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Learning About Poverty in the United States

Understanding Poverty in the United States and how it is defined. Information regarding generational and situational poverty. Learn helpful ways to assist the homeless in the United States.

Understanding Poverty in America

You will find a lot of reasons for poverty in America. Considering the present economic recession, it's much easier to notice first-hand exactly how individuals are driven underneath the poverty line. If a manufacturing facility goes broke and then all the employees lose their work, just a number of those may find new jobs right away, particularly in small towns. If a family does not have any kind of savings to make do on, chances are they cannot even relocate to a bigger city to find employment. The price of living keeps rising and the accessible cash diminishes. The kids of such households suffer the most. They could do nothing regarding their circumstance and also have a difficult time battling their way out of poverty in America.

Signs of Poverty in America

Based on where exactly you live, you might be capable of check around and open your eyes to problem of poverty in America that still continues to be mainly hidden. Down a filthy side road, there might be a big cardboard box sheltering a small family who happens to be homeless. Typically the sign on the nearby Salvation Army building requests bread and milk every single day. These and additional indicators can inform you to the condition of poverty in America that so many kids are now living in.

What You Can Do About Poverty in America

Once you're alert to the problem, exactly what can you do to assist? You will find numerous agencies which accept volunteers in their programs that help the poverty-stricken kids of America. Additional organizations work to gather donations which they use to clothe, feed, and educate kids whose family members no longer can do for them.

If you can't volunteer either time and money, try to do something even it is at a minimum. It's remarkable what lengths even a little donation can go whenever supervised by a charitable organization that actually cares about helping poverty in America, especially the nation's kids. They really do help in alleviating poverty in America. Hunger in America: 2011 United States Hunger and Poverty Facts World Hunger Education Service Hunger in the United States Three years after the onset of the financial and economic crisis, hunger remains high in the United States.

The financial and economic crisis that erupted in 2008 caused a dramatic increase in hunger in the United States. This high level of hunger continues in 2010, according to the latest government report (with the most recent statistics) released in September 2011 (Coleman-Jensen 2011). In 2010, 17.2 million households, 14.5 percent of households (approximately one in seven), were food insecure, the highest number ever recorded in the United States 1,2 (Coleman-Jensen 2011, p. v.)

In 2010, about one-third of food-insecure households (6.7 million households, or 5.4 percent of all U.S. households) had very low food security (compared with 4.7 million households (4.1 percent) in 2007 ().

In households with very low food security, the food intake of some household members was reduced, and their normal eating patterns were disrupted because of the household’s food insecurity (Coleman-Jensen 2011, p. v., USDA 2008, p. iii.)

In 2010, children were food insecure at times during the year in 9.8 percent of households with children (3.9 million households.) In one percent of households with children,one or more of the children experienced the most severe food-insecure condition measured by USDA, very low food security, in which meals were irregular and food intake was below levels considered adequate by caregivers (Coleman-Jensen 2011, p. vi).

The median [a type of average] food-secure household spent 27 percent more on food than the median food-insecure household of the same size and household composition (Coleman-Jensen 2011, p. vi). Background: The United States changed the name of its definitions in 2006 that eliminated references to hunger, keeping various categories of food insecurity. This did not represent a change in what was measured.

Very low food insecurity (described as food insecurity with hunger prior to 2006) means that, at times during the year, the food intake of household members was reduced and their normal eating patterns were disrupted because the household lacked money and other resources for food. This means that people were hungry ( in the sense of "the uneasy or painful sensation caused by want of food" [Oxford English Dictionary 1971] for days each. To learn more about Poverty in America visit the World Hunger website.

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Image Copyright: Seattle Municipal Archives
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Last Updated: 01-17-2013
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