More than 35 million Americans--including 12.6 million children--live in households that experience hunger or the risk of hunger, according to Bread of the World and reported in the November 23, 2007, Religion and Ethics newsletter.
The number is staggering and oh so close to home. The rector of our church recently remarked to me that the real measure of economic health in a Greater Waterbury, where we live, is the number of people who frequent the soup kitchen and when they do it. As the month wears on and families run out of money to meet their expenses, more and more turn to the soup kitchen for a healthy meal, he said. He was quick to point out that most of these are hard-working, two-income families whose paychecks simply can't keep up with the cost of living.
The Reverend David Beckmann, president of Bread of the World (a nationwide Christian organization that works to eradicate hunger) corroborated this view in his interview with Religion and Ethics when he said, ""In our country it's not hunger like in Ethiopia . . . the typical pattern of hunger in our country is that the family runs out of food."
Beckmann's organization, like OxFam America, is working on reform of the Farm Bill so that it will "deal with food assistance for hungry families and help and helping some families get out of poverty. Much of the money in the Farm Bill goes to affluent families . . . so there's an opportunity this year, to shift some of those resources."
Read about the Farm Bill at Oxfam and at Bread of the World.
The number is staggering and oh so close to home. The rector of our church recently remarked to me that the real measure of economic health in a Greater Waterbury, where we live, is the number of people who frequent the soup kitchen and when they do it. As the month wears on and families run out of money to meet their expenses, more and more turn to the soup kitchen for a healthy meal, he said. He was quick to point out that most of these are hard-working, two-income families whose paychecks simply can't keep up with the cost of living.
The Reverend David Beckmann, president of Bread of the World (a nationwide Christian organization that works to eradicate hunger) corroborated this view in his interview with Religion and Ethics when he said, ""In our country it's not hunger like in Ethiopia . . . the typical pattern of hunger in our country is that the family runs out of food."
Beckmann's organization, like OxFam America, is working on reform of the Farm Bill so that it will "deal with food assistance for hungry families and help and helping some families get out of poverty. Much of the money in the Farm Bill goes to affluent families . . . so there's an opportunity this year, to shift some of those resources."
Read about the Farm Bill at Oxfam and at Bread of the World.
Sandy Carlson Social