Many still go hungry
We’ve all had to make important choices: where to live, where to send our kids to school, what path our career should take. But imagine making a tough choice like whether to pay the rent or buy groceries for your family? Maybe it’s hard to picture being in that situation. Maybe you’ve been able to earn enough money to pay your bills every month. However, one incident in your life could make everything different. What would happen if you lost your job, got sick, or had some other emergency – like needing a new transmission or tires for your car? The fact is that there’s very little that separates many of us from the 33 million people who experience the pain of hunger and food insecurity in the United States today.
Many families who go hungry are working families. They are our co-workers, our friends, our neighbors, and our children’s classmates. Here in Pennsylvania, there are 1,135,000 people who live in households that are struggling to find enough food to eat, including 393,000 children.
Those 393,000 children – and the 13 million children like them across the United States – are being put at serious – and unnecessary – risk. Children who are hungry are more likely to have behavioral, emotional, and academic problems and are more likely to be held back in school. Students who eat breakfast before school or through a school-based program not only improve their own performance in school, but also help to contribute to a more productive learning environment for all students. In the wealthiest nation in the world, there is no reason that our children shouldn’t have all the basic necessities – like food – to do well in school and contribute to strengthening our society.
A hunger free America is an attainable goal. The food is there, the need is there, and the commitment is there. Here in the Keystone State, the Pennsylvania Hunger Action Center advocates on behalf of children and families who are struggling to find enough food to eat. Breakfast in every school, less red tape for working families when applying to the Food Stamp Program, and eating well by buying fresh are three of the strategies it is pursuing as part of reaching that goal.
We urge you to learn more about hunger by calling the Pennsylvania Hunger Action Center or visiting its web site at www.pahunger.org. Ask them what you can do to help Pennsylvania become a hunger free state. By working together, we have the ability to see the day when no child will have to skip a meal, and no parent will have to decide between rent and groceries.
Jeff Bridges
chairman of Hunger Free America
Berry Friesen
director of Hunger Action Center