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HungerNetOhio # 7.1: Hunger Issues for 2010
Email
conversations about "ending
hunger in Ohio through changing conditions
which
cause poverty"
| TO |
Advocates for reducing
hunger |
| FROM |
Hunger Network in
Ohio |
| ABOUT |
Abuse/Neglect of--but Hope for-the Desperate |
This year Ohioans in dire poverty will be faced with a two kinds of obstacles that could further reduce their capacities to cope. One is indifference and the other exploitation. Using terms to describe these dual demons often associated with child welfare, neglect and abuse seem to capture this moment.
Under the first category of neglect, we entered this year chained to a State budget that will likely continue a downward course of failing to address basic needs of many of the most vulnerable among us.
Alongside negligence, potential abuses abound impacting those least able to resist and most to lose. Several crude and notorious predators seem relentlessly poised to further erode especially the capability of low-income families. They include one already publicly approved gambling initiative and a second ready to pounce on voters this spring. And, already voted out in November 08, extravagant payday lending practices continue abusively unabated.
But hope exists for addressing these and other forms impediments toward greater economic justice. Community-based--often church-related--opportunities exist for confronting these needs for emergency food, urgent services, and counter initiatives against public programs that exploit those who struggle to survive.
Moreover, and addressing the larger dynamics of economically disadvantaged families, recommendations from a comprehensive bipartisan study were released in 2009 naming specific and manageable ways for reducing poverty in Ohio. Also, efforts also intensified late last year to offer low-wage workers tax credits to further stretch their limited dollars. And, 14 years deep into improving the way we help the economically depressed, the federal government and Ohio officials continue to try to refine and apply its intentions of moving those in poverty toward greater self-sufficiency. Each of these programs offers chances for ending hunger in Ohio through reducing conditions that create and sustain poverty.
Let's re-energize imagination and will required to rejuvenate these efforts.
SHORT
CUT:
For
those who insist, "JUST TELL ME
WHAT TO
DO!"
(Departing from our usual practice of targeting specific legislation and legislators, we offer these broad, more preliminary suggestions for moving forward in the year ahead):
Begin from within
Look first into our own hearts. Recognize the Source of our caring by developing regular patterns of spiritual discipline within ourselves and with our families. Consider setting aside moments during daily meals to read biblical readings and reflect on suggested themes. “I was Hungry…,” a Lenten Advocacy Calendar of scriptural suggestions and motivational quotes from the Hunger Network in Ohio will sent out before the Lenten season.
Better Understand the issues
Become a “gadfly” to persuade members of our congregations to study these complex, often dismissed, but critical programs. Encourage our congregations to set aside at least a Sunday morning class or, better a series of meetings to discuss severe poverty and why people remain stuck. One option is the Hunger Network in Ohio 2010 version of its hunger issues booklet featuring these issues. “Plenty and Scarcity” will be available for use during Lent.
Mobilize those who care
“Stir the pot” by calling fellow members to stew over how they might make a difference. Become ourselves or identify within our church a Congregational Contact Person to coordinate your combined efforts and keep the energy flowing.
Change the “System”
Get started ourselves by contacting legislators about our concerns and, then, recruiting others to join us:
o Recruit additional person to receive and encourage them to respond to these public policy email alerts
o Come together with those talking regularly with public officials on “Tuesday at the Statehouse”
Want to make a difference in the lives of hurting Ohioans? Here are some ideas about what to look for and what to fight this year:
Two Overall Concerns
The impact of unresponsive economic decisions demand our personal attention and political action this year. To be hunger-specific, this means primarily continuing to press for better funding and more effective assistance through program such as foodbanks, children's school nutrition, and local family services. We will simultaneous be reminded within our larger network of human advocates about the human implication in other budgetary deficits, including mental health, housing, and jobs creation.
Buoyed by the November ballot approval of casinos across the State, video slots are slated for the spring ballot. These are both unconscionable means for benefiting the richest at the expense of the poorest--as is the shady practice of lending money to people of sparse means accompanied with hidden fees, exorbitant interest rates, and manipulative checking-cashing enticements. Even after defeated at the ballot in 2008, too many payday lenders continue unabatedly to maneuver unsuspecting clients into greater debt with deceptive deals in susceptible neighborhoods across the State. Although secondary to direct relief of hunger, these and other exploitative entrepreneurs, disguised as civicly responsible and economic enhancing businesses, pose moral dilemmas and call for social and economic justice.
