UN Makes Massive Appeal to Rebuild Haiti
Half of Haiti's population faces chronic food insecurity

The United Nations has launched a $35 million flash appeal to help rebuild Haiti and aid the people there who were already engulfed in a humanitarian crisis before the recent civil unrest. According to the U.N.'s World Food Programme, half of Haiti's eight million residents are malnourished and faces chronic food insecurity, a situation that has deteriorated since the political violence began.

Haiti's most vulnerable population -- its children -- will be the hardest hit in this crisis. Chronic malnutrition has always been common among young children in Haiti, with between 20 and 29 percent of children suffering from stunted growth, growing to 38 percent in rural areas, WFP reports. One in 10 children dies before the age of five in Haiti while half of primary school age children are not attending schools. Haiti also has the highest maternal mortality rate in the Western Hemisphere.

Key quote:

"The situation was terrible before," said Guy Gauvreau, Country Director for the WFP. "The resources of these people are exhausted."

To make a donation to WFP, click here.

Obesity Overtaking Smoking As #1 Killer in U.S.
59 million Americans considered obese

The french fry is advancing on the cigarette in the race to be the number one cause of death in the United States. The Journal of the American Medical Association published a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention yesterday saying that poor diet and physical inactivity accounted for 400,000 deaths in 2000, some 16.6% of the total, while tobacco was to blame for 435,000 deaths in the US during 2000, around 18.1% of the total. It's easy to gloss over the root causes of this increase and say Americans are just packing on the pounds because of greed, but there are other factors at play at increasing the levels of obesity in the U.S.

An estimated 59 million Americans are classified obese, generally held to be 30 pounds overweight for women and 35 to 40 pounds for men, reported The Guardian. Obesity can lead to numerous other illnesses like diabetes and heart disease. For many Americans, fast food is an economic choice, not a dietary preference. As Rachel Flamholz, MD, reported in WHY Speaks, "There is often availability of inexpensive high-fat processed food in stores in poor areas where fruits and vegetables are less available and more expensive. A study of restaurants in one city showed that low-fat foods of higher nutritional value were more frequently offered on the menu in well-off communities than in adjacent poorer communities. Perhaps the best example of this phenomenon is 'fast food.' Fast food chains are ubiquitous; the cheap high-fat foods they serve are an easy choice for those short on time and money."

Despite this growing health crisis, the House of Representatives voted yesterday to ban fast food restaurants' liability for consumers' health problems.

How The Candidates Are Answering the Poverty Question
Kerry, Bush ready for November face-off

Before he dropped out of the Democratic primary race on Super Tuesday, Senator John Edwards (D-NC) was largely credited with bringing the poverty issue to the forefront of the debate. He was not alone: Congressman Dennis Kucinich of Ohio and activist Al Sharpton have also made the poverty problem in America part of their platforms. Though Kucinich and Sharpton are still in the race, the mainstream press has named Senator John Kerry the likely Democratic candidate for president. Kerry will face sitting President George Bush in the fall. The WHY Reporter takes a look at the two frontrunner candidates on the road to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue this year.

1. George Bush: During his 2000 campaign, Bush promised to improve the educational system nationwide, save and strengthen Social Security and Medicare, and inspire both community and faith-based organizations to work with government to help underprivileged Americans. The reality has been quite different.
   
   
   Bush cut billions of dollars from the "No Child Left Behind" Act, leaving state budgets without the money to meet the federal education requirements. In Bush's 2003 budget proposal, 200,000 children from child care assistance over five years while requiring mothers leaving welfare to work more hours; cut 570,000 children from after-school programs; and create new bureaucratic barriers for disadvantaged children to get school lunches and for working parents to get their tax credits.
   
   
   Roughly 3 million jobs have been lost on Bush's watch, and the chronically unemployed lost benefits, thanks to the elimination of TANF relief.
   
   
   Bush's budget proposal also cut by 26 percent the Farmers' Market Nutrition Program, which enables low-income women, children, and infants to obtain produce directly from small farmers. The President's proposal would reduce funding from $27 million down to $20 million nationwide, decreasing both the number of farmers and the number of Americans facing poverty who would be able to obtain the economic and nutritional benefits of the program. In previous years, President Bush proposed entirely eliminating the program.


2. John Kerry: The senator from Massachutes has said that one of his first priorities is to create job growth in America. He plans to do so by creating jobs through a new manufacturing jobs credit, by investing in new energy industries, restoring technology, and stopping layoffs in education. What has Kerry done as a senator on these issues?
   
   
   According to Issues2000.org, Kerry voted against killing an increase in the minimum wage (Nov 1999); voted against allowing workers to choose between overtime & comp-time (May 1997); and voted no on replacing farm price supports (Feb 1996)
   
   
   
   Kerry voted to not allow states the option of getting food stamp funds as a block grant administered by the state, rather than as a federal program, if they meet certain criteria, and he also approved an overhaul of the federal welfare system.

Poverty will continue to be a vital issue in this year's election, and The WHY Reporter will continue to check in with the candidates as their campaigns move forward.