Meeting basic needs for the poorest of the poor

Meeting basic needs for the poorest of the poor

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We must place a greater priority on financial resources for the poorest of the poor. The failure of government to ensure all families and individuals have sufficient income to meet their basic needs has caused holes in the safety net to steadily worsen.

In Ohio, we call on the Governor and the General Assembly to support the following:

• Public assistance benefits through the Ohio Works First program should be increased by $100 per month. Currently, the average family receives a combined income of cash and Food Stamps at roughly 50% of the poverty level.

• Health care services must be available to all adults earning less than 100% of the federal poverty level. Individuals not eligible for Medicaid lack the capacity to provide themselves with essential health care.

• Mental health and substance abuse services must be available to all adults and children below the poverty level. Treatment is often jeopardized by a lack of basic needs. Personal and financial recovery must proceed together.

• The disability determination process must be fixed. With two systems (Medicaid and Social Security) to navigate, people waste months or years trying to get the help they need.

We call upon the President and Congress to address the related federal issues:

• Food Stamp benefits are too low. Food Stamp benefits must be increased to meet 100% of the nutritional needs of poor families. Food Stamps are intended to supplement about 75% of a family’s nutritional needs. The presumption is people could make up the difference. With stagnant income levels and the increased cost of living, this is not possible. The end result overwhelms our food pantries and soup kitchens.

• Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits are too low and need to be increased substantially. Payments for the elderly and disabled, in Ohio, average $430 a month (about 55% of the poverty level). Maximum payment is $637 per month (75% of the poverty level). These people cannot work, yet they are forced to live with the constant struggle to meet their basic needs.

We must provide sufficient benefits through our safety net programs to meet all basic needs for these families. This is already a crisis for the people affected by these issues.

We call upon our state and federal elected representatives to not turn away from these serious problems.

We must take immediate action!

Please contact your federal and state elected officials to urge them to address these issues!

For more information on this campaign, see: http://dontturnawayoh.blogspot.com/

· This campaign is targeting your Governor, members of your State Senate, members of your State House, the President of the United States, members of the US Senate and members of the US House of Representatives.

· The campaign ends on Apr 01, 2010.

Study Links Famine, Increase in Mental Illness
by Scott Simon
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... Id=4818769

Listen Now [4 min 12 sec] add to playlist
Weekend Edition Saturday, August 27, 2005 • A new study shows increased rates of schizophrenia among people born during the 1959-61 famine in China, when millions starved. The study's chief author, Dr. David St. Clair of the University of Aberdeen, discusses the implications with Scott Simon.

Gee I wonder if there is a connection. One doesn't have to be a rocket Scientists to connect the so called dots of starvation and illness but still many are starving in our own country and becoming ill because of it.
Malnutrition is a cause for mental illness. It is also the cause of many other illnesses as well.
Prevention is the cure.

Food riots 'will spread'

Food riots in developing countries will spread unless world leaders take major steps to reduce prices for the poor, the head of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said yesterday.

Despite a forecast 2.6 per cent rise in global cereal output this year, record prices are unlikely to fall, forcing poorer countries' food import bills up 56 per cent and hungry people on to the streets, FAO Director General Jacques Diouf said.

"The reality is that people are dying already in the riots," Diouf told a news conference.

"They are dying because of their reaction to the situation and if we don't take the necessary action there is certainly the possibility that they might die of starvation.

"Naturally, people won't be sitting dying of starvation, they will react."

The FAO said food riots had broken out in several African countries, Indonesia, the Philippines and Haiti. Thirty-seven countries face food crises, it said in its latest World Food Situation report.

Some of the worst tensions have been in Haiti, where protests at the high cost of living descended into riots last week and four people were killed in clashes with security forces.

There is concern about rising prices in the Philippines, but it was not clear what incidents the FAO was referring to. "I am surprised that I have not been summoned to the UN Security Council, as many of the problems being discussed there would not have the same consequences on peace, security and human rights [without the food crisis]," Diouf said.

Increased food demand from rapidly developing countries such as China and India, the use of crops for biofuels, global stocks at 25-year lows and market speculation are all blamed for pushing prices of staples such as wheat, maize and rice to record highs.

While people in richer countries have noticed higher supermarket prices, the effect is far more pronounced in developing countries, where 50 to 60 per cent of income goes to food compared with just 10 to 20 per cent in the developed world.

Diouf called on heads of state and government to attend a food crisis summit at FAO headquarters in Rome on June 3-5.

He said the priority was a "massive seed transfer", to ensure farmers in poor countries could buy seeds, fertiliser and feed at prices they could afford.

Other measures include creating financial mechanisms to ensure poorer food-importing countries could continue to buy the food they need and give a larger proportion of aid budgets to agriculture, Diouf said.

The comments echoed those of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who called this week for a co-ordinated response to the food crisis which would include reaching a deal on the Doha trade talks and the possible use of market-based, risk-management instruments to avert food price volatility.

Diouf said it was normal to expect developing countries to put controls on food exports, even if that exacerbated global food prices. The price of rice jumped 40 per cent in three days recently when India and Vietnam banned exports, an FAO official said.

"Export bans are a normal reaction for any Government that has a prime responsibility to its people," he said.

Expanded crop plantings this year should mean a 2.6 per cent increase in cereal output, with wheat up 6.8 per cent on last year, the FAO has forecast.

But with only a small proportion of that reaching the open market, the effect on prices will be negligible as other price pressures remain, it said.

- REUTERS