Results tagged “foodstamps”

First Lady Maria Shriver has launched an online program aimed at helping "put more money in Californians' pockets," cbs2.com reports. The WE Connect campaign is described as "a pioneering public/private partnership designed to help California’s working families become more financially secure by connecting them to important programs and resources." There are many programs that have funding that is going unused because many people don't know how to properly tap into them--programs like WIC, food stamps, Lifeline phone service, and the Earned Income Tax Credit. Currently, more people are receiving aid in LA County than any other county in the nation, and those numbers are expected to grow.

LA prides itself on being a standout among other American cities for its weather, celebrities, and attractions. One distinction, however, points to the darker side of life in our troubled metropolis--the fact that over "two million people living in Los Angeles County - about 20 percent of the area's population - receive welfare or other public aid," according to the Daily News. In fact, our county tops the list nationwide, per Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who said: "We have the highest human service burden of any county in the country in sheer numbers. Two million people is the size of some countries; that's how big our problem is." Officials believe numbers will continue to rise as our economic woes continue. Local offices are "ill-equipped to deal with the growing throng of indigent people," and, as of the end of 2008 LA County was drawing $334 million a month from local, state, and federal governments.

Nadya Suleman, better known these days as "Octo Mom" has $50k in student loan debt, is unemployed, and now has 14 kids under the age of 8. One question that keeps coming up in the public and the press is how this 33-year-old single mom from Whittier plans on paying for her newborn octuplets and their six older siblings when she's got no income of her own and has driven her own parents into bankruptcy.

Now that fast food is banned in South LA in order to make way for healthier options to exist in the region, what's next? In New York, it was reported today that "food stamp sales have grown to $90,000 in 2007 from $3,000 in 2002." Part of the increase comes from technological advancement with wireless or scrip debit food stamp machines at the markets. 118 markets in California use these machines with over 25 of them located in the Los Angeles area. Unfortunately, only a couple of the South LA farmers market use EBT and food stamps. Or is it that there are only a few South LA markets in the first place?