Report By Second Harvest: "Hunger: The Faces and Facts"

March 10, 1998

The Second Harvest report on hunger in America confirms our worst fears: More than 20 million Americans routinely rely upon food banks and soup kitchens. We are not marching toward solutions as some contend; we are lucky to tread water and too many of America's children are getting sucked under by the currents.

While the stock market keeps hitting record highs, 60 percent of those going to food banks do not own a car, more than 40 percent have no telephone, and more than one- third of them are routinely forced to choose between buying food and paying their rent.

In the boardrooms of Wall Street, many are earning handsome profits from a booming market, but in the bedrooms of too many Main Street homes, children still go to bed hungry.

One in five children in the United States still lives in poverty, and 8 million children are served by this national network of food banks. Almost 40 percent of those fed by this network of food banks and soup kitchens are children. Most of them live in rural areas, or small cities, like many of the communities that comprise my home state of Vermont.

Children in families with working parents are going to bed hungry. According to this study, nine percent of the families surveyed had children who missed meals. An even larger percentage of families were forced to choose between medical care and food. For anyone who doubts that malnutrition and hunger in America still exist, this report should remove any doubts.

Each hungry child with an empty stomach is an empty promise. It is time that America finally realizes that hunger does have a cure. We can eliminate hunger in America.