The Pennsylvania General Assembly is considering legislation that would re-impose the lifetime “felony drug ban” on SNAP recipients, making certain people who have felony drug convictions ineligible for SNAP and TANF for life. This is an issue of concern to anti-hunger advocates as well as advocates for women in recovery, trafficking victimes and domestic violence...
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In a nation of great wealth and resources, no child should ever go hungry. However, 15.8 million children in the United States live in households that struggle with hunger. For too many children, a meal served at school is the only food that can be counted on each day. Lack of access to nutritious food...
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Lutheran Advocacy Ministry in Pennsylvania applauds Governor Tom Wolf for acting in the first hundred days of his administration to eliminate the onerous asset test for recipients of the Supplemental Assistance Nutrition Program (SNAP). The SNAP Asset Test has created the single largest barrier to food security for hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians, resulting in...
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A new study, “How Hungry is America?”, shows one in six American households — 17.2 percent — reported they didn’t have enough money to buy the food their families needed at times during 2014. The report by the Food Research and Action Council shows that while the economy is improving, tens of millions of people...
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Thousands of students in Pennsylvania are being better fed to focus on learning this fall, as the Community Eligibility Provision of the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act expanded to the Commonwealth this school year. The provision, which allows everyone in qualifying schools to receive free breakfast and lunch, saves the cost of processing paperwork and removes...
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As this legislative session drew to a close, Pennsylvania Lutherans acted within a diverse coalition of 40 organizations to successfully stop a bill that would have taxed groceries and other necessities in a move to eliminate all property taxes. Senate Bill 76 would have shifted the burden of paying for public schools disproportionately onto the...
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More than 17.5 million Americans, or 14.3 percent of households, struggled against hunger in 2013, according to the latest report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The percentage of households with children unable to eat nutritious food on a consistent basis was 19.5 percent. Across the country, food insecurity in 360,000 households was so severe...
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The Lower Susquehanna Synod Assembly invited over 700 leaders and voting members to gather around the theme of “Feeding the Hungry”. The Assembly was preceded by a 12-hours meal packing event that resulted in over 300,000 meals packed, to be distributed through the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank. Assembly, Keynoter, The Rev. Dan Rift, Director of...
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As the Pa. School Breakfast Challenge draws to a close, hunger advocates have ways to keep the momentum going. Next school year, Pa. schools will have a new option for offering all meals at no cost to students: community eligibility. Designed for schools with high concentrations of low-income students, community eligibility benefits students and the school...
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LAMPa has begun work asking for an increase for Pennsylvania’s low-wage workers as an essential component of addressing the complex issue of poverty in our state. The Commonwealth’s minimum wage has been $7.25 an hour for five years and, according to the state Department of Labor and Industry, 5.5 percent of Pennsylvania’s workforce — 190,800...
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