Walgreens becomes newest member of the $15 an hour club
The $15 increase, which applies to both full- and part-time workers, will be phased in and completed by November 2022.
Poverty alleviation
U.S. Department of Agriculture to permanently boost food stamp benefits by 25 percent
The Biden administration has approved a significant and permanent increase in the levels of food stamp assistance available to needy families—the largest single increase in the program’s history.
Veteran homelessness in the U.S. decreased by nearly 50% between 2009 and 2018
Many veterans have connected with rapid re-housing through the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Supportive Services for Veteran Families program. In 2015 alone, the SSVF program helped nearly 100,000 veterans and about 35,000 children remain in their homes or quickly exit homelessness,
For first time, average pay for supermarket and restaurant workers in the U.S. tops $15 an hour
Overall, nearly 80 percent of U.S. workers now earn at least $15 an hour, up from 60 percent in 2014. Job sites and recruiting firms say many job seekers won’t even consider jobs that pay less than $15 anymore.
Atlanta builds the United States’s largest food forest to tackle food insecurity
Thanks to a US Forest Service grant and a collaboration between the city’s municipality and a number of different NGOs, the 7.1 acres of land are now ripe with 2,500 pesticide-free edible and medicinal plants.
Anthill Creations builds hundreds of playgrounds in India’s slums out of local waste
Anthill Creations specializes in affordable play spaces that are sustainably constructed with a combination of local waste materials and materials donated from companies such as Michelin and Apollo Tire.
53 WTO members commit to ease restrictions on humanitarian food aid
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, several countries initially restricted food exports, raising concerns that poor consumers in net food-importing countries would face difficulties in accessing food.
Amazon launches $2 billion fund to make 20,000 affordable homes for working families
The Housing Equity Fund will invest more than $2 billion to preserve and create over 20,000 affordable housing units in Washington State’s Puget Sound; Arlington, Virginia; and Nashville, Tennessee.
Vast majority of countries worldwide have achieved social progress since 2011
Progress has been made globally on eight of 12 key indicators. The Gambia, Nepal, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia and Tunisia shown particularly notable improvement.
Algorithm helps find world’s poorest people to send them cash directly
GiveDirectly and UC Berkeley designed an algorithm that uses AI to identify the poorest individuals in the poorest areas in order to provide them with cash relief.