Food Stamp Challenge, Day 4: It’s Time for Rationing
It’s Day 4 of my food stamp challenge, and I think I’m somewhat used to this new, if temporary, normal. Oats with banana and peanut butter are not a tasty breakfast. But it beats the alternate breakfast food I bought: Nothing. And it keeps me full for a couple hours as I work through the morning. I’ve eaten a peanut butter and jelly sandwich every day for...
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Food Stamp Challenge, Day 3: On Grocery Stores, Genetically Engineered Food and Assets
Image: Phila.gov Good morning, all! Welcome to Day 3 of our food stamp challenge. Today I’m going to talk about how I kind of messed up my meal planning, and how PW arts and culture editor Sheena Lester is already off to a good start in terms of using her $35 (the maximum weekly amount available to food stamp recipients) wisely. There are a ton of grocery...
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DAILY GRINDER: 7 Northeast States—but not Pennsylvania—Sue EPA Over Methane
Seven states are suing the Environmental Protection Agency, saying it is “failing to address methane emissions from oil and gas drilling,” according to the Associated Press. And, not surprisingly, Pennsylvania is not one of the suing states. (OK, so: methane good; health care bad. Got it.) After all, the American Petroleum Institute says the suit “makes...
Continue ReadingKey Takeaways From the City’s Roundtable Discussion on Reducing Gun Violence
Earlier this afternoon at City Hall, Councilman Kenyatta Johnson hosted a roundtable discussion on strategies to reduce gun violence and violent crime. The good news is that at this point, it’s a given that the city is viewing violence as a public health crisis that requires interdisciplinary solutions. The panel of presenters included representatives from...
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Community Development Corporations Touted in City Hall
Collective Strength Report, via PACDC.org Members of the Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations and others packed Room 202 in City Hall earlier today to listen to news regarding a new report regarding the economic development of CDCs—which are neighborhood nonprofit groups dedicated to things like organizing, real estate and education. Among...
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Food Stamp Challenge, Day 2: Rethinking My Meal Choices
Welcome to Day 2 of PW’s food stamp challenge, wherein I eat on just $5 a day—the amount of money the average Philadelphian on food stamps receives from the government. Like I noted yesterday, 31 percent of Philadelphians receive food stamps. That’s more than 450,000 residents. Here’s what I learned after my first full day: I may have some...
Continue ReadingDAILY GRINDER: Philly’s Anti-Obesity Policy Recognized—for Success
Think Progress blogged yesterday about Philadelphia’s drop in the childhood obesity rate (it’s gone down about 5 percent) and are crediting things like, well, our Mayor’s and city’s obesity-reduction policies, especially as it’s effected minorities. “Philadelphia, which has the biggest share of residents living in poverty of the nation’s 10...
Continue ReadingNutter Participates in Fiscal Cliff Call with Other PA Mayors
Picking up where he left off on the Obama campaign trail, Mayor Michael Nutter joined Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski, York Mayor Kim Bracey and Reading Mayor Vaughn Spencer to show Keystone state solidarity on the so-called fiscal cliff, urging a bipartisan plan that eases cuts before the Budget Control Act of 2011 goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2013. The act would...
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DAILY GRINDER: Prepare for a Philly Media Paywall
Interstate General Media (the company that now owns Philly.com, the Inquirer and Daily News) have a new idea for their customers: They’re going to make the Inquirer and Daily News paywall sites, while leaving Philly.com as an open access hub. There’s no “precise launch date,” according to spokesman Mark Block, but they’re thinking early 2013....
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Philadelphia Weekly Staff Writer Randy LoBasso Is Doing the Food Stamp Challenge
The holidays are coming up, and for lots of us, that means time with our families, a day or two off work and a general massive increase in food consumption. But for the 473,037 people in Philadelphia (31 percent of the city’s population) who rely on food stamps, things aren’t always so dandy. According to statistics by the Hunger Coalition, the average food...
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