NEWS & UPDATES
Cutting programs to help the poor doesn’t eliminate poverty
The LePage administration likes to tout how it has reduced the number of people who receive social services in Maine. If fewer people get government help, the thinking goes, the problems that caused their need for help also have been magically eliminated. Data show this isn’t true. Take hunger. A new report from the U.S. Department
Feeding Rural Kids Still Challenging, Even As Maine Expands Summer Meal Program
Nearly half of all kids in Maine qualify for free and reduced-price lunch at school. During the summer months, when school is out, there haven’t been a lot of options for those families – but that’s starting to change. In the past ten years, the number of summer meal sites in the state has more
Bank foundation providing $300K to fight Maine homelessness
A more than quarter of a million dollar grant is being given to Preble Street Resource Center in Portland- money that the non-profit’s staff say will help end the cycle of chronic homelessness for many people. The KeyBank Foundation is giving $300,000 to Preble Street over the next three years. The money will help bolster
KeyBank donates $300,000 to Preble Street
Preble Street, a Portland nonprofit focused on reducing homelessness, will receive $300,000 from KeyBank’s charitable arm. KeyBank Foundation will make the grant over three years. The donation is part of a Key’s National Community Benefits Plan, which will commit $16.5 billion to community development and investment over five years. The plan will cover Key’s 15-state
Maine Voices: Breakfast After the Bell is the way mornings should be for Maine students
On Maine beaches this week, children build sandcastles, jump on skim boards, chase seagulls and collect sand dollars. Summer in small-town Maine is idyllic, complete with parades, fireworks and family cookouts. Often, though, by the sea not all is as it seems. Camouflage is how nature keeps the peace. The rust-colored lobster can be impossible
Maine Voices: Nonprofits’ second-in-commands are leaders in shaping communities
On a fairly regular basis, I am urged by a well-meaning friend or supporter of Preble Street to run the agency “more like a business.” And from conversations with other nonprofit executives, I’m quite certain I’m not the only one getting that advice. It drives me crazy to hear that. Of course we run the
Student breakfast program a success
SOUTH PORTLAND — Schools nationwide have long touted the importance of a good breakfast in giving students a positive start to their day. South Portland High School is no different, but officials have found that it’s not always enough to simply offer a healthy morning meal, even at free or reduced prices. “Even though the
Portland council OKs zoning to promote shelters
PORTLAND — Emergency homeless shelters are now allowed in business and industrial zones throughout the city, following a unanimous City Council vote Monday night. Shelters are allowed as a conditional use and seen as a step forward in improving how the city helps the homeless population. “I think this opens the door to other opportunities.
Maine would be among first states to impose work requirements, premiums on Medicaid recipients
Maine and Wisconsin would be the first states in the nation to charge monthly Medicaid premiums to people living in extreme poverty and bar them from re-enrolling in the program before they catch up on late premiums, if requests by the two states are approved by the Trump administration. In addition, Maine and Wisconsin would
‘I Felt Like A Caveman’ — How Work Requirements For State Benefits Hurt One Maine Man
There was a time when Tim Keefe was so hungry he ate a squirrel. “I felt like a primitive human being. I felt like a caveman, I really did. And that’s not the first time in this whole thing I felt like a caveman,” he says. Keefe was homeless at the time. He lost his
The People Left Behind When Only the ‘Deserving’ Poor Get Help
ORLAND, Maine—In the eyes of the state of Maine, Laurie Kane is an able-bodied adult without dependents, and thus ineligible for most forms of government support. In her own eyes, it is hard to see how she is going to find housing, work, and stability without help. Kane is struggling to put her life back
Cutting aid to poor people doesn’t magically make them less poor
Reducing assistance for poor people in the U.S. is a centerpiece of the budget the Trump administration unveiled Tuesday. It calls for huge cuts to Medicaid, Social Security disability payments, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, food assistance and other anti-poverty programs. It also would pass more responsibility for many of these programs to states and
