Raising region’s median income

    I had planned to write this week about Mobilize Maine’s goal to achieve a median income of $38,000 by 2015. How shall we work together to achieve this? Do we work to increase incomes? Do we work to bring higher paying jobs in? How shall we effect economic change? Our median income is $29,325 (now) in Aroostook.     My first inclination has been, hey, I know what poverty is! Just to make sure, I decided to look up some statistics: the information out there on our World Wide Web is an avalanche! Bing-me already please: it’s eye-opening and overwhelming.
    My article this week is indirect at best, so please do forgive me in advance. As you think about issues confronting our populace, and how we might help in Mobilize Maine’s initiatives, shouldn’t we be thinking about who we are as a community, and how we might all help each other achieve a better quality of life? Grass Roots surely is key.
    When you Google poverty, the immeasurably long list of items you see first is: hunger, global hunger,
hunger in America, hunger and food waste, hunger and malnutrition, on and on. From there, I found two very good articles worth the paper and ink to print hard copies: www.soundvision.com “Stat’s on Poverty & Food Wastage”; and an NPR article entitled “Poverty in America” www.npr.org/poll/poverty related to our attitudes in the United States about poverty. We are divided on our opinions about causes, solutions, and our attitudes and relationships with food. Our answers need to be practical and our initiative efforts need to be ongoing.
    “America’s Second Harvest “is now “Feeding America.” They are the country’s leading domestic hunger-relief organization, with a network of more than 200 regional member food banks serving all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Each year they provide food to more than 25 million low-income Americans, including more than 9 million children and nearly 3 million seniors. They distribute nearly 2 billion pounds of donated food and grocery products annually.
    According to their Web site, 66 percent of their clients are at or beneath the poverty line. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of people below the poverty threshold numbered 36.5 million in 2006, or 12.3 percent of all Americans. We are what we do? I know we can’t solve our hunger and poverty problems in Aroostook by sitting together and chanting “we’re good hard working people.” But there really are things we can all do.
    Here’s a thought: Almost 100 billion pounds of food are wasted in America each year (soundvision.com). According to a 2004 University of Arizona study, on average, American households waste 14 percent of their food purchases. Think about your refrigerators, pantries, and garbage cans. Yes we do. My children like grapes. Well they did one week last month. So I bought more the next week. Did we like grapes that next week? No. Can you force feed grapes to a 3-year-old? No. Can you con, cajole or wheedle them into eating grapes when they’ve decided they’re out of vogue? No. After you toss the sad, shriveled grapes away, then do they like grapes? Yes. And so it goes with us. Bananas, apples, pears, you name it: some weeks they’re in. Other weeks, they’re out. I am from a small band of left-over-eating people. I know some folks don’t. But, can you bribe the previously afore mentioned children into eating leftovers? No. What is the deal? Its nutty stuff: figuratively, not literally.
    I walk around our offices talking to the ladies about whatever the latest meeting was about, the latest hubba-baloo, the next new idea: all the time. We try to think of things we can integrate into what we do on a daily basis with our members/clients/community. I hem, haw, stew and dwell about what should we do, what aren’t we doing, how much is it going to cost? Can we afford not to? This week as you may be concluding, my “Bing factor” was off, and I decided what you know already: she has no ending. Mrs. Milton gave me one (thank you)!
    Here goes: Snacks for our children! We can (1) have no other snack until “said problem grapes” are eaten. I think this is called “tough love,” and it’s hard. Or (2) we can help our children learn to donate by offering to put 5 cents in a jar for each healthy snack they eat a day. At the end of each month, your child or children can have the “good will” feeling of personally donating their jar of healthy snack money to a local food pantry. Keep a few rolls of nickels handy in a bowl so they feel the joy of picking out the nickel to put in their jar. Maybe together whatever group our children are in, they could join efforts!
    Two final thoughts related to the Mobilize Maine 2015 median income initiative. We must educate, and we must eat/shop locally. Poverty is directly related to education levels. We must encourage our children to continue their education. We need to support the locals by eating locally grown foods. We need an education to make more money; and we need to educate ourselves to make better decisions about our food consumption habits. We need to think local, make a difference in our own mindsets! We can improve our lot! Surely together we can help our neighbors to improve theirs too!
    Wendy Landes, MPA, is the executive director of the Caribou Chamber of Commerce & Industry.