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August ELCA World Hunger Podcast: International Aid
In this episode, Patricia Kisare, international policy advisor for the ELCA, and Kaari Reierson, the ELCA’s associate for corporate social responsibility, join Ryan Cumming to break down some of the myths and realities about US aid and the church’s witness when it comes to this part of the federal budget.
How Can Empowering Women & Girls Help End World Hunger?
Of the 690 million people who are food insecure worldwide, 60% are women and girls. Women are responsible for meeting many of the basic needs in a household, including meals, but they often lack the resources, education, and opportunity to support their families. Here’s everything you need to know about how investing in women and girls can end hunger worldwide.
ELCA Calls for Support of Afghan Neighbors
Send a clear message to the White House: We Must Evacuate and Relocate Our Afghan Neighbors to U.S. Soil!
Modernizing SNAP Benefits Will Help Millions of Families Afford Healthy, Nutritious Diet
The USDA announced an update to the Thrifty Food Plan, which is used to set benefit levels for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). This science-driven and long-overdue reevaluation will be welcome news for families across the country, many of whom will be better able to afford a healthy diet with greater SNAP benefits.
First-ever water shortage declared on the Colorado River, triggering water cuts for some states in the West
The Tier 1 shortage will hit hardest in Arizona, which agreed decades ago to “junior rights” to the river in exchange for federal funding for an aqueduct that delivers water to Phoenix, Tucson and other central parts of the state.
Biden Administration Prompts Largest Permanent Increase in Food Stamps
The jump in benefits, the biggest in the program’s history, comes after a revision of the initiative’s nutrition standards that supporters say will reduce hunger and better reflect how Americans eat.
All population growth in U.S. driven by minorities, upcoming census data likely to reveal
The new census data, planned for release on Aug. 12, will show definitively how the ethnic, racial and voting-age makeup of neighborhoods shifted over the past decade, based on the national house-to-house canvass last year. It is the data most state legislatures and local governments use to redraw political districts for the next 10 years.
Should I Mask? Can I Travel? What About Hugs? How Delta Is Changing Advice for the Vaccinated
The rise of the Delta variant of the coronavirus has raised new questions about how the vaccinated can stay safe and avoid breakthrough infections. We asked the experts for advice.
The Gaggle: An Arizona politics podcast
If you’re interested in what’s going on in the Arizona legislature and in Arizona politics in general, consider adding The Gaggle to your podcast feed.
These Interconnected Policies Would Sustain Families, Support Women, and Grow the Economy
Individuals and families need a range of supports to thrive, lead healthy and productive lives, and participate fully in the economy. An interconnected suite of policy interventions that addresses economic stability and family care needs is essential, not only for families’ economic well-being but also to grow and propel a strong economy.
‘Broke again’: Child tax credit payments collide with debt and eviction for working families
More than a year into a public health crisis that snowballed into a social and economic disaster, Baker was still among the 28 percent of households struggling to cover household expenses in July. She was still among the 11.5 million renters behind on her payments. She was still among the 1 in 7 parents struggling to feed their families. All this despite a raft of government interventions, the latest of which is an expanded child tax credit approved by Congress in March.
Vaccine hesitancy declines among faith groups, spurred partly by religious appeals
A new survey finds vaccine hesitancy has fallen among Americans overall and among all religious subgroups in just three months, with many who once balked saying they embraced inoculation against COVID-19 at the urging of faith leaders.
I volunteer at a summer meals site in Arizona. This is what hunger looks like when school's out.
It should be an energizing break from school. Kids should hang out, go to the pool, see movies. They should get to just be kids. But where I’m from in Phoenix, that’s just not always the case, because they’re hungry. And I see it almost every day.
What you need to know about applying for rental assistance as national eviction ban comes to an end
Some 290,000 households received the aid in June, up from 160,000 in May and 100,000 in April. Still, more than 11 million Americans, or 16% of U.S. renters, say they aren’t caught up with their housing payments as the eviction ban expiration date of July 31 looms.
August congressional recess opportunity
ELCA Advocacy provides some timely questions and talking points based upon ELCA Advocacy priorities of hunger, housing and homelessness, infrastructure and climate change, COVID-19 Vaccine Access, U.S. Asylum and Immigration Policy, and Tribal/U.S. Government relations.
It's time to make these expanded tax credits permanent
Senator Sherrod Brown, a Lutheran, Democrat, and US senator from Ohio, and Peter Edelman, faculty director of the Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality, share an opinion about the child tax credit.
UN: world hunger was dramatically worse in pandemic year
A report issued jointly by five U.N. agencies said hunger outpaced population growth in 2020, with nearly 10% of all people estimated to be undernourished. It said the sharpest rise in hunger came in Africa, where 21% of the people — 282 million — are estimated to be undernourished.
3 things metro Phoenix can do to prevent an eviction surge after the CDC moratorium ends
Metro Phoenix had an eviction problem before the COVID-19 pandemic. Residents in Maricopa County were more than twice as likely to lose a home to eviction than the typical U.S. resident from 2014-2018. On July 31, the final eviction moratorium will expire, and evictions are expected to return to their pre-pandemic pace — if not exceed it.