Food Insecurity

It's a national crisis in the making - the wealthiest and most powerful nation on earth cannot feed its people. Today's report from the advocacy group Food Research and Action Center says:
"In other words, the nation had years of economic growth concentrated on the affluent, at the end of which period several million more people lived in households struggling with hunger. For the worst-off households, the picture was even bleaker: the number of people living in households suffering from "very low food security" (until two years ago USDA called this "food insecurity with hunger") rose from 8.5 million in 2000 to 11.9 million in 2007 – a 40 percent increase in the number living in the hungriest households.

The official 2008 hunger numbers from the Census Bureau and USDA won’t be released until late 2009, but every report from food stamp offices, WIC programs, school meals programs, social service agencies, religious congregations and emergency food providers portrays a rising tide of increasingly desperate need. If the recession is as long and deep as many experts predict, we are likely to see an epidemic of hunger, among children and adults alike, unlike any we have seen for decades."

That's exactly what is happening here in Tyler, too. We have seen a huge increase in need for food assistance over the last two months! We need everyone who is able to open their eyes to the needs around us and take action. The world is watching!