Sunday, November 22, 2009
For those who have too little
Elizabeth Strother
Recent columns
- Independent voice is silenced in merger
- TOP takes a hard knock
- Lagging on college access
- Alzheimer's drains minds and finances
From the RoundTable blog
The teenagers didn't seem disrespectful -- just oblivious, standing in a cast bronze bread line, posing with statues of gaunt men waiting for food in the depths of America's Great Depression.
Some towered a good head above the figures, products of excellent nutrition all their young lives; one girl draped herself over the top of a statue in a smiling, goofy embrace.
This was my third visit to the FDR Memorial in Washington, D.C. Each time, tourists have waited patiently for folks ahead to clear out so they can snap photos, usually with someone in their party mugging or trying their solemn best to blend into the scene.
And failing. Besides their flesh-and-blood, living color, they are too well-fed.
By which I mean well-nourished, not necessarily fat -- definitely not on this day, among this group of high-spirited youths.
We trailed behind them through the stone and water architecture of the outdoor "rooms" dedicated to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who led the now fading "Greatest Generation" from the Depression into a world war and to the eve of victory and the rise of an American Century.
The resulting general prosperity has been all that these kids, their parents and grandparents have known.
Until now. Today, we're getting a taste of the hardship that tested that earlier generation -- smaller in scale, but not so different in kind. As the country pulls out of perhaps the deepest recession since the Great Depression, we remain a land of plenty that tolerates great want.
Last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that in 2008, almost 15 percent of American households -- 17 million -- were what it called food insecure: At some time during the year, they had a hard time providing enough food for everyone.
About one-third had very low food security, meaning that at times some went hungry, including 1.1 million children. That represents 6.7 million households, up dramatically from 4.7 million just the year before.
In all, nearly 50 million Americans -- including one child in four -- weren't sure every day where their next meal would come from, the highest number since the government started keeping track in 1995 and a mark of how deep the recession has cut.
Now is a time for Americans to unite in helping each other, and perhaps grow in understanding of those long left behind.
In our part of the country, the Southwestern Virginia Second Harvest Food Bank reports 20 percent to 30 percent increases over the last two years in the numbers of people getting emergency food assistance from the 360-plus partner programs it serves.
They help an average of 111,000 people every month, the regional food bank's president and CEO, Pamela Irvine, says. Just some of the 362,747 individuals -- our neighbors -- who live in poverty in Southwest Virginia. Among them are 77,542 children eligible for free or reduced-price lunches.
More than half of USDA spending goes to nutrition assistance in this country -- $87.2 billion in the current fiscal year. Subsidized school lunches, food stamps, WIC are, at once, essential weapons against hunger and not enough.
The agency's Food and Nutrition Service works with public and private partners to help close the gap.
People who rail about government's failure to end poverty and argue it's the churches' job, anyway, to feed the poor have it half right. Charitable nonprofits work in concert, not competition, with federal food assistance programs. There's more than enough need to go around.
Anyone can pitch in and help.
The Southwestern Virginia Second Harvest Food Bank is in the midst of its Holidays From the Heart food drive. Other nonprofits too numerable to mention kick into high gear at this time of year to feed the poor.
They are in continual need of donations, especially in these hard times.
Washington attributed the shocking national figures on hunger last year to the high rate of unemployment and underemployment.
Food banks have long served the working poor.
Now, Irvine says, they're also drawing people who used to make enough money to live on. She knows of two regular financial contributors who are out of work and looking for help.
"I've never had that experience before."
The "new face we're seeing," as Irvine describes it, has a plus side for programs that have had to struggle to explain the lives of the poor.
"People are more in tune, are more sensitive now. They can relate now that the average American is having trouble putting food on their table.
"They know it isn't a choice."
It's hard to be oblivious to people who could be us.
Have a blessed Thanksgiving.
Strother is on the editorial board of The Roanoke Times.
