A weekly round-up of the stories that caught our eye this week, with an emphasis on hunger, food waste, and poverty in the United States.
“Farm towns like Winchester that produce beef, corn and greens to feed the world are becoming America’s unlikeliest food deserts as traditional grocery stores are forced out of business by fewer shoppers and competition from dollar-store chains. Their exodus has left rural towns worried about how they can hold on to families, businesses and their future if there is nowhere to buy even a banana.” (The New York Times)
“Most people think of people lining up at food pantries and soup kitchens as an urban phenomenon. But in Alameda County, which has one of the highest rates of food insecurity in the Bay Area, an increasing number of people living in the suburbs are also having trouble affording food.” (San Francisco Chronicle)
“A recent survey of nearly 86,000 students found that 45 percent of respondents reported food insecurity in the previous 30 days, meaning they had limited or uncertain access to food. Fifty-six percent had been housing insecure in the previous year—that is, they were unable to pay full rent, lived in overcrowded conditions, or experienced other instability.” (The Nation)
“Amid protests and boos, the Las Vegas City Council voted Wednesday to ban homeless people from sleeping on some city streets — a controversial measure that critics have called a ‘war on the poor.'” (The Washington Post)
“While all official statistics apply the same rate of inflation to the income of people living in all income brackets, evidence highlighted by the study suggests that inflation is much higher for people at the lower end of the income scale.” (Quartz)
