Health4all

Every year more Alaskan families lose health insurance and can't afford health care. Every year more families with health insurance cannot afford to use it because of expensive out-of-pocket charges. Every year more Alaskan elders with Medicare are refused treatment by local physicians. And every year health care in Alaska continues to cost 30 percent more than down south. These problems are a reflection of the crisis across the nation. Not surprisingly, the United States ranks last in preventable deaths compared to 14 Western European nations. We have a lot to talk about.


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Lawrence D. Weiss retired from UAA in 2004 as a research professor in public health. He designed and built the Master of Public Health program at UAA, and has published three books and numerous articles on public health and health policy issues. He completed a post-doctoral degree at Harvard School of Public Health in 1982, and has been in Alaska ever since. His favorite expression is "facts matter." Occasionally he can be found in a local pub drinking beer and eating pizza while engaged in passionate conversation with friends.

Archive

John McCain's Plan for Health Care Reform. - 9/6/2008 7:44 am

Why We Need Fundamental Health Care Reform #4 - 9/3/2008 12:15 pm

Why We Need Fundamental Health Care Reform #3 - 8/29/2008 2:22 pm

Why We Need Fundamental Health Care Reform #2 - 8/25/2008 4:23 pm

Why We Need Fundamental Health Care Reform #1 - 8/22/2008 5:46 pm

Great Olympians but Terrible Health Care - 8/20/2008 2:45 pm

Legislative Health Caucus August 20: Addressing the Energy Crisis for Alaskan Families - 8/15/2008 4:00 pm

More Free and Cheap Health Care And Other Services - 8/14/2008 11:39 am

Mired in the Health Care Morass - Part 2 - 8/12/2008 11:39 am

Prevention in Health Care: Perhaps Overstated But A Good Idea - 8/6/2008 10:55 pm

Stand Up For Health Care - 8/4/2008 9:18 am

Mired in the Health Care Morass - Part 1 - 7/28/2008 5:16 pm

Supersize My Order Please! - 7/25/2008 5:59 pm

Senators Against Bush to Support Health Care for Kids - 7/25/2008 5:53 pm

Free Services for the Homeless - August 1 - 7/19/2008 8:09 am

Two Health Insurance Tricks Exposed - 7/16/2008 6:20 pm

The "Reduced Shakespeare" of the History of American Medicine - 7/14/2008 3:51 pm

Senator Stevens Gets Medicare Reimbursement Increase for Alaska - 7/12/2008 8:00 am

Alaska Guide to Finding Health Insurance Coverage - 7/9/2008 4:04 pm

New Guidelines For Health Care Outside USA - 7/4/2008 8:58 am

Your Medical History Future in the Clouds - 7/4/2008 12:18 am

Rekindling Reform Looks At The Big Health Policy Picture - 6/30/2008 11:11 am

full archive »

Free Food For Hungry Kids

Posted by health4all

Posted: May 24, 2008 - 7:44 am

Hungry, malnourished children are unhealthy children. That is why the following announcement from the wonderful people at the Food Bank of Alaska is so important:

“Dive Into Summer Food,” a kickoff celebration of the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), will be held at 11:00 am on Thursday, May 29 at the Paddleboat Café, 2811 UAA Drive, inside Goose Lake Park. Alaska’s U.S. Senators will headline this event, hosted by Food Bank of Alaska, to mark the opening of a federally funded program that helps keep many low-income children from going hungry when the school year ends.

Interested community members are invited to show their support for increasing participation in this important federal program.

Senators Ted Stevens and Lisa Murkowski are expected to discuss the importance of expanding participation in the SFSP. Alaska currently ranks 49th among the states for the percentage of low-income children who have access to summer meals, primarily because the state has too few feeding sites. The Goose Lake site is a success story from last summer, serving lunch to approximately 100 neighborhood children per day. This year, the site will serve lunch seven days per week and hopes to attract even more participation.

This summer, Food Bank of Alaska will sponsor the Goose Lake site and twelve other feeding programs, including several Boys and Girls Clubs in Anchorage, camps in the Mat-Su Valley and a Girl Scout program in the Yukon-Kuskokwim region.

When the last school bell rings, more than 34,000 children in Alaska who receive free or reduced-price school lunches suddenly lose access to those meals. To help fill the summer nutrition gap, Congress established the SFSP in 1975. The SFSP provides federal reimbursements for meals and snacks served to low-income children at parks, community sites, summer schools, camps, and other programs. In Alaska, the SFSP is administered by the Department of Education and Early Development.

For more information on Food Bank of Alaska, visit www.foodbankofalaska.org


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