Hunger & Poverty in a Progressing World

The Progressive ideals of Teddy Roosevelt to solve societal issues like poverty, hunger and the suffering of the poor remain remarkably intact. That is: to educate, to make places safer and to make government honest. It sounds simple, but it’s not.

The fact that hunger and poverty still exist may be more a condition of shifting economic forces than a failure of the basic Progressive tenants. In 1905 Upton Sinclair published the novel, “The Jungle” which dealt with immigration, poverty, over-crowding, unscrupulous business practices and a shifting social structure. Sound familiar? One contemporary issue he dealt with in his novel was the condition of the meat packing industry – something regulated to the present day.

While we may hope for people to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and complain when they don’t, the fact remains that poverty is far more complex than any ideology’s quick-fix. Poverty can attack suddenly. If we add up all the folks living paycheck-to-paycheck (that could be you!) and add a business closing, we can see why families may lose precious ground quickly, and end up living out of their car. It’s our essentially positive nature that tells us that it’s only temporary “until we get back on our feet”.

In such an instance, being able to go to a soup kitchen for a meal and a food pantry for some groceries is the only thing between a family and hunger – which quickly spirals out of control – because you’re not going to find that next job while you’re not eating anything.

Poverty is indeed a multi-generational. Why? Nutrition is a link to that all-important “education” that our forebears believed in, as well as what’s needed to lift oneself out of bed in the morning. In the formative years, if children do not receive proper nutrition, their brains (and mental capacity) as well as their bodies, will not develop. Thus, this generation of the poor will not be able to take advantage of an employment training program because as children they didn’t receive proper nutrition. Children, more so than adults, need properly balanced meals. Skipping a couple meals and then getting to eat a whole bag of potato chips, just isn’t going to cut it for a child. Adults can skip meals because they are already grown, but, children cannot.

I mention the potato chip story because it’s a true one. Local programs like “Love Flows” are working to be sure that each child has a next meal. Being certain it’s a nutritious meal is harder, but headway is being made. When children attend school, they can eat lunch and sometimes get a breakfast as needed, but after that, there could be nothing to eat, and it’s shocking how many kids that really is, and how frequently this happens. For our central PA area, Love Flows reports that one out of every five and sometimes four out of every five kids goes hungry when they should have had something to eat during any typical day. On weekends, that number goes up.

What has been and is the government’s role in this? The courts have ruled that the welfare of children is of interest to the State. School lunch and nutrition programs in public schools continue to be key in providing services to as many children as possible. Furthermore, the government has had a role at the USDA for setting nutritional standards. WIC (Women Infants and Children) provides nutrition for mothers and their children. SNAP provides food for families for transitional periods of public assistance. Food banks, churches and other non-profit social programs continue to do their part. Such solutions remain “not enough” because of the shame associated with poverty and hunger, and the growing political rancor around not being able to provide, at all times, for oneself.

Sometimes, progress means that we remain and continue to become a society that values each human being equally, deciding that no one is more deserving of a good meal - or a safe street to walk down – than anyone else. To help out now, visit loveflows.net in Susquehanna Valley PA, or call your local food bank. We are all part of the solution.