United States

New USAID nutrition strategy reviewed at Washington meeting

by Lane Vanderslice Hunger Notes September 19, 2014

Nutitiion experts and advocates offered observations on and support for the US Agency for International Development's new multisectoral nutrition strategy at a meeting held on Capital Hill in Washington, DC September 17. USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah gave a brief overview of the strategy, which...

Seattle approves $15 minimum wage, setting new standard for big cities

by Kirk Johnson New York Times June 2, 2014

SEATTLE — The City Council here went where no big-city lawmakers have gone before on Monday, raising the local minimum wage to $15 an hour, more than double the federal minimum, and pushing Seattle to the forefront of urban efforts to address income inequality....

Number of children living in poverty drops sharply, Census Bureau says

by Robert Pear New York Times September 16, 2014

WASHINGTON — The poverty rate declined last year for the first time since 2006, the Census Bureau reported on Tuesday. But at the same time, it said, there was no statistically significant change in the number of poor people or in income for the typical American household....

Why temporary assistance may not be enough for the neediest of families

by Jeff Guo Washington Post September 15, 2014

In 1997, the nation embarked on a new experiment in welfare. People would have to work or be looking for work in order to get benefits, and they could only receive 60 months (five years) of assistance before being cut off for life. The name for this latest incarnation of cash welfare was “Temporar...

House committee votes to allow schools to opt out of nutritional program

by Ron Nixon New York Times May 29, 2014

WASHINGTON — The House Appropriations Committee on Thursday passed an agriculture budget bill that included nearly $21 billion for child nutrition that would allow schools to opt out of White House nutritional guidelines passed in 2012. The vote was 31 to 18....

Patricia Brown walks down the sidewalk on her way home after getting off the bus from the offices of the Center for Workforce Innovation in Richmond. The CWI is a city effort designed to match people with jobs in the Richmond area. Her blue folder holds copies of her resume. Photo:Timothy C. Wright/Washington Post

The danger of being pushed off public assistance: For America’s poor, the security of public benefits can outweigh the risks of a low-paying, un...

by Tina Griego Washington Post September 14, 2014

The story is part of Richmond: The legacy of poverty, an ongoing Story line series on the city’s ambitious plan to combat poverty and confront its past. We’ve created a Facebook group to discuss unemployment, underemployment and poverty in America – and what cities can be doing to help. To sha...

Michigan joins move to increase hourly wage

by Monica Davey and Kirk Johnson New York Times May 28, 2014

For several years, Republicans in states such as Michigan have steered clear of raising the minimum wage. That shifted this week, as the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature approved a gradual increase in the state’s wage, to $9.25 an hour....

The way North: a day by day journey by two reporters up Interstate 35 from Laredo, Tex., to Duluth, Minn., chronicling how the middle of America is b...

by Damien Cave and Todd Heisler New York Times May 27, 2014

At migrant shelters in Tijuana, and in boardinghouses just south of Arizona and Texas, I have met dozens of Mexican and Central American immigrants over the past three years who told me, often in English, that they were trying to get back to the lives and the families they had built in Los Angeles a...

Trumpeter swans are among the species that, by 2050, are not expected to be able to live in most of their current territory, according to a report. Photo: Elaine Thompson/Associated Press

Climate change will disrupt half of America’s bird species, study says

by Felicity Barringer New York Times September 8, 2014

The Baltimore oriole will probably no longer live in Maryland, the common loon might leave Minnesota, and the trumpeter swan could be entirely gone....

America’s growing food inequality problem

by Roberto Ferdman Washington Post September 2, 2014

Part of that divide is likely price-driven. Health foods, while growing in popularity (and fast), can be expensive, and, in turn, inaccessible to poorer people not just in America, but anywhere. "Price is a major determinant of food choice, and healthful foods generally cost more than unhealthful fo...

  • World Hunger Education
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  • For the past 40 years, since its founding in 1976, the mission of World Hunger Education Service is to undertake programs, including Hunger Notes, that
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    • Promote individual and collective commitments to sustainable hunger solutions.