Oregon Food Bank: Faces of Hunger

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Run time: 07:01 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxQiSWnfkEI   Posted on YouTube: November 10, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: November 18, 2009 By DU Member: Amerigo Vespucci Views on DU: 304

 

USDA Reports Stunning Rise In Number of Hungry In America
By Susie Madrak Tuesday Nov 17, 2009 4:00pm

http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/usda-reports-stunning-rise-number-hun

I can just hear Rush Limbaugh now: "If they're so hungry, how did they get so fat?" And our side's not much better, because of course they're going to agree with the Republicans that the best way to handle the problem is with tax cuts and deficit reduction.

I think I need to bang my head against a wall now:

The nation's economic crisis has catapulted the number of Americans who lack enough food to the highest level since the government has been keeping track, according to a new federal report, which shows that nearly 50 million people -- including almost one child in four -- struggled last year to get enough to eat.

At a time when rising poverty, widespread unemployment and other effects of the recession have been well documented, the report released Monday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture provides the government's first detailed portrait of the toll that the faltering economy has taken on Americans' access to food.

The magnitude of the increase in food shortages -- and, in some cases, outright hunger -- identified in the report startled even the nation's leading anti-poverty advocates, who have grown accustomed to longer lines lately at food banks and soup kitchens. The findings also intensify pressure on the White House to fulfill a pledge to stamp out childhood hunger made by President Obama, who called the report "unsettling."

The data show that dependable access to adequate food has especially deteriorated among families with children. In 2008, nearly 17 million children, or 22.5 percent, lived in households in which food at times was scarce -- 4 million children more than the year before. And the number of youngsters who sometimes were outright hungry rose from nearly 700,000 to almost 1.1 million.

[Nikki Stone1]

1. I wish I could recommend this, but it is too late.

This is what is really happening