1,600 Families Seek Food Handouts In Indiana City

[Purveyor]

Source: Associated Press

(03-11) 08:16 PDT Elkhart, Ind. (AP) --

Roughly 1,600 familes picked up food and other items sent by a charity to economically distressed Elkhart, Ind., which has an unemployment rate of 18.3 percent.

The 13 semitrailers that came to Elkhart carried more than $2.1 million worth of food, enough to help sustain about 5,200 families for a week. In addition to those who picked up supplies Tuesday, Feed the Children arranged for shipments to 3,600 northern Indiana families.

President Barack Obama visited Elkhart recently to muster public support for economic stimulus legislation. Layoffs in the recreational vehicle industry have driven much of the job loss in northern Indiana.

"What we want people to know is that in this time of despair, there is hope," said Larry Jones, the founder and president of Feed the Children. "People haven't forgotten you."

About 300 volunteers handed out the supply packages as hundreds of cars waited in a line wrapped around a shopping mall parking lot and onto surrounding roads. The city was the second of several cities on Feed the Children's "Americans Feeding Americans Emergency Caravan."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/03/10/national/a234051D44.DTL

[Doremus]

1. Things are getting really bad.

Yesterday thousands showed up for a job fair in Cleveland.

:cry:

[sarah FAILIN]

4. I've been telling people this well over a year

It didn't happen overnight and it has been scaring the hell out of me for some time. We are in deep crap.

[ReliantJ]

5. Rent Cinderalla Man.

Time to box!

[awoke_in_2003]

6. How bad is

C town getting hit? Haven't been there since '92, when I moved here. There is a lot I miss about that town (although snow isn't one of them)

[acmavm]

2. Almost 1/5th of the people in Elkhart, Indiana are jobless.

This should shock the hell of of this nation. This should tell someone that either we hop on this and create more jobs NOW or we just shut down the government because it's of no good to any of us plebs.

I notice none of the crooks who caused this are hurting.

[kas125]

7. People in Elkhart are getting sick, too.

Elkhart neighbors suing VIM Recycling
By TOM MOOR, Tribune Staff Writer
By WSBT News1

Story Updated: Jan 28, 2009 at 1:10 PM EDT

ELKHART — A group of about 100 residents filed a lawsuit this month against VIM Recycling Inc., claiming the wood-chipping facility has led many of them to seek medical help for asthma, nosebleeds and breathing difficulties.

"I can't allow my son to play outside because the stench and thick dust in the air brings on his asthma," neighbor Marci Dunning said in the lawsuit.

The group's complaint, filed in Elkhart County Circuit Court by public interest law firm Legal Environmental Aid Foundation (LEAF), brings claims against VIM, its president, Kenneth Will, and owner of VIM's Elkhart site, K.C. Industries.

The complaint alleges VIM's outdoor grinding operations violate Clean Air Act regulations and have been a nuisance and health threat to neighboring residents and businesses since Will moved his operations to Elkhart nine years ago. The lawsuit ultimately seeks to shut the facility down, said Kim Ferraro, the group's attorney and executive director of LEAF.

the rest is at http://www.wsbt.com/news/local/38531822.html


they are recycling the contaminated FEMA trailers there. And from what I've heard they sell the stuff as animal bedding and garden mulch.

[AllentownJake]

3. Midwest is going to be hit the hardest

Indiana espicially. Economy is highly centered around manufacturing automobiles

Manufacturing contributes more to the gross state product in Indiana than it does in most other states.

Manufacture of transportation equipment (motor vehicle parts, aircraft parts, automobile assembly, truck and bus bodies, truck trailers, motor homes, railroad cars) ranks first in this sector. Indiana is a leading producer of automobile parts, truck and bus bodies, truck trailers and motor homes.

Ranked second in the manufacturing sector is the production of primary metals, steel being the most important. Indiana is also an important aluminum producing state.