Ordinary Poverty: A Little Food and Cold Storage

by William DiFazio

At St. John's Bread and Life, a soup kitchen in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, more than a thousand people line up for breakfast and lunch five days a week. During the twelve-year era of welfare reform, William DiFazio observed the daily lives of poor people at St. John's and throughout New York City. In this trenchant and groundbreaking work, DiFazio presents the results of welfare reform—from ending entitlements to diminished welfare benefits—through the eyes and voices of those who were most directly affected by it. Ordinary Poverty concludes with a program to guarantee universal rights to a living wage as a crucial way to end poverty. Ultimately, DiFazio articulates the form a true poor people's movement would take—one that would link the interests of all social movements with the interests of ending poverty.

232 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Ellison · Rating 4 out of 5]

this begins with profiles of people he encounters at a nyc soup kitchen, they get ugly when things do not go their way. he advocates guarenteed income and dismisses trickle down economics, bemoans the world wide web. complaints all around.

written pre-covid 19, there have been tech advances, i wonder if tech advance have helped any who are mentioned? swearing.