This week, the National Conference of Mayors (USCM) will be standing with Sodexo to release a report assessing economic recovery and job growth. Sodexo has sponsored reports on poverty issues for the Mayors Conference since 2003.

As we've mentioned on this site before, Sodexo has become quite good at portraying itself as a socially responsible employer, and the sponsorship is one piece of a broader public relations campaign to promote itself as the company working to end poverty in the U.S.

But what they won't say, and what the Mayors' report won't tell you, is that Sodexo's own employee practices can leave workers in poverty and shift costs to taxpayers. Based on the company's pay-scale, Sodexo seems not to care if taxpayers pick up the tab of feeding a very important group within the Sodexo family: the children of its employees.

We believe, quite simply, that for Sodexo, solving hunger and poverty must start at home. So, as the conference begins, we're releasing a counter-report to reveal the true story about Sodexo's "commitment to poverty."

Here are the report's key findings:

• Sodexo employees who work full time year-round making $8.27 per hour, earn just $17,202 per year, far below the poverty line for a family of four. Even an employee who earns $10.54 an hour fails to climb above the poverty line, making just $21,923 per year. Many of Sodexo's employees work closer to 38 weeks per year, which also has a tremendous impact on income, and have to apply for unemployment during holiday breaks.
• While Sodexo helps deliver meals to low-income children through the National School Lunch Program, the children of many of its employees could qualify to receive free and/or reduced price meals, as these programs are based on federal poverty guidelines.
• Sodexo employees working year-round making $8.27 per hour would have to work 86 hours a week--more than two full-time jobs--just to afford an apartment, based on the generally accepted affordability standard of paying no more than 30 percent of income for housing costs.

You can view and download the full report below: