Who’s Hungry in Oregon? By Portland Observer

PDX SOCIAL — By rahmielmitchell on November 10, 2009 at 12:10 am

When Huilliuh Chan, a 56-year-old immigrant from China, took a nasty spill onto a slab of concrete last spring, her life changed

Her back was so badly hurt that she had to quit her job as a seamstress, and now subsides on monthly income of about $900 a month from her disability payments and Social Security checks she receives from her husband, who is so sick from diabetes and lives in a nursing facility.

During the day she works on art projects to pass the time, and worries. She worries about the property taxes on her home in east Portland. She worries about the water bill. She worries about medical bills.

“It’s not enough, you know? I’m not lucky,” said an exasperated Chan in her thick Cantonese accent, whose budget is so strained she has to make regular trips to food programs to stay afloat.

Chan isn’t alone. In fact, more and more people are in a similar predicament. According to a report released last week by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Oregon is second hungriest state in the U.S., just behind Mississippi.

Between 2006 and 2008, about 6.6 percent Oregon households or 95,000 people skipped meals because they did not have enough money for food, according to the report. This is an increase from the last set of USDA figures which revealed that nearly 4 percent of Oregonians experienced hunger between 2003 and 2005.

Chan makes periodic trips to the Northeast Emergency Food Program at Luther Memorial Church in northeast Portland. Ukrainian women shuffle in and out of the basement door carrying sacks of fresh lettuce and squash. Volunteers hoist hefty cardboard boxes of food from the back room down the hall to the front room where recipients take numbers and wait.

Jennifer Broussard helps run the Northeast Emergency Food Program at Luther Memorial Church. She’s seeing more people turn to them for help because of dire economic conditions. Photo by Jake Thomas.

“The majority of the people who come here are employed,” said Jennifer Broussard, the assistant director of the program.

Broussard said her program, which moves about 2,000 pounds of food a day, has definitely seen an increase in demand. Many people who come to the church for food are immigrants, or people who had family members move in to cut down on costs.

But Broussard is also seeing more people coming in for the first time, many of which have had their incomes drained from medical bills.

Jean Kempe-Ware, spokesperson for the Oregon Food Bank, also experiences the growing number of hungry people in Oregon.

“We had an unprecedented increase and they’re staying at that high level,” Kempe-Ware said.

An Oregon Food Bank survey of clients reveals that most people struggling with food insecurity in Oregon are seniors or disabled people on fixed incomes. Many are also among the working poor, who simply don’t make enough to cover their grocery bills after paying high rent and other utilities.

Kempe-Ware added that the agency is seeing many new faces, including laid-off architects who never thought they’d be down and out.

According to the USDA report, there’s an even larger group of people in Oregon who may not be experiencing hunger, but are close.

Thirteen percent of Oregonians are categorized as “food insecure,” meaning that they lacked access to adequate amount, or end up eating starchy foods that fill up their stomachs, but are lacking in nutrition.

Nationally, 14.6 percent of Americans couldn’t put enough food on the table. That number pencils out to 49 million people, larger than the entire population of California.

Part of the reason for the growing hunger in Oregon is the high price of housing, which rose dramatically during the housing boom. Portlanders spend, on average, 46 percent of their income on housing and transportation, which is higher than the national average. Lower-income people might spend up to 79 percent.

Kempe-Ware explained that many people reason that they can’t skip on rent or utilities, but they can cut back on food.

In 1989, the Oregon Legislature created the Oregon Hunger Relief Task Force to coordinate the efforts of business, non-profits, government, and communities to end hunger in the state. It’s currently in the process of forming a five-year plan to confront the issue.

“A lot of what we’re talking about right now is how do we wrap our arms around this issue,” said Jessica Chanay, program and communications director for the task force.

Chanay explained that the task force is looking at the root issues of hunger, like lack of affordable housing and access to steep medical bills.

Last legislative session, lawmakers passed bills aimed at making healthcare more affordable and directed tax dollars toward affordable housing initiatives.

