Friday, April 26

Tag: families

This Fall, Those Free School Lunches That Helped Families During The Pandemic Won’t Return
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SOCIETY

This Fall, Those Free School Lunches That Helped Families During The Pandemic Won’t Return

The healthiest meal students typically receive during the day isn’t at their dining room table — it’s in their school cafeteria. That finding from Tufts University researchers is just one reason child nutrition experts have urged Congress to pass legislation that would enable schools nationwide to provide free meals for all students. Pandemic-era waivers that made universal free school lunch a reality the past two years have expired, and this fall, students will once again have to qualify for free, reduced or full-priced meals based on need. That prospect is raising concerns among child nutrition experts who predict that once the school year begins more kids will go hungry amid an uptick in food insecurity in households with children. “There are going to be many struggling families ne...
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Without The Child Tax Credit Expansion Many Families Could Be Left Without Enough Food On The Table
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COVID-19

Without The Child Tax Credit Expansion Many Families Could Be Left Without Enough Food On The Table

The discontinuation of the Biden administration’s monthly payments of the child tax credit could leave millions of American families without enough food on the table, according to our new study in JAMA Network Open. The first missed payment on Jan. 15, 2022, left families that had come to rely on them wondering how they would make ends meet, according to many news reports. The American Rescue Plan Act, a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package passed in March 2021, made significant changes to the existing child tax credit. It increased the size of the credit by 50% or more, depending on a child’s age, to either $3,000 or $3,600 per year. It also made more low-income families eligible and paid half of this money out as a monthly “advance” payment. Biden’s Build Back Better plan calls for a ...
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4 Essential Reads: US Families With Kids Are Getting Monthly Payments From The Government
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POLITICS

4 Essential Reads: US Families With Kids Are Getting Monthly Payments From The Government

Emily Schwartz Greco, The Conversation Most U.S. families with children will get six monthly payments from the government in 2021, starting July 15. Parents and guardians may spend this money – $300 per child under 6 and $250 for every kid or teen who is 6 and up – on groceries, computers, child care, sneakers or however else they see fit. Eighty-eight percent of U.S. families with children under 18 are eligible for this new allowance Congress approved in March as part of a coronavirus relief package, which extends the child tax credit to the lowest-earning Americans. In addition to getting either $250 or $300 a month per kid for six months, families will also get a tax credit equal to six more monthly installments at tax time in 2022. The Internal Revenue Service is responsible for deli...
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Benefiting Workers, Their Families And Their Employers Too – Biden’s Paid Leave Proposal
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POLITICS

Benefiting Workers, Their Families And Their Employers Too – Biden’s Paid Leave Proposal

The Biden administration is proposing a massive expansion of federal benefits through a 10-year US$1.8 trillion package that includes new spending on child care, the continuation of the expanded child tax credit and more robust nutrition programs. Notably, it would introduce a new federal paid family leave benefit costing an estimated $225 billion over the next decade. If it is fully phased in as proposed, workers could get up to $4,000 a month for a total of 12 weeks in paid leave to care for a newborn, another loved one or themselves. The Conversation U.S. asked Joya Misra, a sociologist who studies how public policies influence inequality, four questions about paid leave in the U.S. 1. How much of a change would this be? Federal law currently guarantees many employed Americans the righ...
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Not Humiliating Poor People – An Advantage Of The Government’s New Payments For Families
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BUSINESS, POLITICS

Not Humiliating Poor People – An Advantage Of The Government’s New Payments For Families

The US$1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package President Joe Biden signed in March 2021 will expand the child tax credit for one year. Instead of providing families with up to $2,000 per child under 17, the government will distribute a total of $3,600 for each child under 6 and $3,000 for kids under 18. Some economists predict that these payments, which will go to all but the wealthiest parents in two ways – monthly starting in July 2021 and as a lump sum when parents file their taxes in 2022 – could cut U.S. child poverty by nearly 50%. Today, about 1 in 7 U.S. children live below the official poverty line. I’m a law professor who researches the often-humiliating and punitive hurdles that poor families face when they apply for some government benefits. From my perspective, this new appr...
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With The Right Kind Of Help Low-Income Families Can Also Benefit From Cheaper Solar Power
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IN OTHER NEWS

