by Lyn Lomasi, Staff Writer Sometimes people get overwhelmed with trying to help their favorite causes by making things more difficult than they need to be. Advocating for the homeless is no different. You don't need to be the leader of a huge organization or a millionaire to help the homeless. Advocating for those faced with homelessness can be achieved with ordinary acts. Bake pies for the local shelter program While people living on the streets could use more wholesome meals, maybe pie baking is your gift. Your pies could be a welcome addition after a balanced meal at the local soup kitchen. Pies may not be an absolute necessity. But comfort foods can help bring back good memories. Plus, even when you're homeless, you deserve a nice treat now and then too. Give blankets to homeless kids Are you good at sewing? Maybe you're just good at shopping. Either way, try donating blankets that homeless kids can use. A blanket may seem like a simple thing to you or me. But many homeless people go without blankets every day and children are our most vulnerable citizens. Volunteer for uncommon activities Do you know of a local shelter or other organization for the homeless? Try volunteering to read to kids, teach kids to read, do a magic show, take a family on a fun outing, and more. There are many possibilities. Volunteering to do the uncommon things can make a big difference, even when the act seems small.
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Stacey Carroll - Contributing writer Living on minimum wage or close to it is nearly impossible. It’s a horrible situation and worse than living paycheck to paycheck because you have to decide whether to eat or pay rent or other utility bills. I know because I lived it, and I am still living it. At one point in my life, I had a job where I was working 40 hours a week at $8.10 an hour. I was bringing home $998 a month after taxes. That's $12,000 a year or $1,500 a year more than the poverty line for one person. No matter what the government says, I was living in poverty. My rent was $630 a month. My electricity was $120 a month. My cell phone bill was $75 a month, and my internet was $45 a month. That left me with $128 to buy food, essentials, and gas for the month or $32 a week. Gas Since I lived a mile from work, I put $10 in gas in my car every week for a monthly total of $40. That was enough to get me to and from work. It was not enough to take me anywhere else, so I did all my shopping at work since I worked in a large retail store. Essentials With $20 left for the week, I had to budget for all my essentials. The number one thing I needed for the month was toilet paper, and I spent $6.98 a month on toilet paper. I spent .74 a bottle on shampoo and conditioner, and I needed two bottles of each a month for a total of $2.96. I bought 3-packs of ivory hand soap for .97 cents, and one bottle of dish soap for $1. Both of those items lasted the entire month for a total of $1.97. I bought one tube of toothpaste for the month at $1. I didn't buy laundry soap. I used dish soap to wash dishes and clothes. The total monthly cost of all my essentials was $12.91 or $3.23 a week. Food After buying my essentials, I had $16 a week leftover for food. I'd buy a bag of rice for 82 cents, four packages of smoked sausage for $5.56, four cans of pork and beans for $2.60, and six $1 frozen pizzas. I'd eat a pizza for breakfast, skip lunch, and eat either beans and rice for dinner or beans and smoked sausage. It was a total weekly cost of $14.98. I did not buy bread, milk, eggs or cereal. All of those items were too expensive for my budget. After taxes, my total weekly expenses were $30.63 The Other $2 My budget at the top says that I had $32 a week to spend. Yet, I only spent $30. The other $2 I regularly lent out to my coworkers who had to drive farther or couldn't afford lunch. Two dollars was three quarters of a gallon of gas at the time, and could mean the difference between getting to work on Friday and not getting to work. For others, $2 meant being able to afford lunch. Even though I was struggling to feed myself and get to work, some of my coworkers were worse off. By Mike Thompson, Contributing Writer
Heading toward the presidential election, through three debates, neither candidate uttered the word "poverty." That's sad and tragic, and while this omission is a lousy reflection upon both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, it's also a lousy reflection on mainstream U.S. society, at least in political terms. In such a close election, it would likely be political suicide for either Obama or Romney to speak with any sympathy toward people most in need. There would be a backlash, and accusations of "big government" and even "socialism" from the other side. Obama also is branded as "the food stamp president," although he speaks rarely about increasing food aid during times of economic recession. Both candidates harp on uplifting the "middle class," which somehow has transformed to include families making up to $250,000 per year. Every rare once in a while, I've heard Obama add that he aims to uplift the poor into the middle class. But only every rare once in a while. Making matters worse, the Associated Press reports that as census data continues to be amassed (the Census Bureau remains active in between the every-decade counts), the poverty rate is soaring toward 15.7 percent, the highest since the War on Poverty started during the middle 1960s. Based on my memories of the idealistic mid- and late-60s, if there had been presidential debates back then, poverty most certainly would have been on the agenda. So why has poverty become a blind spot in our general political discourse? Some critics will say it's because of frustration at lack of progress, because the War on Poverty has been a failure. After all, we've spent all this money, and one in six families still is officially poor -- for example, an income of less than $23,000 for a four-person household. I disagree; I'd hate to think of how things would be without the various War on Poverty programs, at least the ones that have survived and that have not been stripped bare. Other critics will assert that a culture of dependency has been created. Any of us who are honest must admit we have seen some individual examples of this, but too many of us ignore what activist Peter Edelman described as a "tidal wave" of minimum wage jobs. The vast majority of households in poverty are headed by the working poor. I don't understand why the hard-hearted among this fail to see this. Amid all the analysis, I personally observe and sense a compassion deficit. I hate to say this, because it makes me sound holier and more caring than thou. Still, I'm only being honest. When Romney's "47 percent" comment was unveiled, falsely implying that nearly half of Americans are "takers" who rely on government while not paying taxes, the first reaction among national pundits was that this revelation would severely harm his campaign. My own reaction, to the contrary, was that the 47 percent remark would actually help Romney among the population's resentful and bitter element of people, and it seems that's been closer to the truth. Most people I encounter are courteous, kind individuals. So why is our politics so spiteful, that neither candidate will even risk talking much about uplifting our brothers and sisters (and our children) in need? To tell the truth, I'm stumped. Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/22/us-poverty-level-1960s_n_1692744.html By Michael Thompson, Contributing Writer
