Northside Food Project, a non-profit group dedicated to increasing access to fresh produce in North Minneapolis. The group also promotes healthy nutrition by holding cooking classes for children and adults

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The shelves at The Salvation Army are lacking one important staple — food.

Linda Ruth, a Salvation Army caseworker, said the food supply is so low that food shelf operating hours are being cut.

Food drives are coming up in October, but Ruth said the supply won’t last that long.

“We can’t even last ‘til the end of the week,” she said.

St. Cloud Times

A critical component of the bill gives $4 billion more to the federal food stamp program that helps feed the 25 million hungry Americans. The 1996 Welfare Reform Act had significantly scaled back food stamps, giving the average individual a stipend of $21 a week—or $1 a meal. The farm bill would belatedly adjust the stipends for inflation and provide more money to food banks, which supply food pantries and soup kitchens. The legislation also helps those abroad by allocating $840 million in US hunger-aid programs.

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What are those “basic” needs? The JOBS NOW report assesses the cost of food, housing, health care, transportation, child care, clothing and taxes in various regions of the state, and uses that data to develop “budgets” for various family models – single-parent, two-parent, etc.

These are no-frills budgets. JOBS NOW models its food budget, for example, on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Low-Cost family food plan. None of the family budgets includes money for “luxuries” like higher education, retirement savings, vacations or restaurant meals.

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With some food prices rising 7 to 33 percent in June, including staples such as milk, bread and eggs, some consumers are finding new discounters and rediscovering old outlets.

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(“Poverty thresholds for 2004 by Size of Family and Number of Related Children Under 18 years,” U.S. Census Bureau, 2004) Source: www.census.gov .

Charts of the published U.S. Census Bureau Statistics, Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division. read more »