Jimmy Lombardo
Leslie Jewkes
English 102
1 October 2012
Poverty in Idaho
Poverty has always been an issue in third-world developing countries. Every day one can read articles in magazines and newspapers about the starving kids and people in Africa. Americans are also bombarded with infomercials with headlines of “stars” raising money, adopting children and making the public aware of the issue in these poverty stricken countries. Sadly, what goes unrecognized is the rising issues of poverty right here in the United States, and yes, even in Idaho. Since the mid 2000’s, the poverty rate in Idaho has been on a steady incline, reaching up to around 17 percent. The question always ends up, how do we end poverty? Providing people with an opportunity to prosper should produce a better outcome than just providing a handout. What programs are in place to educate people how to succeed, how to prosper, and how to survive? If poverty is something we are born into, how do we educate our youth and teach them to strive for more?
Poverty is all around us. It lives in the biggest cities in the country and in the smallest towns on the map. The one place poverty seems to be inevitable is in rural areas. Idaho is amongst those states considered Rural. According to Alemayehu Bishaw of the United States census bureau, “the 2011 ACS reported about 48.5 million people or 15.9 percent of the U.S. population had income below their respective poverty level” (2). “In Idaho, the poverty rate is 16.5 percent, almost three quarters of a percent higher than the national average” (1). The reason for poverty being higher in Idaho and in rural areas in general is because of the lack of opportunity. In most rural areas, there are not large corporations, there are not businesses on every street; rather there are hardly any businesses except for mom and pop stores, and trade work, such as construction, landscaping, and farming. These types of jobs typically pay around the minimum wage scale for the employees.
In Idaho, farming has always been a huge part of the economy. Due to many technological changes, the role of the typical farmer is not what it used to be. As stated by Micheal Grunwald, “Only 2% of our farms are corporate-owned--but they also have to be land managers, soil scientists, hydrologists, veterinarians, mechanics, commodity traders, exterminators, meteorologists and highly sophisticated businessmen” (par. 18). With this mind set, the “old timers” are being pushed out and eaten up by the large corporations. This only adds to the already growing poverty in rural areas. These are the hard working Americans and Idahoans that live below the poverty line and are required to either work multiple jobs or collect food stamps to feed their families and buy shoes for their kids to wear to school. Children raised in these environments learn this to be a way of life at an early age.
In Idaho, the amount of people required to use food stamps has been on a steady incline. According to Betsy Russell of the Idaho Spokesman, “just 95,433 Idahoans received the federally funded benefit that helps pay for food for low-income people. But the numbers have exploded; in fiscal year 2011, 223,730 people got food stamps in Idaho, and the projection for the current year is 237,874” (par. 8).
Some might argue during the last five years, Idaho has seen an influx of large corporations setting up headquarters in the treasure valley, creating new potential for higher paying jobs, yet the poverty rate has continued to increase. According to a survey by Jon Bruner from Forbs Magazine, “Idaho, Texas, Oklahoma and Utah have the friendliest business environments in the United States” (1). Unfortunately, most of the resident Idahoans lack the qualifications through education to be eligible for these positions. According to Go-On-Idaho.ORG, “Idaho is in the bottom 10 states for its people going on and finishing a 4-year college degree.” (Go-On-Idaho.ORG) The lack of an educated work force is forcing the companies to seek qualified employees from other states. To further show the issue of the gap with the local employee candidate pool, Gosia Wozniacka points out, "We have an issue of skills mismatch…Companies may be offering jobs, but the skills of people in the valley are not ones they are looking for" (par. 13).
Poverty is determined by the amount of income for a family or individual. The poverty does not magically disappear with more government aid such as food stamps and social security. Government aid is very helpful and required for the survival for those living below poverty line, but it does not eliminate poverty. One key to ending economic poverty in Idaho and other rural areas is through education.
Poverty goes beyond one’s economic status and affects the quality of the lifestyle they lead. People who live in poverty are often linked to malnutrition, poor health, and low education. What is mal nutrition?
“Malnutrition is responsible for much of the suffering of the peoples of the world. At least one-fifth of the worldwide loss of years of life to death and to disability is due to undernutrition. When more speculative estimates are made of the contributions of diet-related chronic diseases such as diabetes, obesity, and hypertension and the various components of under nutrition, some commentators place one half of global suffering at the door of malnutrition” (1, Haddad).
