Smart Talk: The limits of poverty

What to look for on Smart Talk Monday, May 23, 2016:

For many poor people, poverty is the one constant in their lives.  Poverty impacts the health, education, and safety and security of everyone living in it. It feels like something that can’t be escaped. As part of WITF’s Chasing the Dream: Poverty and Opportunity in America project, Monday’s Smart Talk explores the impact of long-term continuous poverty on the people living in it.

How do members of impoverished communities purchase healthy foods when those products are regularly more expensive than cheaper frozen or junk food alternatives?  Or what if the resource of a grocery store isn’t even close by?  How do policies create systems in which schools in the lowest income areas end up with the fewest resources?  And why does crime seem to be committed so much more frequently against poor people?

Joining us Monday to help us examine these questions is Kristen Rotz, President of the United Way of Pennsylvania.  The United Way of Pennsylvania seeks to advance United Way’s mission of “improving lives by mobilizing the caring power of communities around the world to advance the common good” within Pennsylvania.

Also appearing on Monday’s program is Steven Martinez, Communications Director of Community Action Association of Pennsylvania.  Community Action Association of Pennsylvania exists to solve community problems related to issues of poverty by “providing quality training, educational resources, and other services to alleviate poverty in local communities.”

We’ll also hear the stories of a few Pennsylvanians who have experienced the limitations of poverty.