Jul 14, 2008 7:52 pm US/Eastern
Bloomberg: Federal Poverty Gauge Outdated, Broken
Mayor Unveils New Plan To Help Struggling Families Afford Food
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Calling the nation's poverty measure broken and outdated, Mayor Bloomberg has unveiled a new plan to gauge poverty in the city and America.
CBS
Calling the nation's poverty measure broken and outdated, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has unveiled a new plan to gauge poverty in the city and America.
The grim reality is that more New Yorkers are poor and relying on food banks every day.
More New Yorkers than ever do not have the savings to feed their families from one paycheck to the next if the breadwinner's job is lost. The mayor is saying the federal standard for poverty – established in 1969 – is out-of-date.
"If you don't have the numbers, you can't solve the problem," Bloomberg said.
"After paying the rent and paying their healthcare, you know, food is what comes next," Triada Stampas, of the food bank for New York City, said. "And it's more than double what the federal poverty rate would be.
Stampas says her organization puts out an annual report that agrees with the Bloomberg administration about the federal poverty numbers being off. For example, while items like shelter, utilities, and out-of-pocket expenses have soared, that basic staple – food – is quite revealing.
The Food Bank found that between 2003 and 2007, the number of people reporting difficulty affording food was up a whopping 55 percent. Anthony Jenkins, on a fixed income, is one of those people.
"Being on fixed income, and then paying rent, you have to have a telephone, buy whatever clothes you can, there isn't much left.
"Everyone's looking for help, the lines are just getting so long," Jess Taylor, of the Community Kitchen of West Harlem, said. "I think in terms of economic indicators, if you looked at a soup kitchen line, it'd be probably one of the first ones."
There's yet another measure of how difficult how times are, according to the Food Bank for New York City. Over the last four years the number of New Yorkers making between $50,000 and $75,000 who say they have difficulty affording food has more than doubled, to well over one out of four.
West Harlem Community Kitchen alone serves 600-700 dinners each night. The have also seen a growing number of people from other walks of life – working people, for example – use the kitchen and the food pantry over the past year.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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