As Ted first pointed out back in August, the 2009 Recovery Act's temporary boost in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits ends on November 1, 2013, which will mean a benefit cut for each of the nearly 48 million SNAP recipients in the country, including 350,000 here in West Virginia. Without the Recovery Act's boost,…
Economic Security
Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to cut SNAP, or the food stamps program, by nearly $40 billion over the next two years, kicking nearly four million people off the program. The House bill achieves this primarily by denying SNAP benefits to unemployed workers and struggling families whose incomes are just above the poverty…
350,000 low-income people in West Virginia will see their food assistance cut when a temporary boost to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps) expires November 1, new data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) show. SNAP benefits will average only about $1.40 per person per meal after the cut.…
Last week, the U.S. House passed a "farm bill" that for the first time in decades did not include food assistance or SNAP (formerly known as the Food Stamp Program) for vulnerable children and families. This move came on the heels of an earlier version passed by the U.S. House in June that reduced SNAP…
The Economic Policy Institute has updated its Family Budget Calculator for 2013. The Family Budget Calculator measures the income level necessary for families to secure an adequate but modest living standard by estimating community-specific costs of housing, food, child care, transportation, health care, other necessities, and taxes. The calculator gives a broader measure of economic welfare than…
In discussions about poverty in West Virginia and Appalachia, it doesn't take long before someone blames "welfare dependency" for the plight of West Virginia's poor and its lack of economic welfare. The idea of West Virginia having a "culture of poverty" is nothing new. In fact, its roots date back to the 1960s. As Mil…
On Wednesday, February 27, Executive Director Ted Boettner presented to the Senate Select Committee on Children and Poverty. Established at the start of the 2013 Legislative Session, this was the Committee's second meeting. Read presentation.
On February 19, 2013, Executive Director Ted Boettner was a speaker at the Worth Our Care symposium in Charleston, WV. His presentation focused on child poverty in West Virginia, who is impacted by it and ways to address it. Read
On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) report, this new report revisits many of the same measures of well-being that ARC researchers examined a half-century ago. This analysis, however, focuses its attention on West Virginia, the one state that exists entirely within the federally designated Appalachian region, and, more…
Today, nearly one in three young children (under age 6) in West Virginia lives in poverty. For a family of four that means living on a income of about $20,000 a year in 2012. Child poverty is a persistent and growing problem in West Virginia. That's why it's so important that State Senate Majority Leader…