Nicholas Kristof is a two-time Pulitzer prizewinning books and “Prudence or Cruelty” was feature in the New York Times in 2013. In “Prudence or Cruelty” it discuss the potential of ridding our society of food stamps to help boost our economy. Children everyday wonder when, not what, their next meal will be. As sad as it sounds, but “5 percent of American households have very low food security” (Kristof 172). This basically means the household can run out of food whenever, and this usually leads to a parent not eating to make sure their kids have enough to eat.
Three services in my community are Meals on Wheels, several classes and support groups (I will only talk about one: Stepping On), and Memory Cafes. All of these services are through the ADRC and are proven to be very helpful. The Meals on Wheels program serve 50,000 meals per year and is continuing to grow. This program is available on a long-term or temporary basis and is for people that are recovering from a surgery or illness.
Feeding America is a nationwide network of 200 food banks and 60,000 food pantries and meal programs that provides food and services to people each year. Together this network is the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief organization. Recently, more families and individuals begin to struggle with hunger due to the cost of living increasing and income from employers not being sufficient enough to feed and take care of a family. Price and income shifts can radically impact the poor and hungry.
Block grants refer to programs in which the federal government provides large sums of money to state governments in order to pay for various services, such as in the case of this report, health care. Block grants tend to have very little regulation has to how the funds should be spent. Instead, the receivers of the block grants get to decide on how the funds should be allocated. The United States has been using block grants notably since the 1970s under a political ideology known of “New Federalism” (Kodjak, 1).
SNAP is a government program considered by many to be “the nation’s most important anti-hunger program”. It has helped more than 46 million Americans get a nutritious diet (“Policy Basics”). SNAP helps pay for food by giving a certain amount of Food Stamps, depending on household size, income, and expenses, to households that are below the poverty line (“What is the SNAP”). It was originally created for low-income people to get food that was in surplus. Eventually, the program
In addition, it provided assistance to blind and handicapped Americans and to dependent children who did not have a wage-earning parent. The act also established the nation's first federally-sponsored system of unemployment insurance.” (Digital History) The Act was funded by small deductions from employees and the employer, this was to ensure that the funding would not be from the government but from the people back to the people. (Digital History)
I thought Meals on Wheels of America was just a simple organization covering the surrounding counties that provided a meal a day to senior citizens who had trouble providing a meal for themselves. However, I have learned that Meals on Wheels of America was established in 1954 and is the oldest and largest national organization representing community based senior nutrition programs and that it has 5,000 member programs, in which they provide over 1 million meals to seniors every day, which are served at senior centers as well as delivering meals directly to the homes of seniors whose mobility is limited. After reading chapter 6 and learning about outpatient and inpatient services, I have realized in my experience as a volunteer at a local
The SNAP benefit cuts will make it harder for low-income individuals and families to put food on the table. For instance, if The Agriculture Act of 2014 cuts SNAP expenditures by $8.6 billion over the next years, “anti-hunger advocates said the bill would harm 850,000 American households, about 1.7 million people spread across 15 states, which would lose an average of $90 per month in benefits because of the cuts in the food stamp program” (Nixon, 2014). There have been cuts in the past to the SNAP program that has affected many participants. The cuts that have been realized in The Agriculture Act of 2014 in the SNAP program has related cuts that were caused due to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. When the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 ended it triggered quite a commotion for its termination of temporary increases in SNAP benefit levels that were included in the SNAP program.
It goes towards Health Services. Planned Parenthood does affordable STD tests, that if it gets defunded means less people will have access to affordable tests. For example, when Vice President Mike Pence was Governor of Indiana, he cut funds for Planned Parenthood. That shut down the only HIV testing center in Scott county. Shortly after, a HIV epidemic spread that county and then other parts of Indiana.
The social welfare has been a debatable argument for year in the U.S, many since the people have different beliefs in the welfare policy. Many time being is that the federal government had chosen to stay away from social welfare while also choosing to be heavily involved with it, making the federal agencies heavily involved in policy making. Since poverty was considered a problem, they believe that the problem would get better within time if there was a sudden change to make anti-poverty programs. In the great depression 1930’s the local and state government provided support for the poor, many assistances coming from churches were people would receive free food and agencies supplying the size of aid available to them.
As a whole, the policy implemented by the Department of Job and Family Services could also have an impact on society. The United States spent almost $26 billion on child welfare services in federal fiscal year 2006. The federal government provided over $12 billion, state governments almost $11 billion, and local governments almost $3 billion (http://www.childwelfarepolicy.org/perspectives?id=0001). In most states, foster care children are eligible for Medicaid cards, including dental, medical, and counseling services; however, the financing structure has not kept pace with a changing child welfare field. The program is authorized by title IV-E of the Social Security Act, as amended, and implemented under the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) at 45 CFR parts 1355, 1356, and 1357.
It covers children, the aged, blind, and/or disabled and other people who are eligible to receive federally assisted income maintenance payments; covering doctor visits, hospital expenses, nursing home care, home health care, and more. Medicaid essentially covers the basic needs; but it doesn’t. All of these “anti-poverty” programs are a stretch. They are “keeping-you-alive-but-still-in-poverty” programs. They give food and shelter but don’t give something as small as diapers.
These governmental social programs are a big help to people , they have been here for many generations and will continue to provide access to Americans who have trouble and need
Nearly half of America’s food goes to waste every year. Feeding America is an organization that specializes in fighting hunger and helping people that don’t have food. 42 million people face hunger in the U.S. today including nearly 13 million children and more than five million seniors. Hunger knows no boundaries, it touches every community in the U.S., including your own. Volunteers power the Feeding America network.
Also the websites states the need for plenty of healthy food choices for children instead of cheaper, more calorie-packed alternatives (“Looking for Info?”). This is where federal food programs come into play and can make a difference in children’s lives. Children are dying day after day due to hunger and these food programs can stop that. These federal food programs can keep kids healthy and can make a difference in the future and life they will continue to
