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"Beginning Monday, elderly low-income Philadelphians can receive $20 worth of vouchers for fresh, locally grown produce from Philadelphia Corporation for Aging (PAC). The vouchers, which can be used at 59 farmers' markets citywide, will be available on a first-come, first-served basis and will be valid until Nov. 30."

"The CDC said black children ages 5 and older are five times more likely to drown than whites. County leaders want that figure to fall."

"Marva Collins, a legendary educator known for fostering expectations of excellence for children raised in the poor neighborhoods of Chicago, died last week at age 78. But her legacy lives on, both in the children and the teachers whose lives she touched while she was the founderand heart and soulof Westside Preparatory Academy."

"Up to 150 students from low-income families could attend the University of Delaware without racking up student debt thanks to a $3 million grant from the Give Something Back Foundation."

"To reduce the burden of those loans, Eggers founded nonprofit ScholarMatch in 2010. He took inspiration from crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter, envisioning a website where donors would be able to read students' stories and support them financially. The organization has made good on that promise. By this fall, it will have paid out nearly $1 million in scholarships."

"The gap in academic achievement among 37 Northeast Pennsylvania school districts widened. Just two school districts outperformed 35 others across Northeast Pennsylvania in Times-Shamrock Newspapers' 15th annual analysis of academic performance. Last year, four stood above the rest."

"Minnesota is taking aim at social and institutional forces that put the least-experienced and least-qualified teachers in the state's neediest schools. Majority-white schools in Minnesota have half as many nontenured teachers as schools with large numbers of black, Asian, Hispanic or American Indian students, according to the Department of Education. Low-income, low-performing and especially charter schools also have high percentages of early-career teachers and those who are not fully licensed."

"This week, the GE Foundation released a solutions-driven white paper, titled 'The Skills Gap and the New Economy: Implications for Low-Income Students,' that outlines strategic steps needed to help low-income students succeed in college and career. According to the white paper, 'Right now millions of young people are struggling to find good jobs and to launch successful careers, while thousands of companies are unable to expand and innovate because they cannot fill critical positions.'"

"A federal program for the country's neediest college students is witnessing a troubling trend: an influx of students with fewer resources to pay for school. In its latest report on the Pell Grant program, the Education Department said nearly three-quarters of the 8.6 million students who received the federal grant to attend college last year reported having no savings or other cash on hand. That compares to 60 percent of federal grant recipients five years earlier."

"With few school lunches easily accessible during the summer season, a number of non-profits across the U.S. are providing more meals for low-income children. The Barry Farm Recreation Center is one of many hosting sites across the country. As a venue with an open site policy, meals at the center can go to any kids under the age of 18 who want them."

Most households in the United States find retirement planning a daunting challenge, with good reason.

" Under a new state metric to determine whether public school students are economically disadvantaged, far fewer Massachusetts students will be counted as living in poverty, according to state data. For years Massachusetts has used students' eligibility for free or reduced lunch to measure if students qualified as "low-income." Now, Massachusetts will scrap that method and instead deem students "economically disadvantaged" only if the student participates in one or more specific state-administered social welfare programs: food stamps, foster care, medicaid or transitional assistance for families with dependent children."