April 2023 Newsletter
Issue #74
Government Assistance Programs
Last month 16 million American households received a sharp reduction in the size of their SNAP or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits (formerly known as "food stamps"). On average, participants received $82 less per month. Some households saw reductions of $250 or more.

Most government assistance programs are “means-tested.” In order to qualify for benefits an individual or family must have income at or below 130% percent of the poverty line. Thus, for a family of 3, income must be below $2,495 a month, or about $29,940 a year. For households without a member aged 60 or older or someone with a disability, overall assets must fall below $2,750.

Approximately 52 million (21%) people in the U.S. participate in major means-tested government assistance programs each month. Participation rates are highest for Medicaid (15%) and SNAP (13%).

SNAP
A household of 3 people can receive a maximum of $740 SNAP benefits a month.

The average amount allotted per meal per person is $2.38.

  • 1% of SNAP recipients are Native American
  • 2% are Asian
  • 10% are Hispanic
  • 25% are Black
  • 40% are White


Over 50% of individuals participating in SNAP worked that month. 74% worked before or after
that month.

Individuals ages 18 to 50 are limited to 3 months of SNAP benefits every 3 years unless they are working or in a work training program at least 20 hours a week. Individuals exempt from this requirement, are those with children in the household, those determined to be physically or mentally unfit for work and pregnant mothers.

The federal government spends $60 billion on SNAP benefits -- about 1% of the U.S. budget --
$6.6 trillion.


Medicaid
Medicaid helps with medical costs for people with limited income and resources.

Over 84 million people are enrolled in Medicaid. 37% are children.


The federal government spends $458 billion
(about 7% of the U.S. budget) on Medicaid.


Undocumented immigrants, including DACA holders, are ineligible to receive SNAP or Medicaid.


Other government assistance programs include:

Earned Income Tax Credits (EITC)
Helps low- to moderate-income workers and families get a tax break. 31 million eligible workers and families receive $64 billion in aid (about 1% of the federal budget) The average amount of EITC nationwide is about $2,043.

Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
Helps disabled and blind people as well as seniors over 65 years of age. 25 million workers and families receive about $60 billion in aid (about 1% of the federal budget). Beneficiaries receive a maximum monthly benefit of $914 or $1,371 for couples. The average monthly SSI payment for people 65 and older is $554.

Housing Assistance
Includes rent vouchers, public housing and community development programs. 10.2 million people in 5.2 million American households use federal rental assistance to afford modest housing. 69% are seniors, children, or people with disabilities.
Housing assistance programs cost approximately $81 billion (about 1% of the federal budget).


Child Nutrition Program (CHIP)
Provides school lunch, breakfast and after school food programs. Over 41,000,000 children are enrolled in CHIP. The cost of the program is about $20 billion (about .3% of the federal budget)
 
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
Supports low-income families and moves them from welfare to work. Just 21% of families in poverty receive TANF benefits. The cost of the program is $32 billion (about .5% of the federal budget)

Women, Infants and Children (WIC)
Provides nutritious foods, counseling on healthy eating, breastfeeding support, and health care referrals to over 6 million low-income pregnant, postpartum, and breastfeeding women, infants, and children at nutritional risk — including almost half of all infants born in the U.S. The cost of the program is $5 billion (about .1% of the
federal budget)
.
Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP)
Supplements the diets of low-income persons at least 60 years of age. An average of almost 676,000 people each month participate in the program. The cost is $325 million (about .005% of the federal budget)

Low Income Home Energy Assistance (LIHEAP)
Provides assistance for low-cost residential weatherization or other energy-related home repair.
An estimated 4.9 million households receive assistance with heating costs through LIHEAP. The cost of the program is $2.8 billion (about .04% of the federal budget)

Taken together, all of these programs represent about 12% of the federal budget.

About 14 million Americans that are eligible for benefits aren't enrolled.


For more on the Welfare System, click here.
More Resources
A Bold Plan to Transform Access
to the U.S. Social Safety Net
A TED Talk, featuring Amanda Renteria, who points out that millions of people who rely on government welfare services are often discouraged from seeking them out, frustrated by long lines and unnecessarily complicated processes. She argues that human-centered technology that "respects you from the start, meets you where you are and provides an easy, positive experience" would help. She details the four factors that hinder effective delivery of government benefits and explains her plan to bring user-centric, digital-first social services to more than 13 million Americans and unlock 30 billion dollars in benefits for low-income families. Watch now.

