8/1/2023 0 Comments Wisconsin foodie watch![]() “You’re talking about going to a grocery store (and) spending $10 on what if you did it in a local neighborhood, you’re talking $25,” Moore said. “How much groceries can you have that you can carry?”Īs the leader of a group home, Moore watches some of the community’s most vulnerable residents sustain themselves on junk food from nearby gas stations and fast food chains, where prices are higher than full-service grocery stores. “People who have to catch the bus really catch the fluss, because now you have to carry groceries,” Moore said. Moore marks himself lucky compared to some of his neighbors - he owns a car and can drive to a supermarket in the area. In recent years, grant programs at the local and state level have supplied food deserts with subsidies in hopes of luring and retaining brick-and-mortar grocery stores. Grocery stores typically operate on razor-thin margins, and changes in the market, labor supply or customer base can easily put them out of business - providing strong incentives not to build in underserved areas. In Moore’s neighborhood, two large grocery stores have closed since 2017, and in January, a small grocery there burned down - removing one more source of fresh meat and produce in an already deprived area.ĭata from 2015 show that 10% of Wisconsin, or about 570,000 people, live in areas meeting the standards of a food desert, according to the U.S. Moore calls it the kind of food you eat to just “fill your stomach.” It’s the only food he can find at a gas station, after all. Most of the foods that fill the shelves in his Kenosha neighborhood are laden with sugar and fat - chips, soda and other sweets. Follow Harm on Twitter.When Tony Moore wants to make a quick grocery run, his options are limited. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Harm Venhuizen is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. The Legislature is expected to complete its budget plan by the end of June, at which point Evers can make adjustments using partial vetoes or send it back to lawmakers for revisions.Īssociated Press writer Scott Bauer contributed to this report. Republicans on the finance committee have largely ignored Evers’ proposals, scrapping more than 500 of the governor’s budget items last month including proposals for a cabinet-level chief equity officer, 18 equity officers in state agencies and a state-funded diversity, equity and inclusion conference. Rothman proposed tuition and fees hikes ranging from 3% to 5.4% for undergraduates across the 13 colleges in the UW System after Evers proposed giving UW $130 million less than it wanted. The fallout could land on the backs of students as UW leaders look to fill gaps in funding. If Republicans pass the budget cuts Vos proposed, the UW System could come up nearly half a billion dollars short of what school officials say they need over the next two years. Mark Born, co-chair of the finance committee, declined to take questions at Tuesday’s meeting. The budget committee almost certainly will not approve that request, which was about $130 million higher than even Evers wanted for UW, but it did not say when it would reschedule the vote. UW regents asked the Legislature in September for a total spending increase of nearly $436 million in state money over the next two years, citing low revenue from a decadelong tuition freeze and rising costs due to inflation. Making any cuts to the UW, especially politically motivated ones, is just going to harm every person in this state.” “The UW is the economic engine of the state. “You’d be hard pressed to find a major organization in this country that isn’t doing something to help them achieve equity and inclusion,” Roys said. Kelda Roys, whose district includes the UW-Madison campus, called Vos petty ahead of the finance committee meeting and criticized the push to eliminate diversity initiatives. Republican lawmakers this year have proposed more than 30 bills in 12 states to limit diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in higher education, an Associated Press analysis found in April.ĭemocratic Sen. The fight reflects a broader cultural battle playing out across the nation over college diversity initiatives. “I want the university to grow and succeed, but if they are obsessed with spending all the scarce dollars that they have on programs that are clearly divisive and offer little public good, I don’t know why we’d want to support that,” Vos said. He did not publicize the hiring at a UW Board of Regents meeting earlier this month. ![]() Meanwhile, UW System President Jay Rothman hired a new chief diversity officer with an annual salary of $225,000 who began work on Monday. Vos has called campus diversity offices a waste of taxpayer money and said they further racial divides.
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