“Africa Survey Links Infrastructure Spending to Poverty Reduction,” by William Eagle, Voice of America. “A new study about Africa shows the importance of developing roads, electrical grids, health clinics and other forms of infrastructure for promoting development — and reducing poverty.”
“The striking power of poverty to turn young boys into jobless men,” by By Emily Badger and Christopher Ingraham, The Washington Post. “Men are more likely to work than women. This has been true in the United States for generations and for entrenched reasons that have to do with ‘family values’ and workplace policies. It’s true because the culture says women should care for their children and because paying for child care is expensive. And it’s true because of discrimination.”
“Will Cooking and Nutrition Education For College Students Increase Food Security?,” by Rose Hayden-Smith, UC Food Observer. “The University of California Santa Barbara is piloting a program that the campus hopes will improve nutrition, develop life skills and increase food security among its students. Multiple weekly workshops are teaching students how to cook, shop on a budget, manage debt, stay healthy and even navigate the campus food service. And there’s more…’Additional classes cover everything from recipe planning and tenants’ rights to seasonal cooking and cutting food costs through bulk purchases.’”
“A faith-based call to undo decades of over-criminalization, mass incarceration,” by Erica Asch, Bangor Daily News. “In early December, I sat down at the conference table in Sen. Susan Collins’ office in Washington, D.C., and shared my experience with mass incarceration in my own city of Augusta. Upon visiting a county jail where I would be teaching monthly classes for inmates, I was shown the room that formerly housed the chapel. Peering through the window, I saw 30 men lying on thin mattresses on the hard floor. There was simply no other place to put them. As a result of the prison’s overcrowding, all religious meetings had been moved to the room otherwise used for videoconferencing with the courthouse next door.”
“Obama to Seek $12B From Congress for Child Nutrition,” by Darlene Superville, Associated Press via ABC News. “President Barack Obama plans to ask Congress for $12 billion over a decade to help feed schoolchildren from low-income families during the summer, the White House said Wednesday.”
“Hunger costs Africa big, and Ethiopia is in a ‘code red’ emergency, but there’s a bright spot in Nigeria,” by Christine Mungai, Mail & Guardian Africa. “ETHIOPIA’s current hunger situation a ‘code red emergency’, says Save the Children; country director John Graham told Reuters news agency that the scale of drought ‘is like nothing I’ve seen before in the 19 years that I’ve lived in this country.’”