So, how does Idaho measure up in the category of nutrition? According to an article provided by the Idaho Food Bank, “The USDA has ranked Idaho the 29th hungriest state” (Idaho food bank).
There are many government programs available to help those living at poverty levels. One of the largest government subsidies for low income families is food stamps, which is funded by the United States Farm Bill. According to Scott Neuman with Time Magazine, “the largest chunk of the farm bill in dollar terms is directed to the Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as the food stamp program” (3). With food stamps and government assistance available for those in need, why is mal nutrition still so prevalent? According to Michael Grunwald with Time Magazine, “health advocates ask why the most fattening calories on our grocery shelves are the most subsidized. During an unprecedented obesity epidemic, why not support fruits and vegetables instead of cattle and poultry feed” (Par. 29)? There seems to be a strong disconnect between government aid contributing to supplemental nutrition and the growing issue of mal nutrition. Although the farm aid bill does a lot of good for the community, for example, food stamps. It is slightly disproportionate in the manner that it allocates it’s subsidies to primarily large corporations, which do not always have the best interest of the people in mind. As Michael Grunwald strongly states:
“In reality, the top 10% of subsidized farmers collect nearly three-quarters of the subsidies, for an average of almost $35,000 per year. The bottom 80% average just $700. That's worth repeating: most farmers, especially the small farmers whose steadfast family values and precarious family finances are invoked to justify the programs, get little or nothing.”(par. 7)
The nutritional welfare of the people does not seem to be the focus of the farm aid bill supporters. To “subsidize” the “subsidies” great organizations have been formed to educate and provide assistants to the local nutritional needs of Idaho’s residence. One of these organizations is the Star Outreach. This outreach provides charitable donations and events for the community, such as adopt a family, food banks, school supply drives, and an educational community gardening program. “One of the goals for Star Outreach is to provide fresh food for the community … Children from our community will learn to plant, care for and be nourished from a garden” (Star Outreach).
Poverty is prevalent all over the world, all over the United States, and Idaho is no exception. You must teach children at a young age the importance of growing food that is sustainable and nutritional and provide an educational foundation that encourages and enriches their growth into the future to ensure their movement away from a poverty stricken life. Together, the community needs to take an active approach, starting in elementary school to teach all students a sustainable life outside of poverty through school gardens and nutritional lunches. To do this, communities need to stand together, acknowledge the fact that poverty does exist in the areas in which they live even when it may not affect them directly. This is not a problem that one person or one family should face alone. The governmental programs available to those in immediate need are not in place to promote a change but rather to promote a life that is cycle that is repeated. Education needs to be a focus amongst those with small children and those without; if you give opportunity to those who otherwise thought it wasn’t available they can break the cycle and barriers to move out of poverty and hunger. What if the small towns across Idaho from Post Falls, Idaho all the way to Idaho Falls, Idaho all had community gardens to teach you a way of sustainable and a healthy food source through hands on learning. Or resource centers available to those enroll in college or return to high school to finish a GED or Diploma? With small changes the future for all of Idaho will become brighter.
The chart below is the poverty levels of Idaho per county
The chart below is the poverty levels of Idaho per county
Data provided by USDA
Works Cited
Bishaw, Alemayehu. "Poverty: 2009 and 2010." U.S. Census Bureau. 2011.
Bruner, Jon. "Americas Friendliest Places for Starting a Buisiness." Forbs Magazine 15 June 2012.
community-garden. Staroutreachonline.com. 2012. 25 September 2012.
Go-On-Idaho.org/know-the-stats.php. 2012. 25 September 2012.
Grunwald, Michael. "Down on the Farm." Time Magazine 12 November 2007.
Hadded, Lawrence. "Nutrition and Poverty." In nutrition: A foundation fro development (2002). acc/scn.
Idahofoodbank.org. n.d. 25 september 2012.
Messick, Molly. "Idaho's Poverty rate continues its rise." Census Bureau. 2012.
Neuman, Scott. "Why teh farm bill's precision will matter to you." Time magazine 13 June 2012.
Russell, Betsy Z. "Idaho grocers plead for remedy after $1M in spoiled food." The Spokesman Review 16 January 2012. newspaper.
Wozniacka, Gosia. "Calif. Central Valley Cities among poorest in US." Associated Press Fresno 20 September 2012. newspaper.
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