In this excerpt from his new book, Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty, Mark Winne explains a growing split in the diets of the haves and have-nots; at the same time that the wealthy are coming to prefer organic and locally-grown foods, the poor have been losing geographical and economic access to healthy options. He also reports on a survey by the non-profit group Hartford Food System, which found that low-income consumers in the area would prefer to purchase organics and fresh foods, but simply couldn't access or afford them.

This report describes many of the ways in which being poor is bad for one’s health and points to policies that have the potential for restoring the prospect of good health to the lives of the poor. We present compelling evidence that poverty has an impact on not just the body politic but the body corporeal as well— that being poor leaves a broad footprint on the health of individuals. The health costs of poverty are high. Those among us who are poor tend to have

The Praxis Project is a national, nonprofit organization that builds partnerships with local groups to influence policymaking to address the underlying, systemic causes of community problems. Committed to closing the health gap facing communities of color, they forge alliances for building healthy communities. Praxis trains its partner organizations and provides research, technical assistance and financial support to tackle issues impacting the well being of communities. Their site contains an information resource center with additional resources and reports on equity and social justice.

 Assessing the wealth holdings of the same families for 23 years (1984-2007) shows that the wealth gap between whites and African Americans increased more than 4 times, from $20,000 in 1984 to $95,000 in 2003. This gap persisted for African Americans and white families in the same income range. For example, middle-income white households had greater gains in financial assets than high-income African Americans; by 2007, they had accumulated $74,000, whereas the average high-income African American family owned only $18,000. At least 25% of all African American families had no assets to turn to in times of economic hardship.

This PowerPoint file contains 36 of the more important graphs from the Equity Trust web site and/or published in The Spirit Level, illustrating the relationship between levels of economic inequality within countries and health and social problems. They can be downloaded and used in presentations as long as you acknowledge The Equality Trust as their source.

Prepared biennially since 1988, EPI's flagship publication sums up the problems and challenges facing American working families, presenting a wide variety of data on family incomes, taxes, wages, unemployment, wealth, and poverty — data that enables the book's authors to closely examine the impact of the economy on the living standards of the American people. The State of Working America 2006/2007 is an exhaustive reference work that will be welcomed by anyone eager for a comprehensive portrait of the economic well-being of the nation.

Marmot, advisor to the World Health Organization and one of the premiere scholars on social determinant of health, presents the results of his own 30 year study into the effects of class on health, together with a comprehensive overview of current theory and research. He highlights how a sense of autonomy and control over our lives can be a key factor in our ability to live long, thriving lives. 

This entertaining and often surprising 20 minute video explains in easy language how "stuff" is produced, distributed, sold, and disposed of - and why the current system is in crisis. The Web site then offers tips for what you can do to help change the destructive chain, and inspiration for how to get involved in a wide variety of possible ways.

What difference does wealth make in terms of your life opportunities? Over recent years, magazines and newspapers have run a variety of articles that explore why middle-class Black children don't do as well in school as white children from families with similar socio-economic backgrounds. These "achievement gap" articles are based on studies that relate achievement to family incomes. But the findings from these studies, argues one researcher, are highly misleading--because they simply fail to factor in what may be the key determinant to socio-economic status: family wealth.

The Work, Family, and Equity Index has been developed to measure governmental performance around the world in meeting the needs of working families in general and and low- and middle-income working families in particular. The policies used to comprise the index have achieved widespread recognition based on the weight of the research evidence or consensus in global policy and international agreements.

Mary Turner, featured in "In Sickness and In Wealth," lives in a poor neighborhood of Louisville, KY. With three teenage children, a husband on disability, and health complications that prevent her from working, Mary must budget carefully to keep her family fed and housed. In this video, she discusses the choices she faces every day, quickly but eloquently presenting a glimpse of one woman's life at the lower end of the U.S. socio-economic spectrum.

TOCA is a community- based organization dedicated to creating cultural revitalization, community health and sustainable development on the Tohono O'odham Nation. TOCA was founded in 1996 as a non-profit organization. TOCA has adopted principles that represent our approach to community development and guide our programs.

TFAH has identified 10 key policy areas where government action could improve the health of the U.S. population and lower the costs associated with treating people after they're already sick:

• Promoting Disease Prevention
• Combating the Obesity Epidemic
• Preventing Tobacco Use and Exposure
• Preventing and Controlling Infectious Diseases
• Preparing for Potential Health Emergencies and Bioterrorism Attacks
• Recognizing the Relationship Between Health and U.S. Economic Competitiveness
• Safeguarding the Nation's Food Supply
• Planning for Changing Health Care Needs of Seniors
• Improving the Health of Low-Income and Minority Communities
• Reducing Environmental Threats

And a crosscutting recommendation for:
• Holding Government Accountable for Protecting the Health of Americans

An update on the 1987 report on the racial  and socioeconomic characteristics of communities with hazardous waste sites. Co-sponsored by Center for Policy Alternatives, NAACP, and United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice 

An accessible and engaging exploration of why the opportunity to live a long and healthy life remains profoundly unequal. Hilary Graham and her contributors outline the enduring link between people's socioeconomic circumstances and their health and tackle questions at the forefront of research and policy on health inequalities.

This book introduces the non-specialist to key concepts like health inequalities and health inequities, social class and socioeconomic position, social determinants and life course, as well as to the key indicators of health and socioeconomic position. It brings together research from social epidemiology, sociology and social policy to guide the reader to an understanding of why people's lives and people's health remain so unequal, even in rich societies where there is more than enough for all.

A national, independent, nonpartisan, non-profit organization, UFE raises awareness that concentrated wealth and power undermine the economy, corrupt democracy, deepen the racial divide, and tear communities apart. We support and help build social movements for greater equality.

Wal-Mart is America's largest employer, yet pays poverty level wages, leaves over 775,000 of its workers without company health care, faces the largest gender discrimination lawsuit in the country, shuts down small businesses and helps ship jobs overseas. This campaign to change Wal-Mart is "a fight for what kind of America we want to live in. In our America, people come first. Multi-billion dollar corporations shouldn't be able to hide behind their special interest lobbyists and billion dollar ad campaigns. That is why we are building the largest grassroots campaign to change a corporation in history. By changing Wal-Mart, we improve people's lives, help our community and build a better America."

Dead-end jobs and the high cost of college could be choking off upward mobility...

Wealth and health are tightly linked in the United States. As immigrants remain in the country, as they "become American," their socioeconomic status becomes increasingly relevant to their health status. For those who experience discrimination, low wages, unstable employment, and other stressors, this relationship may erode the health advantage they enjoyed upon arrival in the country.

A source for more information about the Whitehall Study, led by Sir Michael Marmot. This study, described in the series, followed British civil servants for 30 years and provided clear evidence of the health-wealth gradient.

Research increasingly suggests that it’s actually people lower down on the social scale — not those in leadership positions at the top — who suffer the worst health effects of stress. Now a new study of military officials and government staffers at a Harvard executive-training program confirms these findings, showing that as people climb the organizational rungs, their stress hormone levels and anxiety typically go down.

Series Creator and Executive Producer Larry Adelman expands upon economist Robert Evan's analogy of health care as a repair shop to illustrate the crucial role that "road conditions" play in determining our health status.

Download as PDF.

Based at the Institute for Policy Studies, the Working Group is a growing coalition of organizations who have learned in their struggles against poverty that the fight against inequality has to both “raise the floor” and challenge the concentrated wealth and power that increasingly sit at the top of our economic ladder. The group's work consists of reaching out to different constituencies, generating educational materials, and promoting public policies to slim grand accumulations of private wealth.