Nonprofit News From Elsewhere
As inflation makes it harder for many people to fill their carts at the grocery store, food banks are caught in a squeeze between rising costs and higher demand. The Gleaners Food Bank of Indianapolis, for example, is paying $14 for a case of beans that used to cost $9, and the Oregon Food Bank has given up buying ground beef and sweet potatoes. Meanwhile, demand at food banks remains higher than pre-pandemic levels, and federal pandemic relief programs have ended. In a recent survey by Michigan State University, a third of respondents said the pandemic had affected their households’ access to food, with 53 percent of those citing limited financial resources. Nearly half of that 53 percent said they are eating less. Other obstacles to getting enough food were fear of infection at the supermarket and a lack of reliable transportation. (New York Times and Conversation)
Stacey Abrams’s Fair Fight political action committee has donated $1.34 million to wipe out medical debt for 108,000 people in five states. The money will go to RIP Medical Debt, which says it has erased more than $5.3 billion worth of debt owed by 3 million-plus people since it was founded in 2014. Fair Fight’s contribution will pay off debt that is steeply discounted from its face value of $212 million in Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi. The organization is pushing for a Medicaid expansion in the three states in that group — Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi — that have not done so. Fair Fight, which was launched in 2018 after Abrams’s unsuccessful run for governor of Georgia and has raised more than $100 million, will send letters to the people whose debts have been paid off. (NPR)
More News
- Kamala Harris’s Campaign Ad Jeopardizes Churches’ Nonprofit Status, Say Experts (Newsweek)
- Will Billionaires Really Get Taxed to Smithereens? (Puck)
- Brett Favre Repays $600,000 in Miss. Welfare Fraud Case (New York Times)
- N.Y. Diocese Fires Gay School Teacher for Getting Married (Daily Beast)
- Trudeau Picks Ex-Greenpeace Activist as Climate Chief, Angering Canada’s Oil-Rich West (Washington Post)
- $30 Million Gift Bringing Therapy Garden, Aquatics to Atrium Rehab Center in Charlotte, N.C. (Charlotte Observer)
Arts and Culture
- Milwaukee Art Museum Workers Petition for Living Wages and Increased Benefits (CBS 58)
- Europe’s Museums, Collectors Are Returning Artifacts to Countries of Origin Amid Fresh Scrutiny (Forbes)
- Calif. Attorney General Orders Independent Audit of Bellosguardo Foundation Finances (Santa Barbara Independent)