More children and young families going hungry

A report released by the U.S. Conference of Mayors shows a spike in the number of families who requested food aid -- and many of those families include parents that are employed:

The survey of 23 cities found civic and government groups received, onaverage, 7 percent more requests for food aid in 2006 than in 2005,following a 12 percent jump in 2005.

Requests for shelter roseby an average of 9 percent in 2006, with requests from families withchildren rising by 5 percent. More than half the cities said familymembers often had to split up to stay in different shelters.

Asthe numbers who could not buy their own food grew, more than half thecities, including Los Angeles and Boston, said groups spread resourcesfarther by giving less food to individuals or cutting the number oftimes people could receive help. The group estimated 23 percent ofrequests for emergency food assistance simply went unmet.

Franklin Cownie, the mayor of Des Moines, Iowa, who worked on thestudy, said he was troubled that more than a third of the adults askingfor food aid were employed.

"If you look at the data, you'll find folks that have jobs that don't have enough money to feed themselves," he told reporters.

Now you know why the minimum wage was such a huge issue in November.  Yes, voters were mostly concerned about the war in Iraq.  But in states such as Missouri, many Republican voters switched allegiances because of the minimum wage initiative.  Worrying about political conflict abroad is something many of us do.  But when it comes to having enough food on the table to feed your family, at the same time as working a 40-hour-per-week job, that is more important than anything else.

Comments

[Tony]

My Personal Pipe Dream:
End the war but continue for another 2 months (or so) to spend the money thats being spent on it. Take this money and feed the people for a few years. Let and truly caring organization take care of this, NOT a GOVERNMENT AGENCY!! The Government would appoint a committee to oversee the committee that allocates the money to the committee that hands the money to the committee that will decide how to spend the $100,000.

[ted K]

My Personal Pipe Dream:

To have many of these out of work and low skilled workers NOT try to raise a family on Minimum wage and wait until they get education and skills to support a family.
Also, stop having children without a man around to raise them.
And I am not talking about aborting babies.
I am talking about taking responsible action and Not having unprotected sex.
70% of black children are born to single mothers.
Where is the outcry?

You are bound for poverty there.

I worked minimum wage, when I first entered the work force. When I was a teenager, which is what 70-75% of the minimum wage work force is comprised of.

and I think it is like 3% of the total work force makes minimum wage.

Can we worry about something more serious than this?

Anyone think that all this illegal immigration could have something to do with it as well?