On this week’s podcast, Nicole, Jamelle, Monica and G.D. sit around an actual dinner table to discuss some depressing new stats about the academic woes of black boys. They also try to make sense of some high-profile attempts to regulate food purchases (including a push to forbade people on government assistance from buying soda, a Read More
The USDA’s Economic Research Service put out its latest figures for food insecurity hunger in the U.S. yesterday. From the press release: In more than a third of those households that reported difficulty in providing enough food, at least one member did not get enough to eat at some time during the year and normal Read More
New York City has asked the USDA if it can ban the purchase of soda for people participating in SNAP (the Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as food stamps). Here’s an editorial by Thomas Farley and Richard F. Daines, the New York City and New York state health commissioners, respectively (emphasis added): This policy Read More
SNAP (food stamp) participation at an all time high. Slightly better, yet still outrageous, are global hunger numbers. People, in case you haven’t noticed, are hungry. My day job deals with food policy (and hunger). I’ve subjected almost everyone I know (and if I haven’t, your turn is coming) to my rants about food and the Read More
Crossposted from Campus Progress. One in eight Americans — a record high in both raw numbers and percentage of the population — are on food stamps. Many are recent additions due to the recession. Yet food stamp benefits are being reduced to help pay for other recession-fighting programs and secondary food initiatives. Colorlines reports that Read More
cross-posted from U.S. of J. Researchers at the University of Washington further illustrate the link between poverty and obesity: The percentage of food shoppers who are obese is almost 10 times higher at low-cost grocery stores compared with upscale markets, a small new study shows. Researchers say the striking findings underscore poverty as a key Read More
cross-posted from TAPPED The Fooducate Blog breaks down one of the ways in which food companies try to market a product that is fundamentally unhealthy, or at least neutral, with dubious health claims. The product they highlight is Vitamin Water, usually found in the same refrigerated bins as the power drinks people associate with exercise and Read More
Lauren Kelley does the math on Panera’s new pay-what you-can experiment: The company opened a nonprofit “community café” in a suburb of St. Louis, near Panera’s headquarters, that’s different from every restaurant you’ve ever been to. At this restaurant, there are no prices on the menu. Instead, customers are told to pay what they can Read More
The World of Mysteries blog has a list of the 20 most harmful drinks in America. The post compares the sugar in drinks like Snapple Agave Melon Antioxidant Water and Starbucks White Hot Chocolate with dessert equivalents (and each drink has a disgustingly delicious-looking photo). For example, check out the write up on kid-targeted ‘fruit’ Read More
Late last year, I blogged about the NYC Paid Sick Time Act for TAPPED. At the time, the city council bill was being framed as a public health issue, post-H1N1 and seasonal influenza scares. Currently in committee after being revised, the bill is modeled on a San Francisco ordinance that provides paid sick time to Read More
