Day 39: Poverty in America Awareness Month

How does it feel to be deprived of the necessities of living like food, safe drinking water, housing, and clothing? How would you be able to cope if you lived in squalor or poverty?

Today, 37.3 million American, 1 in 6 children (that’s 18 percent of all American children), are living below the poverty line.  They live in families who are of necessity making hard choices between food, health care, heat and rent. Many American families don’t have enough food to feed their family, enough heat to keep themselves warm, they live without healthcare etc. All these tragedies are compiled into an overwhelming amount of personal and financial misfortune. Unfortunately, the people who suffer the most are our children. The number of Americans living in poverty increased last year, but advocates for the poor say the situation is more desperate than the rising numbers. Poverty is increasing as the country’s social safety net continues to erode and the government uses outdated measures to even determine poverty levels, experts said. The methods used to track poverty are more than 50-years-old and overlook families’ modern problems and dwindling resources.

Poverty in America Awareness Month is to promote public awareness of the continuing existence of poverty and social injustice in America. Individuals are encouraged to support efforts to eradicate poverty by increasing their understanding of the causes and practical solutions and by active participation in and support for antipoverty programs.

Harvesters' mission is to feed hungry people today and work to end hunger tomorrow.

Harvesters is a clearinghouse for the collection and distribution of food and related household products. They’ve been helping people in need since 1979 by

• Collecting food and household products from community and industry sources
• Distributing those products and providing nutrition services through a network of nonprofit agencies
• Offering leadership and education programs to increase community awareness of hunger and generate solutions to alleviate hunger

Their network includes more than 620 nonprofit agencies throughout our 26-county direct service area, including emergency food pantries, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, children’s homes, homes for the mentally disabled and shelters for battered persons. Their network provides food assistance to as many as 66,000 different people each week. Harvesters is a certified member of Feeding America, a nationwide network of more than 200 food banks, serving all 50 states.

Donation: $5

To support Harvesters, please visit:  http://www.harvesters.org/