I never would have dreamed of being a Salvation Army bell-ringer. Then I received a writing assignment to ring a red-kettle bell for a day. As a shy person, there was much trepedation. But I went ahead and sucked it up. You know what? Once I got started, it was fun. (Of course, it was an unseasonably mild December day, so it's not like I was out there getting frostbite.) If your local Salvation Army is like mine in my Michigan hometown of Saginaw, you can pick your day(s) and your hours at your convenience starting around Thanksgiving. When I received the writing assignment, I figured it would be good to glean some advice from a veteran. The Saginaw Salvation Army sent me out to see to see a man who became one of my heroes, Ted Kolhagen, who in recent years is dearly departed. What a guy! When I encountered him, he was 76 years old and in his 49th season of bell-ringing. He had an act where he would whistle and dance and clown around with anyone who approached the kettle, child or adult. And so I told my editor, Ted was far more interesting than anything I might write in the first person. To see the resulting article, look here: http://www.newreviewsite.com/articles/Profile---A-Whistling-Holiday-Bell-Ringer-Has-a-Deeper-Purpose-at-Heart/519. Well, I still was bound to do my bell-ringing, even though I had chosen to write about Ted instead of myself. And so, armed with Ted's advice and examples, I was out there. Ted's first rule was that "shy" is no excuse. If you just stand there and tinkle the bell, you're selling the program short. Indeed, Ted would bring in about $60 an hour, compared to about $20 for the listless bell-ringers whom The Salvation Army is forced to pay minimum wage because of a lack of volunteers. So I found myself out there shouting "ho-ho-ho" (I couldn't whistle like Ted, in spite of -- or because of -- the David Letterman gap in my front teeth.) One lady walked past the kettle and smirked, "Do you think that helps you?" But then a guy in professional business attire walked past, laughing, and jammed a folded $10-spot into the kettle. He laughed and said, "Those are some hearty ho-ho-hoes." And I said to myself, "Ted Kolhagen, you are vindicated." (Curious? I made $35 an hour.) Two-liter pops were on sale in a big stack at the storefront, and people were grabbing 'em up, and so I stole another lesson from Ted and slid the kettle over near the pops. Sure enough, donations increased. It was like, the customers were contributing the money they saved on the pop discount. Then a woman walked by, like so many folks, with her nose up in the air. Her checkbook fell out of her purse. "Ma'am," I called out. She thanked me when I returned the checkbook, and, feeling guilty, stuck a pair of dollar bills through the slot. The Salvation Army assigned me to a pair of places for half-day shifts. At the Kmart in the low-income neighborhood, I got a regular stream of donations -- no big ones, but a bunch. But in front of the high-rent Macy's, most people ignored me, although that's where I got the fin from the guy who laughed as my ho-ho-hoeing. I'm not making any comment here, just passing on what I experienced. Readers: Consider an experiment in volunteer bell-ringing. You won't know whether this fits you until, and unless, you try it. by Linda St.Cyr, Contributing Writer America has a rising crisis on its hands-- child poverty. A study released on August 17, 2011 by the Annie E. Casey Foundation shows that child poverty has increased in 38 states from 2000-2009 leaving 14.7 million children in families that fell below the federal poverty level in 2009. That is 1 in 5 children living in poverty. Today's federal poverty level is $22,350 a year for a family of four. The researching foundation on child well-being cited that research has shown that the federal poverty level should be double that for a family of four at $44,700. The current level has not changed since the 1960s. The increase of child poverty over the years will have a devastating effect on the economy and especially on the children. According to the Daily Mail, “In the foundation's first examination of the impact of the recession on the nation's children, the researchers concluded that low-income children will likely suffer academically, economically and socially long after their parents have recovered.” Stephen Brown, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Nevada, sees a bleak future for the economy, “What we are looking at is a cohort of kids who as they become adults may be less able to contribute to the growth of the economy. It could go on for multiple generations.” The study concluded that the rise in child poverty would be a great social cost to America which would include reduced economic output, higher health expeditures and an increase in criminal justice costs for society. Patrick T. McCarthy, President and CEO of The Annie E. Casey Foundation, believes that “We can—and must—do better. With sound investments, we can provide all children with the opportunity to reach the full potential of their talents and ambitions, while setting the nation on a path to renewed economic prosperity. It won’t be easy, but as a nation, we have the knowledge, tools, and determination to make it happen.” Visit KIDS COUNT to learn more about the child poverty levels in your state and to find out what you can do to make a difference. More by Linda: Brazil’s “Zero Hunger” Program Offers Hope for the War on Poverty Worldwide Soles4Souls: Over 300 Million Children are Without Shoes World Humanitarian Day: Celebrating the Men and Women Making a Difference Yum! Brands, Inc. Fights Hunger in Africa with $1M |
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