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Community Impact

El Buen Continues the Fight against Poverty

Living in poverty in Austin often means having to choose between buying food for one's hungry children or warm clothing to fight winter's cold temperatures. As the Austin community continues to face the current times of economic hardship, El Buen, member of the Basic Needs Coalition of Central Texas, remains one of the top providers for basic needs, seeing a 38-percent increase in food pantry requests alone in the last quarter of 2008.

"Imagine having to choose between saving meager earnings to pay the rent or getting life-saving medications; between keeping your car or depending on public transportation," said Lil Almonte, director of outreach of El Buen. "These are some of the circumstances many of our working-poor families face on a daily basis." 

According to the Center for Public Policy Priorities, to afford to live in the Austin Metropolitan Statistical Area, a family of two parents and two children needs a household income of $53,080 to cover basic expenses, which is more than double the federal poverty guideline of $21,200. 

To learn how you can donate your time and money to El Buen's Primary Needs Program, contact Lil Almonte at (512) 439-0734 or lalmonte@elbuen.org.