Beyond Bread: Supporting Reusable Bags

~Bread for the City recently came out in support of the Bag Bill, a measure that would put a five cent fee on plastic and paper bags at grocery stores. As we discussed, Councilmember Wells came to our Southeast Center to discuss the specifics of the legislation, and also take suggestions from our staff on how to implement the program in a way that didn't disproportionately affect low-income residents. A number of helpful measures were built into the bill, but on top of that reusable bags will be available for Bread for the City, public agencies, and other non-profits to distribute free of charge. Greater Greater Washington, And Now, Anacostia, The River East Idealist, and Congress Heights on the Rise have also come out in support of the measure which we believe will help drastically reduce contamination of the Anacostia River.

~The AFRO started a series to document what homelessness really means in the nation’s capital. The first article by Joseph Young follows Myra Diggs, a 43 year old woman whose bipolar disorder was misdiagnosed.

~TPM had a nice write-up about how Bread for the City is handling the weak economy, the Poverty & Policy Blog continued our discussion of how TANF needs to be given a cost of living adjustment (among other things), and renewshaw has a helpful, condensed list of all the changes (including Bread for the City’s expansion) that are slated to take place in Shaw.