Posts Tagged ‘Walmart’
Posted on Wednesday, November 19th, 2014 by Michele Simon
New report from Eat Drink Politics shows how the nation’s largest retailer is a poverty incubator, contributing to the hunger crisis in America while Walmart and the Walton family get richer
La’Randa Jackson, shown here, supports her mother and her younger brothers by working at the Walmart store in Cincinnati, Ohio. “I skip a lot of meals,” she says. “The most important thing is food for the babies, then my younger brothers. Then, if there’s enough, my mom and I eat.”
La’Randa works for the nation’s largest private employer, and she is not alone in her struggle to afford enough food.
On $10.10 an hour and an unpredictable part-time schedule, Cantare Davunt – a Walmart customer service manager from Apple Valley, Minnesota – winds up digging into her cabinets for older, non-perishable foods like Ramen so she can have a hot meal. Diana Tigon, a cashier at the Walmart store in Arlington, Texas, often finds she is strapped for cash and during rough weeks goes full days without eating meals.
Continue reading →
Posted in Industry Tactics | Tagged: food workers, hunger, Walmart, workers, workers rights | Michele on Google+ | View/Add Comments (38) |
Posted on Monday, October 7th, 2013 by Michele Simon
With each attempt to pass the 2012 farm bill (yes, it has been that long), congressional Republicans keep ratcheting up their cruelty to poor Americans. While last year’s bill would have cut $16 billion to food stamps, the House of Representatives has now proposed an astonishing $39 billion reduction in benefits over 10 years. While many media pundits are outraged, and rightly so, missing from the national conversation are important questions about the effectiveness of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, the federal food assistance plan formerly known as food stamps. Read rest at Al Jazeera America …
Posted in Big Food, Food Policy, Industry Tactics, Public Health | Tagged: child nutrition, food stamps, nutrition, SNAP, USDA, Walmart | Michele on Google+ | View/Add Comments (0) |
Posted on Wednesday, June 20th, 2012 by Michele Simon
Last Tuesday, I released a report, Food Stamps, Follow the Money: Are Corporations Profiting From Hungry Americans? I am grateful to each of these media outlets for their coverage.
Continue reading →
Posted in Big Food | Tagged: Big Food, Eat Drink Politics, farm bill, food stamps, SNAP, USDA, Walmart | Michele on Google+ | View/Add Comments (1) |
Posted on Thursday, June 14th, 2012 by Michele Simon
On Tuesday, I published a report about how food companies and banks benefit from the $72 billion food stamp program. For those intimidated by 20 pages (it’s a good read), here is the visual short cut.
Posted in Big Food | Tagged: Big Food, Congress, Eat Drink Politics, farm bill, food stamps, J.P. Morgan Chase, SNAP, USDA, Walmart | Michele on Google+ | View/Add Comments (2) |
Posted on Tuesday, June 12th, 2012 by Michele Simon
As Congress proposes cuts to hungry families, my new report raises questions about how much food makers, retailers, and big banks profit from food stamps.
With the debate over the 2012 Farm Bill currently underway in the Senate, most of the media’s attention has been focused on how direct payments—subsidies doled out regardless of actual farming—are being replaced with crop insurance, in a classic shell game that Big Ag’s powerful lobby is likely to pull off.
Meanwhile, the Senate may hurt the less powerful by cutting $4.5 billion from the largest piece of the farm bill pie: the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly called food stamps). Reducing this lifeline for 46 million struggling Americans (more than 1 in 7—nearly half of them children) has become a sideshow in the farm bill circus, even though SNAP spending grew to $78 billion in 2011, and is projected to go higher if the economy does not improve.
Continue reading →
Posted in Big Food, Food Policy | Tagged: Big Food, Eat Drink Politics, farm bill, food stamps, J.P. Morgan Chase, SNAP, USDA, Walmart | Michele on Google+ | View/Add Comments (18) |
Posted on Tuesday, June 12th, 2012 by Michele Simon
Contact: Haven Bourque 415.505.3473 haven@havenbmedia.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
As 2012 Farm Bill debate rages in Congress, a new report demands SNAP program transparency
Oakland, CA, June 12, 2012 — Are food stamps lining the pockets of the nation’s wealthiest corporations instead of closing the hunger gap in the United States? Why does Walmart benefit from more than $200 million in annual food stamp purchases in Oklahoma alone? Why does one bank, J.P. Morgan Chase, hold exclusive contracts in 24 states to administer public benefits?
Continue reading →
Posted in Big Food, Food Policy | Tagged: Eat Drink Politics, farm bill, food stamps, J.P. Morgan Chase, SNAP, Walmart | Michele on Google+ | View/Add Comments (5) |
Posted on Monday, January 24th, 2011 by Michele Simon
When Michelle Obama first announced her Let’s Move program to end childhood obesity “within a generation” last year, I tried to remain open-minded. Like many others, I was happy to have the First Lady bring attention to this important problem. And there’s no doubt that her leadership has helped, for example, to get Congress to make improvements to school meals. But I remained concerned that the White House was reluctant to take on the food industry in any meaningful way. It seems that things are worse than I thought.
Continue reading →
Posted in Big Food, Food Policy, Industry Tactics | Tagged: childhood obesity, Let's Move, Obama, Walmart | Michele on Google+ | View/Add Comments (16) |
