George E Curry recently wrote an article about hunger in America. I include an excerpt:
Hunger in America is real. And, everyone asking for help on the street is not interested in conning the public or is headed to the nearest liquor store when someone gives them spare change.
Those of us who live in the most affluent country on earth, tend to overlook hunger and poverty among us. When we think of hunger, we conjure up images of famine in Africa or India. Indeed, hunger is a global issue, with 852 million people in the world going hungry, according to Bread for the World. In developing countries, six million children die each year, mostly from hunger-related causes. Sub-Sahara Africa is the only region in the world where hunger is on the rise, with 204 million hungry.
Even with safety net programs in place for the poor, such as free school breakfast and lunch programs, hunger is also a problem in the U.S.
According to USDA, 35.1 million people-including 12.4 million children-live in households that frequently experience hunger or risk hunger. This means 11 percent of all U.S. households fall into this category. Almost 11 million people- including 606,000 children- live in U.S. households that frequently skip meals, consume an inadequate supply of food or don’t eat for an entire day.
The hunger problem involves more than food. The U.S. has the highest wage inequity in the industrialized world. That means that even when people have jobs, often the pay is too low for them to properly feed their families. This country must provide well-paying jobs and expanded opportunities for the poor if it really wants to address the issue. Until we do that, we’ll continue to see people eating out of garbage receptacles.
I recommend you read the full article by following the above link. In the article, Curry also recites personal anecdotes to which we can all relate. He includes one story in which a 10-year-old girl restores his humanity.
I like the article because he quickly dismisses some myths about hunger in America, such as the myth that all homeless people just waste their money on alcohol and the myth that one only needs employment to dispel hunger.
In fact, millions of working people live in poverty in the United States. We call them the working poor. Additionally, most homeless people are not old crazy drunkards. The majority are young white women who are either employed or actively seeking employment.