For more on the Welfare system, click here.
Poverty, by America
By Matthew Desmond. Draws on history, research, and original reporting to show how affluent Americans knowingly and unknowingly keep poor people poor. Argues that those who are financially secure exploit the poor, driving down their wages while forcing them to overpay for housing and access to cash and credit. They prioritize the subsidization of their wealth over the alleviation of poverty, designing a welfare state that gives the most to those who need the least. And they stockpile opportunity in exclusive communities, creating zones of concentrated riches alongside those of
concentrated despair. 
Offers new ways of thinking about a morally urgent problem and helps imagine solutions. Builds a original and ambitious case for ending poverty. Calls on everyone to become poverty abolitionists, engaged in a politics of collective belonging to usher in a new age of shared prosperity and, at last, true freedom. Read more.

For more on Poverty, click here.
Called to Help the Poor and the Needy
By Patricia Said Adams. Looks at the more than two thousand verses in the Old Testament and the New Testament that direct us to help the poor and needy. The book focuses on this major Biblical theme and how we might more thoroughly live these commands. Read more.

For more Justice resources, click here.
Split This Rock
An organization that cultivates, teaches, and celebrates poetry that bears witness to injustice and provokes social change. Calls socially engaged poets to a greater role in public life and fosters a national network. Through programs, resources and a poetry database, builds an audience for poetry of provocation and witness. Learn more.

For more Justice resources, click here.
Racially Charged:
America's Misdemeanor Problem
A resource from Brave New Films, that exposes how the U.S. history of racial injustice evolved into an enormous abuse of criminal justice power. Through first-person accounts of those charged under the Black Codes of the Reconstruction era paralleled with the stories of people trapped in the system today, the film brings to light the ignition of a powerful engine of profits and racial inequality. With the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement, this film provides historical context and examines America’s history of racist oppression. Watch now.

For more on the Criminal Justice System,
Stranger at the Gate
A documentary nominated for an Academy Award in 2023 tells the true story of an Afghan refugee named Bibi Bahrami and the members of her small Indiana mosque, who come face to face with Richard "Mac" McKinney, a U.S. Marine who has secret plans to bomb their community center. But Mac McKinney's plan takes an unexpected turn. Watch now.

For more on Religious Intolerance, click here.
The Fairy Tales of the Fossil Fuel Industry --
and a Better Climate Story
A TED Talk, featuring activist Luisa Neubauer, who says that the fossil fuel industry is a factory of fairy tales. She traces the industry's five-decade trickle of lies about climate science and busts the myth that economic growth and stability are dependent on fossil fuels -- and issues a resounding message about how we can actually move towards a just world. Watch now. 

For more on the Environment, click here.
Love Your Mother: 50 States, 50 Stories, and 50 Women United for Climate Justice
By Mallory McDuff. Provides a roadmap to engage in climate justice by featuring women of diverse ages, backgrounds, and vocations -- one from each of the fifty US states -- as inspiration for a new kind of leadership focused on the heart of the climate crisis. Lifts up the stories of women from Alabama to Wyoming, who are poets, physicians, climate scientists, students, farmers, writers, documentary filmmakers, and more, working toward a viable future. Their work lights the way for conversation and collective action in our homes and in the world. Read more. 

For more on the Environment, click here.
Before the Streetlights Come On: Black America’s Urgent Call for Climate Solutions
By Heather McTeer Toney. Argues that those most affected by climate change are best suited to lead the movement for climate justice. Points out that Black Americans are disproportionately impacted by the effects of climate change. Black Americans make up 13% of the US population but breathe 40% dirtier air and are twice as likely to be hospitalized or die from climate-related health problems than white counterparts. Thus they are uniquely qualified to lead national and global conversations around systems of racial disparity and solutions to the climate crisis. Read more.

For more on the Environment, click here.
When Innocence Is Not Enough:
Hidden Evidence and the Failed Promise of the Brady Rule
By Tom L.Dybdahl. Illustrates the promise and shortcomings of the "Brady Rule" -- which the Supreme Court decreed in 1963 that prosecutors must share favorable evidence with the defense—as a part of a suite of decisions of that reform-minded era designed to promote fairness for those accused of crimes. Through storytelling and attention to crucial cases -- including the infamous 1984 murder of Catherine Fuller in Washington, DC. which led to eight young Black men being sent to prison for life after the prosecutor hid information that would have proven their innocence. Chronicles the evolution of the Brady rule -- from its unexpected birth to the series of legal decisions that left it defanged and ineffective. Yet shows a path forward by highlighting promising reform efforts across the country that offer a blueprint for a legislative revival of Brady’s true spirit. Read more.