But Chanay, said that more can be done, and some programs can be improved. For example, low-income parents whose children get reduced-price breakfast at school still have to pay 30 cents per day, which can really add up.

Despite her hardship, Chan remains cheerful. She created a center-piece for the food program made out of imitation grape and leaves. She also said she enjoys the company of the people who also rely on centers like this for food.

“I like it here. People so nice,” she said.

By Jake Thomas
jthomas@portlandobserver.com

With Oregon’s Jan. 1 ban on using cellphones approaching quickly, some residents who have become accustomed to yakking on the phone while behind the wheel might be getting a bit uneasy.

Several companies are cashing in on people who don’t have the discipline to turn off their phones while driving,

 

Youth hotline grows deeper roots…By Portland Observer-Nov 25

Deyalo Bennette, a 17-year-old senior at Trillium Charter School, and Imani Muhammad, a longtime youth outreach worker, join forces to create an information referral hotline for young people out of the Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods. Photo by Mark Washington.

By Jake Thomas
jthomas@portlandobserver.com

Imani Muhammad, a longtime youth outreach worker, became accustomed to hearing from organizations that they had a hard time getting information out when it came to promoting resources to local youth.

“There’s a lot going on, but where do we go?” was a refrain Muhammad often heard. “I kept hearing that word ‘communication,’” she said.

The Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods, where Muhammad works, recently launched an initiative to better utilize one of its resources that could serve as a one-stop shop to connect local youth with opportunities to get involved in their community and develop skills that will benefit them later in life.

For years, the Coalition has operated its Youth Gangs Hotline at 503-823-4264, which has provided residents with referrals for at-risk youth. But since September, Muhammad has been working to broaden it into a Community Youth Hotline.

Having after-school programs available for school students are pivotal to keeping kids from getting involved in unsavory activities, according to research by the National Youth Violence Office, which points out that youth are at the highest risk of being the victim of violent crime between the hours of 2 p.m. and 6 p.m.

Muhammad explained that the development of the hotline, which will continue to include gang outreach services, reflects the changing face of the neighborhoods of north and northeast Portland, which are no longer the hub of gang activity that they once were.

“Fifteenth and Alberta is no longer a concern due to gentrification and changes in the neighborhood,” she said. “If we’re trying to keep up to date with the times and looking and what the youth need, we have to make sure our program represents that.”

Imani explained that the hotline will offer information tailor-made for each youth. For instance, a musically-inclined 12-year-old might be referred to Ethos, Inc., a non-profit after-school music program.

Right now, the hotline, which is available between 3 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., has about 10 agencies in its directory, but with a grant from Spirit Mountain Community Fund she hopes to expand it even further. Imani also aims to have a slick website up next year, and six to eight high schoolers doing outreach. Right now, she’s trying to build up the directory, and get the word out about it.

“We want to hit all youth. We want to make sure that the good youth out there getting straight A’s have opportunity too” said Muhammad, who wants the hotline’s reach to the entire city and Gresham.

Deyalo Bennette, a 17-year-old senior at Trillium Charter School in north Portland, has been heavily involved in giving input on what’s relevant and interesting to local youth, whom he says often don’t know what to do after school and during the summer months.

Bennette said that the hotline is promising because many youth, accustomed to the instant gratification provided by the Internet, will have easy access to ideas on how to spend their free time.

“You can’t just make them go out and network”, he said.

Muhammad said she has seen Bennette grow in confidence from being so involved with youth activities.

“If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. I’m definitely going to be part of the solution,” said Bennette.

What’s Happening PDX agrees to Site Linkage providing Daily News- Powered by Portland Observer

Dear Reader,- Nov 15th

We are quite pleased to announce that starting Nov. 15th, we will be providing you daily urban news. This new service will have the following key features:

PDX Local News

Classifieds/ Job Listings

Local Politics

We truly believe that our readers would greatly benefit from this service provided by the Portland Observer.

Sincerely,

Rah-Miel Mitchell

www.whatshappeningpdx.com

Drivers who don’t want to get a ticket, but just can’t help themselves can now have devices installed on their cars that fetters incoming calls for them.

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