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The Source: A Look At Poverty In America

United States Department of Agriculture
The United States Department of Agriculture donates commodities through programs such as The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), which the San Antonio Food Bank (SAFB) packages and palletizes them for fast distribution in San Antonio, TX.

In the first segment:

The last 10 years or the "lost decade" has mired the country in debt that we are only now starting to climb out of.  The incidence of poverty has jumped in America, and you might be surprised to see where it has grown most.  

According to a book by Brookings Institute,the largest jump is in the suburbs rather than the urban core of cities.  The rate of suburban poverty has grown at more than twice the rate as that of the city core nationwide .  

Dealing with dispersed communities of poverty, far from government services, further strains the safety net. How do we combat suburban poverty? Elizabeth Kneebone, lead author of the study and book, joins us to talk about this shift.

In the second segment:

Sasha Abramsky has been writing on the subject of poverty for a long time. In last year's article for The Nation "The Other America, 2012"he throws the curtain back on the 46 million people living in poverty.  

His book "The American Way of Poverty: How the Other Half Still Live" is the result of hundreds of interviews over several years with organizations that serve and the people that live in poverty.  

Many of his interviews for this project are archived online at voicesofpoverty.org

 

We first broadcast this segment September 9th, 2013

*The Source airs at 3 p.m. on KSTX 89.1 FM - audio from this show will be posted by 5:30 p.m.

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Paul Flahive can be reached at Paul@tpr.org