Potential Antidotes
Confronting the growth of families depend upon reduced public services workforce, the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks continues to be diligent in leveraging funding and providing emergency help for the hungry. They also have been instrumental in recruiting volunteers to create “Benefit banks in communities-often church food pantries--throughout the State. Churches which have been at the forefront of defeating gambling legislation have not relinquished their moral authority of persuasion against these types of public nuisance. And the Ohio Coalition for Responsible Lending is shepherding new legislation to assure fair and just lending practices by small loan lenders.
Evidence is also available and opportunities exist for turning around at least some of the conditions that tolerate-if not generate-subsistence. For example, this past year's research resulting in recommendations for reducing poverty in Ohio are contained in the Ohio Antipoverty Task Force Report. This is a critically important document which, ironically, seemed to have gotten lost during budget hearings about the relationship between overcoming poverty and the use of money. It needs to be resurrected and implemented.
Another is a rejuvenated attempt to establish a state Earned Income Tax Credits. This has been primarily a federal program which, however, other states have implemented their own versions across the country. It would allow low-income families to retain a larger portion of their earnings.
And Temporary Assistance to Families in Need (TANF) is under going both scrutiny and potential for improvement. Begun with great fanfare and bipartisan determination to “end welfare as we know it,” it provides federal guidelines and substantial funds to states for generating greater self-sufficiency with those submerged below the poverty level. Yet, it has languished from its auspicious beginnings, particularly during this most recent economic recession.
The Hunger Network in Ohio is dedicated to confront these and related issues next year. In addition to taking them to legislators at our regular Tuesday at the Statehouse visits, we will highlight them in “HungerNetOhio,” our periodic public policy emailing alerts. And they will each be explored and explained in greater detail in our upcoming edition of “Plenty and Scarcity: Hunger and Public Policy 2010.
We approach these endeavors, not isolated and on our own but as participants in a broader discussion and network of advocate for justice, determined to achieve our mission of ultimately ending hunger in Ohio.
Recently Released Information and Key Organizations that Address these Concerns
A variety of research and commentaries about these and other poverty-generated challenges are listed below under our links and references.
NCSL (NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF STATE LEGISLATURE) ANNUAL FORECAST: BUDGETS LEAD TOP 10 ISSUES OF 2010, HTTP://WWW.INPUT.COM/BLOGS/PUBLIC/INDEX.CFM/2007/12/20/THE-TROUBLESOME-TOP-TEN-NCSLS-FORECAST-FOR-2008
COMMUNITY ACTION AGENCIES RELEASE 'STATE OF POVERTY' REPORT HTTP://WWW.OACAA.ORG/
STARK COUNTY'S 'NEW POOR' STRUGGLE TO MAKE ENDS MEET.”
HTTP://WWW.CANTONREP.COM/STARK/CANTON/X985826923/STARK-COUNTYS-NEW-POOR-STRUGGLE-TO-MAKE-ENDS-MEET
FAMILIES STRUGGLE TO AFFORD FOOD, SURVEY FINDS. HTTP://WWW.NYTIMES.COM/2010/01/26/US/26FOOD.HTML
OHIO ASSOCIATION OF SECOND HARVEST FOODBANKS. HTTP://WWW.OASHF.ORG/
OHIO ANTI-POVERTY TASK FORCE REPORT
WWW.GOVERNOR.OHIO.GOV/.../OAPTF%20FINALREPORT%20042809.PDF
POLICY BASICS: AN INTRODUCTION TO TANF. HTTP://WWW.CBPP.ORG/CMS/?FA=VIEW&ID=936
COMMUNITY RESEARCH PARTNERS (CRP) RESEARCH QUANTIFIES SOCIAL IMPACT OF A CASINO. HTTP://WWW.COMMUNITYRESEARCHPARTNERS.ORG/14651.CFM?ACTION=DETAIL&ID=146
GAMBLING COULD HURT 22,000 PEOPLE HTTP://WWW.DISPATCH.COM/LIVE/CONTENT/LOCAL_NEWS/STORIES/2010/01/21/CASINO_ILLS.ART_ART_01-21-10_B1_PCGC7HO.HTML?SID=101
OHIO EARNED INCOME TAX CREDIT. HTTP://WWW.POLICYMATTERSOHIO.ORG/EITC/EITC.HTM
OHIO COALITION FOR RESPONSIBLE LENDING. HTTP://WWW.COHHIO.ORG/ADVOCACY_RESPONSIBLE_LENDING.PHP
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