Social Responsibility

One of the greatest obstacles in eating healthy food can be a lack of accessibility. Families may choose to buy less healthy food because it is more available or less expensive than junk foods. Communities that recognize this imbalance can initiate campaigns like food drives to donate healthy foods to low-income households. In this United Way Charting a Course for Change report, tax incentives have been identified as an option for helping lower-cost groceries to appear in communities. Naturally, this would make healthy produce more widely accessible for everyone.

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United Way of Demo County continues its focus of bringing caring people together to help solve our community’s toughest challenges. Our impact model is the foundation for community collaboration. It has brought local partners together, requiring accountability of grant funds, determining measurements and setting outcomes. The outcomes continue to move our three key initiatives — education, health and income — in the right direction. Last year, more than 5,000 families received children’s books and literacy tips from their pediatrician.

Uncle Sam has extended the filing deadline this year beyond the traditional April 15 date. The extended deadline is thanks in part to April 15 being a Saturday and an 1862 act Abraham Lincoln signed that keeps Internal Revenue Service offices closed the following Monday.

Free File is a separate program that provides access to a dozen branded tax software products through the IRS. The companies that provide the software set different standards for who qualifies for the free software, but taxpayers who earned $64,000 or less will be eligible for at least one.

Tammy Tickfer, principal at Lafayette Park Elementary School, said she and her teachers see a noticeable difference when children have been to some form of early childhood education, and especially one focused on preparing students for school.

Based on numbers collected by the United Way of Howard County, only 45 percent of students in the county are entering kindergarten ready to learn - defined as being prepared socially, emotionally and academically for a kindergarten curriculum.