While most of us were enjoying our Thanksgiving dinner, the USDA released a very disturbing report. One in six of us in the United States did not have enough food in the cupboard to eat Thanksgiving dinner. One in four American children lives in a home that experiences food shortages and regularly goes to bed hungry. It’s pretty startling that out of a country of about 290 million people, nearly 50 million struggled for food in 2008, with 17 million of those being children. This was an almost 30 percent jump from 2007 figures.
The picture most of us have in our head of what the hungry look like usually involve someone who is homeless or destitute, but that is not the case. They could very well be your neighbor. While unemployment and underemployment played a role in reducing the available income in a large number of households last year, most of those families in the report who experienced food scarcity were members of the working poor, with at least one full-time wage earner in the household. Only about half of these households were getting federal help from programs like WIC, food stamps or free school lunches.
Everyone in this country knows things are tough. Many of us have had to cut back, but how many of us have had to cut back on the most basic nutrition? Food pantries are experiencing record numbers of requests for aid and the number of soup kitchen meals served increased by 600 percent. When you see a canned food drive or a call for donations and volunteers for food pantries, do not just keep going and do nothing. If you have enough to feed yourself plus a little extra, you have enough to make a difference for one in six Americans.
Here are some things you can do to help:
When you clean out your pantry, give what you would want a member of your family to receive. You would be amazed how many people donate food that isn’t any good anymore, junk food that is not healthy or nutritious, or packages that are half used up or broken.
If you can’t give money, give your time. Some have the means to give, but don’t have the time to give the extra help that is needed right now to stack, store and distribute much needed aid.
Talk to others you know who are in a position to help, or take up a collection, even if it is only change. Dinner for a family can be had for only $5, so every little bit makes a difference.
Find the families in need in your neighborhood through local churches, social service organizations, hospitals, and shelters. You may be able to give hope and much needed nourishment to members of your own community who would be too proud to ask for your help, but desperately need it.
No matter what your religious faith, this is the time of year for giving and to be thankful for the many good things in our lives. Share that spirit of giving and help others to have things to be thankful for as well. We are all family; the family called the human race.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/16/AR2009111601598.html
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Well put.
D,
Since you mentioned Scrooge, here are my favorite lines, as spoken by Marley’s Ghost, from A Christmas Carol. I read this book several times a year when I need reminded of why we are all truly here and what we are meant to do with our time on this earth. My son has read it several times as well.
“Business!” cried the Ghost, wringing his hands again. “Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”
J:
In the spirit of Christmas, I shall ignore your weak humor barb aimed this way, and comment on the serious issues that Laura has addressed, and you, well… J .
J, why do you make this a progressive vs the right-wing issue? A little faint humor on your part, yes? Progressives are not the heirs of Ebenezer Scrooge. Actually, before the Christmas spirits visited the old boy, judging from his thoughts on poverty, the needy, and workers, he sounded very much like one of your right-wingers.
Laura,
I join J in thanking you for writing this article and for reminding us that the true spirit of Christmas is sharing.
Laura,
Your article was righteous and well said. I just felt like barbing you.
Please don’t miss the fact that liberals do “across the board” give 30% less according to thier incomes, showing they prefer to let the state do a job better done privately (In my opinion). You can be assured that Gore, Biden and Obama want any charity to be noted and seen, they are politicians.
As to the chuches, sadly you are right. There are many good ones, but just like the stats regarding giving, the poorer ones do far more than the large ones. Million dollar sound systems, opulent surroundings and so on are obscene to me. They spend more on parking lot maintenance and bloated salaries than they ever would on the poor. My wife and kids work at our churches food bank, and sadly they give dented cans of wax beans, expired no name boxes of crap out the back of a 10 million dollar building.
They forget that in the bible Jesus said “I was hungry and you did not feed me, I was naked and you did not clothe me”, they will answer “when was this Lord”, and He said as you do unto the least, you do unto me”.
I still beleive that the state is no different, allocating a fraction and then spending 75% of it on buildings, over paid rude gov workers and so on.
You have right, WE need to be there for those who are in OUR path.
Lastly, re-read Consti, right on every point.
J,
Where did the figures used to determine the amount of giving come from? Tax records? I don’t declare all that I give, I don’t declare any really, and you don’t get write offs for volunteer time. And the NY Times piece makes a valid point about giving to your church. I see people here who tithe 10 percent of everything they make to the church and when you see what these churches look like and give only to their members (they are glorified exclusive community centers and schools), you can’t tell me that’s what is truly meant by charitable giving. Very little of that tithed money goes to help anyone other than the church and its own members.
As I have said before, unless ALL of us chip in and take care of the societal issues that most of us would rather ignore, then someone has to do it or it won’t get done. In today’s society, it is left to the government. Even in that glorious year of 1909, when there was no income tax taking money out of people’s pockets, people found excuses to ignore the hunger and poverty they saw around them. Why do you think programs like Social Security, public assistance, Medicare, Medicaid, WIC, food stamps, Section 8, unemployment, free school lunches and the like ever became government programs to begin with. Was it because society was doing its part in looking after all of its own?
It’s a dirty job, but someone has to do it. If the American public won’t (as the track record has shown) and the government isn’t allowed to (if Conservatives and Tea Partiers have their way,) then what? Mull that along with your cider…
Having been homeless and eating out of dumpsters at one point in my life I really don’t have issue with a call to donate one’s time and resources. All I would add is that there are those who REFUSE to take government assistance due to their pride. Not that I understand that when one is starving but it IS their choice. My question Laura is this; what would you do for those people?
Not that I expect an answer from you since you don’t address my questions. But I would be curious as to your answer. Would you mandate that they take the food? If they didn’t would you punitively punish them with a fine for not accepting the governments charity? You know, like the $1500 fine for not taking mandated health insurance?
Would you mandate that 10% of a persons income be stripped from them in order to feed the hungry? Compulsory charity? But then again it wouldn’t be charity by definition then would it?
I applaud you for making the case for people to donate their time and resources. It’s about time this country realizes that power flows up from the people, not down from the government. Glad to see you recognize it.
Only a total jerk could have an issue with this well written call to action on behalf of the poor. Where should I start?
Perhaps I could ask DFunzy, no I’ll take this myself.
First let me acknowledge there are poor underfed people out there. Secondly I must note, statistically (I can’t look up references tonight, but I would say it if it weren’t so), the lower the income bracket, the greater the charity based on percentage of wealth. Point, in 1997, prior to press scutiny, Al Gore and tipper managed to give $353.00, VP Biden has averaged $369.00 per year over the past decade (0.3% ) and from 2000-2004 the Obamas gave Less than 1% (•Bloomberg News: Obamas Gave Less Than 1 Percent of 2000-2004 Income to Charity, by Ryan J. Donmoyer & Julianna Goldman ).
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/21/opinion/21kristof.html?_r=2
NY Times: Titled “Bleeding Heart Tightwads”, sums it up. Overall conservatives give a full than 30% more that liberals given overall income groups.
The stats say as many as 1 in 5 citizens are receiving food stamps this year, with the average in my state of Washington for those under the poverty level ($2000ish per month for a family of 4), receive just over $450.00 per month.
Seeing how 80% of taxes are paid by the 10% conservative businessmen that pay for those food stamps, and lower income conservative give 30% more to charity, I have a solution. If libs would give instead of telling everyone else to, or convert to conservative principles, hunger would be wiped out in this country, toot-sweet.
Just a couple of thoughts to chew on.