Faith Poverty Round Table

Caritas of Austin hosted the Faith and Poverty Round Table. This forum takes place once a year and allows members of the Austin area faith community to connect with one another as well as learn tangible skills to fight poverty in Austin.

I learned a lot, and the steps I feel called to take are to

1. Call the Austin area Food Stamp Outreach Coordinator and have him train me how to help others apply for food stamps (52% of Austinites living in poverty don't use this government allocated money because they don't know how to apply).
   
2. Then, I'm gonna find the nearest food pantry (you can find the nearest food pantry to you by going to austinfoodbank) and volunteer there while also encouraging those who visit the pantry to let me help them apply for food stamps.

Here's what I learned today:

Poverty in Austin

• 2007 Federal Poverty Income Guideline is $20,650 a year for a family of four.

• Center for Public Policy Priorities (a great resource for poverty stats/facts) cppp.org estimates the living cost in the Austin area to be $53,080 to cover basic needs for a family of four. People, that cost is MORE THAN DOUBLE the Federal Poverty Income Guideline.

• In Travis County 38.6% of households headed by unmarried women with children under five live in poverty. Any change in their family income or expenses threatens their ability to make ends meet.
  

Hunger in Austin

• Food Pantries
• The lack of evening hours and very limited hours on Saturdays when pantries are open pose a serious challenge for the working poor in accessing food.
• Food pantries have an adequate supply of food, but there are shortages of dairy products, fresh produce, and fresh or frozen meat. Shortages of these items could impact the nutritional health and overall development of adults and children.

• Food Stamps
• 52% of Texans who qualify for food stamps do not use the program because they don't know how to apply.
  
• Now food stamps come on a card much like any bank card. So no more stigma/embarrassment attached to using food stamps at the grocery store.
  

• 13 of the 24 Travis County zip codes with high poverty levels do not have a food pantry or hot meal services. Basically that means 75% of people in poverty don't have a food provider in their zip code. That's 6,946 people, PEOPLE!

Mental Health in Austin

Wasn't even talked about at the poverty round table because there is a huge lack of mental health initiative in Austin and all of Texas. If you have any stats on mental health, please comment. Mental health is a serious issue (and several individuals experiencing it cannot get the adequate help they need and end up homeless or in jail, which is absolutely not where they belong.

How You Can Help

• Call
  
• 2-1-1 is the dialing code statewide for FREE access to information on health and human services, community organizations, disaster relief resources, faith-based services, and volunteer opportunities. CALL ANYTIME! they're always open.
  

• Volunteer
• at a food pantry or with a Basic Needs Coalition agency to provide much needed services to people living in poverty such as clothing, food, rent, utility assistance. Visit basicneeds-ctx.org.
  

• Support
  
• public policy intitiatives that crate real solutions for adequate healthcare, childcare, living wages, education and disability assistance. Visit cppp.org for more info.
• the cause you care about by donating your time, talent, or treasure (money, people)

• Get Trained
• to help those in need, apply for food stamps. Stephen Beasley, Food Stamp Outreach Coordinator can be reached at 512-684-2119 and will train up to 10 people at a time on how to fill out food stamp applications for FREE

• Advocate
• tell your friends, coworkers and state representatives about the issues and how to combat them
  
• pray-it's powerful people
• ACT and others will act with you!