NORTHFIELD READS 2016 - $2.00 A DAY

                                                                 

Northfield Reads is a community initiative to encourage people from across the Northfield area to come together to talk, to share ideas, to connect, and to open themselves to diverse perspectives.  The hope is that through shared readings and conversations, we will create more and broader connections and understandings within the community.This year, Northfield Reads will be discussing the book $2.00 a Day; Living on Almost Nothing in America by Kathryn J. Edin and H. Luke Shaefer.  The book describes how a number of families live on virtually no income, and the reasons for their poverty.After two decades of research on American poverty, Kathryn Edin noticed households surviving on virtually no income.  She worked with Luke Shaefer to discover the number of families living on $2.00 per person, per day, has skyrocketed to 1.5 million American households, including about 3 million children.  One woman, heading a family of four, would have no cash income unless she donated plasma twice a week.  Another woman and her teenage daughter often have no food on weekends except spoiled milk. 

Where do the families live?  How did they become so desperately poor?  Through her interviews, moving and startling answers begin to emerge.

 

Thursday, March 10, 2016, 6:00 pm  $2.00 Soup Dinner  at the UCC Church, 300 Union Street.  Community members are invited to attend a simple soup dinner and simulate trying to budget their life on $2.00 a day.  Two talks will be presented during the meal.  Gregory Ennis will talk about working in a homeless shelter and  Jim Blaha will talk about resources available to people living in poverty.

 

Thursday, March 17, 2016, 6:45 - 8:00 pm, Book Discussion at Content Bookstore, 314 Division Street.  Discussion of $2.00 a Day; Living on Almost Nothing in America.  Open to all community members.

 

Thursday, April 7, 2016, 7:00 pm Northfield Reads 2016 Community Event, at St. John's Lutheran Church, 500 West Third Street .  This final event will include music by The Broke Folk; a play, Table Where the Rich People Sit, adapted and directed by Kajsa Johnson; discussion of the book $2.00 a Day, testimonials by residents who have lived in poverty; and a discussion of what we can do next.   All community members are invited.                                   

How to Get a Copy of $2.00 a Day

Copies of $2.00 a Day; living on almost nothing in America are available through the Northfield Public Library, temporarily located on the second floor of City Hall,  (507) 645-1802.     Books can also be purchased at Content Bookstore, 314 Division Street, (507) 9238