Study: 1 in 8 get help at food banks

[phantom power]

One in eight Americans — 37 million — received emergency food help last year, up 46% from 2005, the nation's largest hunger-relief group reports today.

Children are hit particularly hard, according to the report by Feeding America, a network of 203 food banks nationwide. One in five children, 14 million, received food from soup kitchens, food pantries and other agencies, up from 9 million in 2005, the year of the group's last major survey.

"This is a crisis," says Vicki Escarra, president of Feeding America. "People need to understand that this is America, and we're seeing this kind of need." She says the report is her group's most comprehensive study on emergency food distribution.

It comes as a record number of Americans are receiving food stamps — 33.7 million last year — and as President Obama, who has set a goal of ending childhood hunger by 2015, proposed in his budget Monday to add $1 billion annually to school-based food programs.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/sharing/2010-02-01-hunger_N.htm

[rurallib]

1. surely even the republicans will see this as horrible and embarrassing

and will do whatever they can to close the food banks so these people are no longer visible.

[Kali]

2. no they will call them lazy and dispute the stats

[MountainLaurel]

3. Of course they won't

They think that poor people are just not right with God, otherwise he'd be blessing them with a salary worthy of feeding their families, so it's obviously their fault that they need to go to a food bank.

[Democrat_in_Houston]

4. Our local food bank can't keep up with the demand

And I live in an area that isn't hard hit (compared to other parts off the country).

[cutlassmama]

5. same here. it's truly sad.