munchkins in the Chinese press will tell their citizens (and the west) that the problem of fraudulently under-reporting (or not reporting at all) such outbreaks to the World Health Organization (not to mention the Chinese big wigs in Peking) has been solved. Chop chop... All is just fine for Summer Olympics and much propaganda making, tankee bery much. Makes me want to puke. So, tonight, I'm trying to find uplifting, happy news. Well, let's see - there's this report that the Sahara dried out "gradually" over a couple thousand of years rather than "all at once" - well, who the heck thought it dried out all at once, anyway? Duh! So, all you folks afraid of dying within my lifetime from global warming-caused climatic changes - relax! It won't happen until your great-grandchildren are grandparents! Oh, here's good news! The wave of the future - getting rid of the dead with jazzed-up lye! Oh - wait a minute - that's what they used to do thousands of years and, come to think of it, not so long ago - throw people and dead animals into lime pits, or something like that. Then - didn't they fish out the bones and suck out the marrow? Eeeeeeuuuuuuwwwwww! Okay, okay, I'm not doing so well in the "happy news" department. What about this - cue spooky music from classic Alfred Hitchcock movie "The Birds:" Crows are taking over Japan - they're rummaging for yummies in the garbage bags piled up on city streets (ooooh, yech), they're nesting in electric power poles and causing continual power outages across the country, and - CUE THAT SPOOKY MUSIC - hungry crows have bloodied the faces of children while trying to steal candy from their hands. Crows have even carried away baby prairie dogs and ducklings from Tokyo zoos, city officials said... Flocks of ravens on killing sprees in the United Kingdom. Calves, lambs, and sheep pecked to death. Animals not killed have been left in agony as the birds eat their eyes, tongues and the soft flesh of their underbelly. Ohmygoddess! It's a sign of the end, I tell you, a sign of the end!!! EEEEEEEEEEKKKK! Everyone - learn how to use slingshots - QUICK! Maybe if you can pick out the buggers' eyes with a couple of stones you can save yourselves and your children - not to mention your cattle... Ha ha ha, we can laugh, right, because bird attacks aren't happening here on our home turf (USA) - wrongo! Check this out: An unusual kind of bird-watching is underway in Downtown Austin (Texas, USA) these days. Several mockingbirds are attacking people as they pass by the Stephen F. Austin building. On a happier note (yes, I found one, yippee!), tomorrow morning is our monthly meeting of the ladies' investment club. We are now five strong, having added our fifth member formally in March. We are doing great. Our share value, which started out at $10 back in January, 2005, is now close to $20. Our goal is to double our money every five years (to do that we need to make an annual return of 14.9% a year), and we've nearly done that with about 1.5 years to spare before our next 5-year cycle starts. We're not sitting on a ton of cash, either. We're nearly fully invested. Just a day ago we made our latest purchase and now we've only got about $350 in cash left, so we'll accumulate a kitty and pull the trigger again, when we find a suitable investment opportunity. My investing partners are some smart women! By pooling our resources we accumulate cash in a relatively short period of time and invest by consensus after doing work-ups on likely companies and publicly-traded partnerships within which to invest, following the precepts of the National Association of Investors Corporation. Email makes communication so easy, we can pull the trigger on an investment at the drop of a hat if we wish; but we love getting together once a month for breakfast, gossip, planning our next ladies' outing (we've done Chicago shopping, two spa visits, and Christmas shopping with the carolers at Bayshore Mall), doing portfolio reviews and making and studying investment suggestions. Making money is fun! One last note for tonight. Spare money is hard to come by these days, but please consider contributing goods and whatever cash you can to your local food pantries. On May 10th locally the U.S. Postal Workers are having a collection here tomorrow for the Hunger Task Force, and I've been busy lugging canned goods home all week (a mile on foot, since you know I don't drive) from the supermarket. Our local food pantries, which depend on the Hunger Task Force, are in trouble because so many more families are visiting each month now. There are severe shortages of goods and cash. There are hungry children here, in Milwaukee, and in nearly every community in the United States. The federal government's in-kind contributions to food pantries across the land has greatly decreased under George Bush's administration. Hunger Task Force sent the word out that they would run out of food and money long before the end of the year. The Postal Workers' pick-up of food contributions right from your front porch and your mail boxes (like mine, which is at the curb) is only a few years old here, but it's a great idea. It makes in-kind contributions easy - all you have to do is buy the stuff, the postal workers pick it up and deliver it. It's amazing what you can buy on sale in canned goods with just $20 (and a few coupons) - and I'm not just talking about string beans! I purchased canned tuna in water, sliced peaches, sliced pears (these are treats for food pantries), canned stews, hearty-eating soups with meat and spaghetti sauce with meat in addition to the standard fare of Campbell's Chicken Noodle and Tomato soups. I'll send a cash contribution for those things that shouldn't be put into a food drive - such as packaged pastas and "Hamburger Helper," cereals, etc. etc. Hunger Task Force can pool all cash contributions and buy these items in bulk, along with other bulk goods such as dried milk that the federal government no longer contributes in amounts it used to, despite the growing need. Tomorrow morning on my way to breakfast with the ladies, I'm stopping by Walgreens, which this week is having a sale on "Taster's Choice" freeze-dried instant coffee (regular and de-caf), and I'll fork over some cash to buy some coffee for the food drive. People don't think about it, but food pantries don't have the cash, usually, to buy coffee to stock their shelves (same for canned fruit), and this isn't something that people ordinarily think to contribute. My driving thought always is - if I have to go to a food pantry, what would I ask for, and what would I want to be able to receive? I've been so richly blessed by the Goddess - oh, not cash wise - I'm not a six figure a year person (through my own choice0. My blessings are my family, my friends, my loved ones, the knowledge I've been able to acquire about so many different subjects, my "voice." And I've got some $$$ to contribute to those who are in need. Tell me, what more do I need? It really is true that if you share what you have with others, you will receive so much more back in return. Good night, darlings.