If you weren’t able to make it in April to Northside P.O.W.E.R.’s 99% Spring Training, but are still wondering it is all about, please watch this short video of George Goehl, executive director of National People’s Action.
Everyone is talking about the massive cuts that Governor Quinn is proposing for Illinois’ FY 2013 budget. They sound downright painful, especially the $2.7 billion in cuts he proposed to make to Medicaid, the state’s health care system for the poor. A Just Harvest patron’s struggle to get nutritious food, pay rent, and buy medication as things currently stand. Deeps cuts to Medicaid will only make their challenges greater.
Cuts to the state budget – like the 9% Quinn is proposing for many state departments – will have a ripple effect in the economy. A recent study by the Alliance for a Just Society finds that for every percentage point we cut Illinois spending, we lose 6,230 jobs. As people lose their jobs in the coming year to Illinois budget cuts many of them will turn to places like A Just Harvest for help.
We need to be looking at revenue sources, not simply cuts. Quinn made a weak reference to raising $75 million annually by closing a tax loophole enjoyed by oil companies. Check out IIRON’s take on corporate tax loopholes that, if closed, could actually raise serious revenue for Illinois – $1.5 billion over three years! If you’re feeling wonky (and I mean this in a good way), read the original study by Good Jobs First detailing these loopholes. Although this isn’t enough to solve all our budget woes, shouldn’t we be looking for ways to lessen the pain?
Northside P.O.W.E.R. participated in an action called “Fat Cat Tuesday” that called on corporations and our elected officials to repent and give up corporate tax giveaways for lent. Â Click on the image below to see press coverage in Progress Illinois.
“…until all have plenty, and no one is left in need.” This is A Just Harvest’s vision of how the world should be. We’d like to create a world where there is no need for emergency food distribution. In other words, we’d like to put ourselves out of business.
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was articulating a similar vision when he launched the Poor People’s Campaign shortly before his assassination. The Civil Rights Movement vanquished Jim Crow, but didn’t vanquish the poverty suffered by millions of African Americans. Recognizing than great numbers of Americans of every race and ethnicity lived in poverty, Dr. King turned his sights on creating a multiracial movement that would vanquish poverty and create a more just economy – to ensure that “all have plenty, and no one is left in need.”
Although we no longer have state-sanctioned racial apartheid in America, we do live in an America with staggering economic inequality – an economic apartheid, if you will, which has only been increasing in recent decades. A Just Harvest seeks to live MLK’s dream – to “Occupy the Dream”.
On January 15, 1,500 people of faith and community leaders came together to honor the legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and promote policies that will alleviate hunger, poverty and growing income inequality.
This is a 5 minute video synopsis of the event: (Click here to watch the FULL EVENT on YouTube.)
A Just Harvest is committed not only to meeting hungry people’s immediate need for food, but to supporting public policies which alleviate hunger and poverty.  Due to the persistently high employment rate, record numbers of Americans are seeking food assistance from the SNAP program (formerly known as food stamps) and from organization’s like A Just Harvest.  For this reason, A Just Harvest is calling on our elected officials to take action within their power to create jobs now.
Rather than further cuts to taxes on the wealthiest Americans and waiting to see if they create jobs (which hasn’t worked so far), let’s take matters into our hands and pass a bill guaranteed to immediately create decent jobs for millions of unemployed Americans.
Northside P.O.W.E.R. and Moveon.org organized a rally to demand that Rep. Dold (R-10th) support the jobs bill introduced by Rep. Schakowsky(D-9th).
In this video A Just Harvest patrons, volunteers and Northside P.O.W.E.R. leaders and interns share their experiences in this recession. They are struck by the fact that while they struggle with unemployment, underemployment and the possible loss of health care while the large banks and Wall Street investment firms are handing out record bonuses. We now know that many of these banks engaged in predatory lending and sold risky mortgages as stable investments, and that this irresponsible behavior harmed the economy. Ordinary people are suffering, but the banks got bailed out but are failing to extend the same generosity to average Americans as the American tax payer extended to them.
Why does A Just Harvest care about these things? Because we are committed not only to feeding the hungry, but fighting the root causes of hunger.
In the Spring of 2010, Lakeside Community Development Corporation (CDC) obtained funding for outreach to let people know about the Circuit Court of Cook County’s Foreclosure Mediation Program. This program provides a Housing Counselor, a Lawyer and a Mediator, all FREE of charge, funded by the Cook County budget.
The mediation program was created as the result of an organizing campaign spearheaded by Action NOW and conducted by a coalition of community organizations including Northside P.O.W.E.R. Both Lakeside CDC and St. Peter’s U.C.C. Skokie are members of Northside P.O.W.E.R. (NsP). Beth Lanford of St. Peter’s U.C.C. has a personal self interest in this issue. One of her brothers lives in a state where lenders do not have to get a court order of foreclosure. All the lender has to do is put an ad in the local paper announcing the time of the house’s auction. The lender then mails the ad to the homeowner. So people drove by her brother’s house, checking it out as a possible investment. He was wondering what was going on. That is until he received the ad in the mail!
So, when Beth was approached with the opportunity of helping homeowners save their homes, she was ALL FOR IT. It turns out that her story is not the only one out there. So many people are in foreclosure for a variety of reasons.
With the help of NsP and Lakeside CDC, St. Peter’s U.C.C. began to organize a door knocking campaign in Skokie. Lakeside provided the walk sheets, and St. Peter’s the door knockers. Door knockers approach people in foreclosure and provide information on the Mediation program, urging them to call and get into the program.
Next, St. Peter’s approached the Village of Skokie to explore coordinating efforts reaching out to homeowners in foreclosure. St. Peter’s met with Mayor George Van Dusen and the assistant Village manager John Lockerby.
As a result of these meetings an agreement was reached that ended duplication of efforts and continues to explore possible channels of cooperation. This led to Mayor George Van Dusen’s special appearance at the Northside P.O.W.E.R. – MLK Sunday Public Meeting on January 16th, 2011.
The work is not done! If you want to get involved with this exciting outreach, call St. Peter’s U.C.C. at (847) 673.8166.