With The Right Kind Of Help Low-Income Families Can Also Benefit From Cheaper Solar Power

Until recently, rooftop solar panels were a clean energy technology that only wealthy Americans could afford. But prices have dropped, thanks mostly to falling costs for hardware, as well as price declines for installation and other “soft” costs. Solar power is becoming more common for households at all income levels. These homes in Richmond, California, went solar with the help of GRID Alternatives. GRID Alternatives, CC BY-ND Today hundreds of thousands of middle-class households across the U.S. are turning to solar power. But households with incomes below the median for their areas remain less likely to go solar. These low- and moderate-income households face several roadblocks to solar adoption, including cash constraints, low rates of home ownership and language barriers. Our team o...
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For Families Who Need More Than Medical Care – A Hospital That Prescribes Free Nutritious Food
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HEALTH & WELLNESS

For Families Who Need More Than Medical Care – A Hospital That Prescribes Free Nutritious Food

Being food-insecure – unable to get enough nutritious food to meet your needs – can take a toll on your health. So Dayton Children’s Hospital has begun to screen its patients and their families for this problem and refer them to what it’s calling the “Food Pharm.” This program, which launched about two years ago, currently aims to provide about 55 families per month with enough healthy food, such as whole grain pasta, beans and green beans, to feed a family of four for three days while also connecting them with other resources to help them get through the rest of the week. It’s also taking care to ensure that this one-time donation of nutritious food is culturally appropriate, meaning that people know how to prepare and consume the food they receive and it fits with their culture and bel...
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According To A 25-Year-Long Study Of Families, Racial Discrimination Ages Black Americans Faster
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IN OTHER NEWS

According To A 25-Year-Long Study Of Families, Racial Discrimination Ages Black Americans Faster

I’m part of a research team that has been following more than 800 Black American families for almost 25 years. We found that people who had reported experiencing high levels of racial discrimination when they were young teenagers had significantly higher levels of depression in their 20s than those who hadn’t. This elevated depression, in turn, showed up in their blood samples, which revealed accelerated aging on a cellular level. Our research is not the first to show Black Americans live sicker lives and die younger than other racial or ethnic groups. The experience of constant and accumulating stress due to racism throughout an individual’s lifetime can wear and tear down the body – literally “getting under the skin” to affect health. These findings highlight how stress from racism, pa...
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Plants might be able to tell us about the location of dead bodies, helping families find missing people
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ENVIRONMENT

Plants might be able to tell us about the location of dead bodies, helping families find missing people

The notion of plants talking to us about dead people sounds like a bad horror movie. But that’s the theme of a recent scientific paper I co-authored. Each day, over 160,000 people die in the world. Most people die with family members present or nearby; their family and friends mourn their loss, which includes having the loved-one’s body present. Sometimes people die in the wilderness, in war and under questionable circumstances. In so many of these cases the body is never recovered and loved ones don’t get closure. In cases of murder or genocide, perpetrators go unpunished without a recovered body. I didn’t usually think about this topic, until recently. I am a plant biologist who uses biotechnology and synthetic biology approaches in research. Nearly 20 years ago, I coined the word “phy...
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When police stop Black men, the effects reach into their homes and families
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IN OTHER NEWS

When police stop Black men, the effects reach into their homes and families

While much of the world was sheltering in place in the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, many Americans’ undivided attention was focused squarely on Minneapolis, Minnesota, where George Floyd was killed at the hands – and knees – of the police. Floyd’s murder evoked memories of other murders by the police, including those of Walter Scott, Eric Garner, Philando Castile and Samuel DuBose. Most recently, another unarmed Black man, Jacob Blake, was shot seven times in the back in Kenosha, Wisconsin. We are a sociologist and a social worker who study racism, inequality and families, including a focus on Black men and their interactions with law enforcement. Each of these killings serves as confirmation that concerns about those interactions are warranted. The problem isn’t just that Black ...
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