School will soon be out for the summer, leaving many children without free or reduced-price meals they depend on for adequate nutrition. Families often turn to summer food programs for help. I interviewed Crystal FitzSimons, director of school and out-of-school time programs for the nonprofit Food Research and Action Center, about the success of the Agriculture Department’s Summer Food Service Program and challenges it faces during uncertain economic times.
How widespread are summer nutrition programs?
Nationally, 2.8 million low-income children participated in the summer nutrition programs in July 2010, [according to the] most recent published data. FRAC looks at the number of low-income children who receive free or reduced-price lunch during the regular school year as an indicator of the need for summer meals. Only 15 children for every 100 low-income children who relied on school lunch during the school year had access to meals through the summer nutrition programs.…
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If you’ve ever seen the TV reality show “Undercover Boss,” you’ll know that the premise involves corporate CEOs working anonymously on the front lines to find out how their companies really work. Almost every week, they discover a key truth: Unhappy employees almost certainly guarantee unhappy customers. If you’ve ever encountered a little travel snafu, you know what I mean.
Scheduled to fly out of Chicago one recent evening, I ran into numerous difficulties including a nearly missed flight, conflicting and just plain wrong information, and rude personnel. I couldn’t find an employee who was either informed or interested. These challenges weren’t the real problem in my book. The issue was almost certainly a severe case of unhappy employees. What was the reason?
Statistics say that almost 50% of us don’t trust our leaders. Think about it. The world’s most admired companies are at the top of the heap for a reason.…
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Regulatory uncertainty, sub-par gross domestic product growth, an inventory of distressed
residential properties and a Congress that sees compromise “as a four-letter word” — as Bernard Markstein, chief economist at Reed Construction Data, put it — all contribute to a feeling of uncertainty about the country’s economic growth, particularly in the architecture, engineering and construction industries hard hit by the recent recession. That was the consensus of three economists speaking at a recent webinar sponsored by Reed Construction Data.
In addition to problems in the housing market and severely repressed housing starts, office and retail construction have slowed and federal, state and local funding cuts negatively affect some needed infrastructure improvement and transportation work.
But not all is gloomy
Ken Simonson, the chief economist for the Associated General Contractors of America, said, “I have more good news than I’ve had in several years.” He proceeded to list several multibillion-dollar plant construction projects announced over the past few months — some that will start this year, some in a few years.…
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“I’ve been delighted today to see a lot of optimism, but we don’t want to neglect the fact that a lot of businesses have been hit hard” by the recession and decreased access to capital, National Association of Women Business Owners President and CEO Diane Tomb said during a panel session on capital access at America’s Small Business Summit in Washington, D.C. There are many tough stories out there about businesses that had good credit and a good relationship with lenders but then couldn’t access credit.
Being able to access capital is a huge issue for small businesses, and it’s not one that applies only to companies in the startup phase, said panelist Roz Alford, founder and co-principal of ASAP Solutions Group. Every stage of growth for a business requires funding, so it’s an issue that keeps coming up.
In many cases, it seems the biggest restriction is a lack of education about capital access, Alford said.…
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SmartBrief is partnering with Big Think to create a weekly video spotlight in SmartBrief on Leadership called “VIP Corner: Video Insights Powered by Big Think.” This week, we’re featuring author Mark Hyman.
The human body is commonly understood as one unit with many functioning parts, and the body’s resilience and ability to overcome trauma and illness is renowned. But medicine, author Mark Hyman says, has remained in the mode of: Isolate the problem, attack it (probably with drugs), cure it and move on — until the next crisis.
This is especially a problem when moving beyond the deadliest diseases of yesteryear to confront what he calls “chronic lifestyle-driven diseases.” Isolating and tackling the problem won’t work when it involves someone’s entire lifestyle. Instead, while we think of the body as a collection of systems, we must build medicine to be systems-driven. “There’s no such thing as breast cancer. … There’s no such thing as heart disease.…
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