Rep. Fred Upton: The Middle Class Are Losing Jobs in Michigan

[Editors’ note: For the next few weeks, we’ll be running a series of posts on the Bread Blog about each member of the Super Committee. If you live in Michigan’s 6th District, please share this blog post with your local family and friends, and message Rep. Fred Upton on his Facebook page or through Twitter.] 

Nancy Hamilton has lived in Michigan for 52 years and says she has never seen the economic situation as dire as it is now. “People in the middle class are just getting squeezed in so many different ways. They’re losing jobs at all levels, not just at the lowest levels,” she says. Hamilton, 74, is retired and lives in Kalamazoo, MI and is financially comfortable, but that doesn’t stop her from advocating for others who are struggling economically. Since the ’70s, she has been an active hunger advocate and supports several local direct-service organizations such as Ministry with Community, which provides services to those struggling with issues such as poverty, homelessness, and mental illness.

In Michigan, where the unemployment rate was 11.2 percent in August, more than 18.7 percent of households in Michigan’s 6th congressional district struggled to put food on the table in 2010 (compared to 14.6 percent nationwide). Furthermore, 27.9 percent of children in the district were at risk of hunger in 2009 (compared to 16.6. percent nationwide). Congressman Fred Upton (R-MI), who represents Michigan’s 6th congressional district, has an opportunity to support these families struggling with food insecurity in Michigan and throughout the nation as a member of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (or Super Committee). Nancy Hamilton hopes that Rep. Upton will remember these families in Michigan as he makes decisions on how to trim the federal budget by $1.2 trillion over the next 10 years.

“I hope that Rep. Upton would work towards trying to solve the problem of poverty and homelessness and hunger,” she says. “I would encourage him to not cut any more than necessary and to not cut anything that involves people getting the food that they need.”

Join Nancy Hamilton and Bread for the World in asking Rep. Fred Upton to not cut programs that help people get the food they need such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistant Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps, the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), and the Women, Infants, and Children program (WIC).

Call Rep. Fred Upton today at 1-800-826-3688 and ask him to protect poor and hungry people in Michigan and the nation.

Official photo of Rep. Fred Upton.