Lets bring it home... according to the Poverty Research Institute, 1 out of every 5 New Jersey families cannot afford the basic necessities of life (food, shelter etc.) even though 85% of these households have one working member. Really? Sitting in my one bedroom apartment, fully stuffed from a Cheesecake Factory dinner, warm, clothed and healthy, it seems almost impossible to believe that 1 in 5 of the people in my state, my neighbors, could be unable to provide food for their families.
Unfortunately this is the reality, but it gets much, much worse. Check out these real-time stats from StopTheHunger.com. Just watch the numbers roll. One sixth of the world is undernourished - and a little more than that are obese. It doesn't make sense.
So right now there is a good possibility you are sitting in front of your computer, jaw a little dropped, and if you're in a position where you can provide food and shelter, feeling grateful for what you have in life.
How about doing something to help?
Fourteen world-famous photographers have banded together to form a coalition called “Photographers Against Hunger.” Each photographer has donated a signed an iconic print of Bruce Springsteen (long time supporter of the Community Food Bank of New Jersey). For a $25 entry fee, you are eligible to win one of these photographs. You can enter as many times as you want (hundreds, thousands of times! kidding, well unless you want to). Proceeds go to the to Community Food Bank of New Jersey. Check it out at www.backstreets.com/hunger.
For more information on how you can help the hungry in your backyard, visit the Community Food Bank of New Jersey.
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4 comments:
Make that 35 miliion and counting...many hard working Americans are too proud to ask for help or food.
good post topic, li. also thinking about WHERE those 1 in 5 are-- it's not like every fifth door you knock on in Teaneck has a starving family. 1 in 5 is an average of the middle-class to mega-rich places in NJ plus Newark, Camden, Trenton-- places where lots of families who can't afford to eat are residentially segregated into neighborhoods where everyone around them is starving, too. Its crazy how poverty spirals in on itself: how do you get a good education if you're too hungry to think clearly? how do you get a good job if you don't get a good education? how do you even aspire to a good job when not a single person you know has one?
the right-wing answer is generally that if you are living in poverty, it is because you haven't worked hard enough to pull yourself out. the left-wing answer is generally that society is structured in a way which makes 'pulling yourself out' a very hard thing to do. and hence we help feed those who can't afford to feed themselves, because we take joint social accountability for producing a society where kids don't have to go to bed hungry every night.
go food pantries, and go people who blog about them. :)
This is a great post! I hadn't seen the Springsteen Ad about the food banks. Wow...powerful. Thank you for the post.
Thank you!
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