All Blog Posts from Couric & Co.

You know, in this recession, about one in 10 Americans sought help from a church or religious group to get by. That comes from a new Pew poll on attitudes about faith-based initiatives.

It isn't surprising that millions of people would need a helping hand in tough times, but within that poll was an interesting finding. Overall, Americans believe religious organizations are better at providing care to the needy than the government.

As Hillary Clinton said, it takes a village, but churches are a vital part of our communities.

Here in New York, The Bowery Mission serves 800 meals every day...and expects to dish up three thousand Thanksgiving dinners this year. That's 600 turkeys and a whole lot of trimmings.

Groups like Bowery Mission need help from you...so reach out to your church or religious group if you have one. Money of course, is always welcome...but time is just as valuable.

Your smile or holiday greeting might be just the gift someone really needs this year.

That's a page from my notebook.

I'm Katie Couric, CBS News.

Dean Reynolds is a CBS News Correspondent based in Chicago.

Just as all of us in Chicago were beginning to recover from the city’s rejection by the International Olympic Committee comes news that is even harder to swallow:

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While the White House and Congress wring their hands over what to do next on the nation's health care front, there is a small pilot program in Detroit that directly attacks one of the problems that makes health insurance so expensive for all of us. That's because it addresses health itself, and the increasing cases of obesity, high blood pressure and heart attacks that are doing so much damage all around us.

To go back a few steps, Detroit – a city of some 830,000 people – has no major grocery store chain within its boundaries. No Jewels. No Safeways. No Kroegers. No nothing. Crime is one factor in the flight of food stores. Neglect is another. Whatever the cause, the consequences are devastating. So the economically hard-pressed state of Michigan is doing something about all of it, unveiling a $75,000 pilot program to bring food to the front door.

Called MI Neighborhood Food Movers, the plan is simplicity itself.

"There's no rocket science to this at all," said Lisa Johanan when we interviewed her last week. Lisa is executive director of the Central Detroit Christian Community Development Corp., and founder of Peaches and Greens grocery. "I mean it's a very simple thing – put some produce on a truck and you drive through the neighborhood."

And that's exactly what Peaches and Greens and two other suppliers do – bringing fresh vegetables and fruit into inner city neighborhoods bristling with derelict buildings, vacant lots and tons of liquor stores.

"In Detroit, 92 percent of food stamp recipients purchase their grocers from a liquor store or a gas station or a pharmacy," Lisa told us. "What kind of food do you get at a liquor store," I asked Lisa.

"You don't get anything fresh. That's for sure," she said.

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What did you have for lunch today? The skinless chicken and veggies or the burger and fries? Did you hit the gym or decide the workout could wait until tomorrow?

We all know what we should be doing to stay healthy, but we don't always follow through. Well, some members of Congress want to give us a little extra nudge, right in the wallet.

One idea is a new tax on soda. Supporters figure if all that high fructose corn syrup costs more, maybe we'll cut down.

Another is to give your boss more control of your health. This plan would make it easier for employers to reward workers who stay fit or lower their blood pressure. They might even be able to penalize those who smoke or gain too much weight.

Some people say companies have no business telling workers what to do out of the office, but others insist it's worth the intrusion of privacy, if it makes us think twice about that pepperoni-sausage pizza with extra cheese.

That's a page from my notebook.


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A food fight is emerging in school cafeterias.

The School Nutrition Association says with the economy sinking, there's a 16-percent increase in students who qualify for free or reduced-price school lunches. But it comes as others kids are saving money by brown-bagging it instead of buying lunch.

That means schools are paying more for food, but taking in less money. Some districts are being forced to revert to cheaper, less-healthful menu choices. These are small changes - canned fruit instead of fresh; white bread instead of whole grain - but they take our kids in the wrong direction.

School lunch programs have made great strides the past couple of years, offering more healthful options and cutting out the processed products.

The budget crunch is a real problem, but so are childhood obesity and diabetes. In the long run, a healthy lunch line can be good for a state's bottom line.

It's not something we usually think about – just where that chicken or fish on our dinner plate came from. Well, you could soon be eating a new high-tech version of your favorite dish. The federal government will start considering industry proposals to sell food from genetically engineered animals at the grocery store.

Instead of breeding animals with desirable traits, genetic engineering allows scientists to do it in the lab, perhaps producing fish that grow faster or cows with more tender beef. It could allow for greater and more efficient food production, but there are also questions. It's unclear, for example, whether this food would always be clearly labeled.

So far, it appears genetically engineered animals are just as safe as what we eat now. But the government will need to make sure it stays that way. The safety of our food supply must be the top priority.

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There's a new item on Burger King's menu - and it looks just like French fries.

The catch? It's good for you. It's apples cut to resemble french fries and fool the eye.

Are Americans so used to noshing on junk food that in order to eat healthy, we have to fool ourselves and our children?

For more of my Notebook, just click the monitor.

Seth Doane is a CBS News correspondent based in New York.

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One of my producers, Alberto Moya, found this wonderful story of Jorge Munoz and his unwavering determination to offer help to some folks that are struggling in his community of Queens, N.Y.

The mission behind these “Other America” stories is to chronicle the tough economic times more and more Americans for facing. This story shows one part of "The Other America” helping another part of "The Other America.”

Jorge Munoz is hardly wealthy. As a school bus driver he makes just more than $600 a week when he has work. Jorge says it’s a stretch to cover his own bills. But for the last three years – yes, three (!) – he has been using upwards of half of his own paycheck to buy food for those less fortunate than he is.

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Seth Doane is a CBS News correspondent based in New York.

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“I’m not eating that much,” Maranatha Mays told me, because “my kids have to eat before I do.”

That’s a choice that more and more Americans who depend on food stamps have to make as the costs of the basics go up – while their benefits stay the same. Mays, who depends on food stamps, hasn’t been able to shop for groceries for about two weeks.

Food stamps don’t stretch as far as they used to as the cost of groceries go up. By the end of the month, some shoppers at One Stop Foods on Chicago’s south side told us, they are getting hungry.

I asked shopper Michael Jordan, a home health aide, how long his food stamps lasted his family. “Out of the month … about three weeks,” Jordan said.

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Seth Doane is a CBS News correspondent based in New York.

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The Castelluccis received their first phone call before the CBS Evening News broadcast was even finished.

“I’m pretty much overwhelmed by the response and the goodness of people – coming out to reach out to someone that they’ve never met,” Lisa Castellucci told me by telephone.

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