Swimming in statistics

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Welcome, LEADS students!  :)
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This weekend I sifted through all the wonderful research and articles Claudine left behind for me on poverty in Ohio, Lorain County, and Oberlin.  I'm trying to put together some informational sheets to hand out this week at LEADS.   What I'm discovering is poverty is such a complicated issue with so many aspects that it is hard to boil it down to simple statistics. 
 
The argument over how to measure the number of people in poverty is the best example to begin the conversation.  Currently the U.S. government looks at how  much it costs to eat cheaply and nutritiously for a year (as determined by the USDA standards).  This number is then multiplied by three to calculate the income below which people are considered to be in poverty.  The total number has been readjusted each year to account ONLY for inflation.

Cost of food in the 1960's      x    3    =    Federal poverty level

When this measure was established in the 1960s, it was estimated a family spent 1/3 of its income on food.  Do you spend 1/3 of your income on food?  I don't.   I spend more on rent and my cell phone and my car insurance.  There are many costs we pay today that I doubt were as significant in the 60s.  If I can get people to think deeply about how poverty is calculated, I think I can make them understand how many things poverty affects and hopefully get a glimpse of how many facets poverty has.  The more an issue is understood, the better and more nuanced the solutions are...in summary:

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