A Seat at the Table

The “A Seat at the Table” project’s intent was just that, collaborative: engaging partners by learning together from evidenced-based data, around a common purpose, to achieve a shared goal—a hunger-free York County. What we know is that York County is home to more than 100 charitable food distribution programs, doing good work and helping neighbors. However, even with these programs there are thousands of people struggling with hunger and food insecurity. The USDA defines food insecurity as the lack of access to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members and limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate foods. With support from the Memorial Health Fund, The Food Trust was commissioned, as an independent reviewer, to evaluate the charitable food distribution system using an innovative mapping approach to identify areas of need, draw attention to challenges, highlight successes, and make a clear call for systemic change to move the needle on food insecurity in York County. Specifically, this report seeks to answer these questions:

• What areas in York County are most affected by food insecurity?
• What gaps are there in its food distribution system?
• How can we better coordinate and expand services to ensure that people living with food insecurity in York County get the help they need?
• What can be done to assure access to healthy and nutritious food for those struggling with food insecurity?
Click here to read A Seat at the Table. 

Living Wage Calculator

Families and individuals working in low-wage jobs make insufficient income to meet minimum standards given the local cost of living. The website below developed a living wage calculator to estimate the cost of living in your community or region based on typical expenses. The tool helps individuals, communities, and employers determine a local wage rate that allows residents to meet minimum standards of living.

http://livingwage.mit.edu/

Two-Generation Approach

Two-generation approaches provide opportunities for and meet the needs of children and their parents together. They build education, economic assets, social capital, and health and well being to create a legacy of economic security that passes from one generation to the next. New Hope Ministries believe the two-generation approach helps both generations make progress together.

Governor Tom Wolf’s Food Security Partnership

A BLUEPRINT FOR A HUNGER-FREE PA

The blueprint addresses the Commonwealth’s commitment to alleviating hunger.  The mission is to provide Pennsylvanians with access to healthy, nutritious food, which will improve their well-being, health, and independence.

Nine Marks of a Healthy Parachurch Ministry

By: J. Mack Stiles

Parachurch ministries work hand-in-hand with the local church community. What exactly is a parachurch and what makes a healthy parachurch?  This article illustrates nine marks of a healthy parachurch ministry in today’s world.

Best Practices: Innovations and Solutions Developed by Hunger Relief Agencies in Washington State.

By: Washington Food Coalition

Developed as part of the Emergency Food Assistance Program’s Capacity Building Project, this catalog features best practices which can be replicated by emergency food providers. Catalog profiles are identified with visual indicators representing food banks, meal programs, distribution centers, and ideas which everyone can use.

The High Cost of Youth Unemployment

By: By Sarah Ayres Steinberg

Poverty Interrupted

Applying Behavioral Science to the Context of Chronic Scarcity

By: ideas42

Breaking the Cycle of Inter-Generational Poverty For Good

In an effort to help children and their families break out of this cycle of poverty, ideas42 has embarked on a new initiative called Poverty Interrupted (PI). The application of behavioral science to this endemic problem could lead not only to improved lives, but also to more efficient deployment of limited public resources.

Workforce Development as an Antipoverty Strategy:  What Do We Know? What Should We Do?

By: Harry J. Holzer

This paper notes the basic paradox of workforce development policy: that, in an era in which skills are more important than ever as determinants of labor market earnings, we spend fewer public (federal) dollars on workforce development over time. Includes trends in funding and how the major federal programs at the Department of Labor and other agencies have evolved over time.

Reducing Child Poverty by Promoting Child Well Being

By: Elizabeth K. Anthony

The American Dream promises that individual talent will be rewarded, regardless of where one comes from or who one’s parents are. But, the reality of what transpires along America’s K-12-to-career pipeline reveals a sorting of America’s most talented youth by affluence—not merit. Among the affluent, a kindergartner with test scores in the bottom half has a 7 in 10 chance of reaching high SES among his or her peers as a young adult, while a disadvantaged kindergartner with top-half test scores only has a 3 in 10 chance.  Click here for complete report.