For more on the Criminal Justice System,
Crossing the River Styx:
The Memoir of a Death Row Chaplain
By Russ Ford, Charles Peppers, Todd C. Peppers. Reverend Ford shares stories from his experiences serving as the head chaplain on Virginia’s death row for eighteen years in the 1980s and 1990s. He forged close bonds with the condemned and developing a nuanced understanding of their crimes, their early struggles, and their challenges behind bars. He stood watch with twenty-eight of them, sitting in the death house during the final days and hours of their lives. A unique and compelling read, provides a moving and unflinching portrait of death row, revealing the cruelties of this state-sanctioned violence. Read more.

For more on Capital Punishment, click here.
Women and the Gender of God
By Amy Peeler. A robust theological argument against the assumption that God is male. Shows how the Bible depicts a God beyond gender and a savior who, while embodied as a man, is the unification in one person of the image of God that resides in both male and female. Begins with a study of Mary and her response to the annunciation, through which it becomes clear that God empowers women and honors their agency. Then describes from a theological standpoint how the virgin birth of Jesus—the second Adam—reverses the gendered division enacted in the garden of Eden. While acknowledging the significance of the Bible’s frequent use of “Father” language to represent God as a caring parent, goes beneath the surface of this metaphor to show how God is never sexualized by biblical writers or described as being physically involved in procreation. Leads the way in reasserting the value of women in the church and prophetically speaking out against the destructive idolatry of masculinity.

For more on Gender Inequality, click here.
Water for People
An international nonprofit organization that envisions a world where every person has access to reliable and safe water and sanitation services. Works to promote the development of high-quality drinking water and sanitation services, accessible to all, and sustained by strong communities, businesses, and governments. Learn more.

For more on Water Access, click here.
Ethical Consumer
An independent, not-for-profit, multi-stakeholder co-operative with open membership. Provides tools and resources to make choices at the checkout simple, informed and effective. Offers a personal ethical rating system to give consumers information based on detailed research of over 40,000 companies, brands and products. The database is a result of over 20 years work conducting primary and secondary research covering around 300 topics in 19 areas in 5 main categories such as: technology, retailers, travel, money, energy, food & drink, fashion & clothing, health & beauty, home & garden. Learn more.

For more Public Witness resources, click here.
Young, Gifted, and Black:
A Journey of Lament and Celebration
By Sheila Wise Rowe. Drawing from years of experience in counseling black trauma and abuse survivors, provides stories, reflections, and tools that go beyond the common narrative that focuses solely on success or struggle. Offers an opportunity to explore, reflect, and journey toward healing from the barriers that affect their lives, the lives of their children, and their communities. Read more.

For more on Racism, click here.
Important Dates This Month
Individuals Honored This Month
April 2nd

Those who defend the right to life of the weakest among us must be equally visible in support of the quality of life of the powerless among us: the old and the young, the hungry and the homeless, the undocumented immigrant and the unemployed worker.
April 10th

The Peace Corps left today and my heart sank low. The danger is extreme and they were right to leave...Now I must assess my own position because I am not up for suicide. Several times I have decided to leave El Salvador. I almost could, except for the children, the poor, bruised victims of this insanity. Who would care for them? Whose heart could be so staunch as to favor the reasonable thing in a sea of their tears and helplessness? Not mine, dear friend, not mine.
April 21st

I saw the suffering and I let myself feel it… I saw the injustice and was compelled to do something about it. I changed from being a nun who only prayed for the suffering world to a woman with my sleeves rolled up, living my prayer.
April 21st

I'd rather be in the mountains thinking of God, than in church thinking about the mountains.
April 23rd

I hope that you come to find that which gives life a deep meaning for you. Something worth living for – maybe even worth dying for, something that energizes you, enthuses you, enables you to keep moving ahead. I can’t tell you what it might be – that’s for you to find, to choose, to love. I can just encourage you to start looking and support you in the search.
April 26th

It is in community that we come to see God in the other. It is in community that we see own emptiness filled up. It is community that calls me beyond the pinched horizons of my own life, my own country, my own race, and gives me the gifts I do not have
within me. 
April 27th

The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members, a heart of grace and a soul generated
by love.
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