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Thanksgiving is here, so is hunger: Record number of Americans worry about providing food...
Market Watch's Diary of a Recession Baby ^ | November 23, 2010 | Ruth Mantell

Posted on 11/23/2010 12:52:50 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

This Thanksgiving I’m grateful to be living in Washington.It’s a fascinating city, a place filled with contrasts. The earnest and the devious meet here. The powerful walk the same halls as swarms of wannabees.

However, the District of Columbia is also one of the clearest examples in the nation of massive inequality. While my family has been happy here, as we approach the holidays many of our neighbors are making do with far fewer resources. At least in my family, now is the time to think about our blessings and focus on how to help our neighbors.

With the upcoming holiday season, a lot of those thoughts turn to food. There’s no doubt that Americans have a complicated relationship with food – there’s too much obesity, and yet many are going without sufficient meals.

In the last few years in Washington, an average of about 13% of households have been “food insecure,” according to government statistics, meaning that at some point during the year those folks had difficulty providing enough food for all their family members.

The picture is worse in the United States overall. The percentage of food insecure households rose to a record high 14.7% in 2009, although it was up only slightly from 14.6% the year before. The data go back to 1995.

It could have been a lot worse....

(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Food; Government; Society
KEYWORDS: hunger; obama; poverty; thanksgiving
I think I know who Ruth voted for in 2008. How is it that 2005 is looking like the good old days?!
1 posted on 11/23/2010 12:52:55 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Didn't hear a single story about the hungry after Jan. 2009.

Now, after Nov. 2, suddenly, they're back.

yitbos

2 posted on 11/23/2010 1:06:49 AM PST by bruinbirdman ("Those who control language control minds." -- Ayn Rand)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
However, the District of Columbia is also one of the clearest examples in the nation of massive inequality.

And just what is it that separates the haves from the have nots in D.C.? Could it be that some have been able to form parasitic relationships with the rest of the nation, while the others have to work for a living serving the parasites?

3 posted on 11/23/2010 1:14:37 AM PST by Minn
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The AP has been telling us to expect Christmas sales to be slightly higher that last year. Hilarious. There is no way, I can’t see it.


4 posted on 11/23/2010 1:20:36 AM PST by CommieCutter (A Centrist Democrat is now defined as: between Socialism and Communism.)
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To: CommieCutter

SNORT!!


5 posted on 11/23/2010 1:40:53 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet (Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under. ~Mencken)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

People are going hungry yet obesity is epidemic. I can’t keep up!!!!


6 posted on 11/23/2010 1:42:00 AM PST by Rummyfan (Iraq: it's not about Iraq anymore, it's about the USA!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Which is it going to be........we’re all too fat or we’re all too thin?


7 posted on 11/23/2010 2:45:24 AM PST by Carley (IT'S THREAT ANALYSIS, NOT RACIAL PROFILING)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Thanksgiving is here, so is hunger: Record number of Americans worry about providing food...

Record number of Americans thinking that food is a right and, therefore, should be provided for them rather than by them. Record number of Americans going to food banks for free food so they can use the money formerly spent on food for other things.
8 posted on 11/23/2010 2:56:25 AM PST by aruanan
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

People are constantly complaining about the Government programs. When I was a kid there were no such programs because it was the responsibility of the local churches to feed and cloth the poor. The money and workforce for such projects coming from church members. For some reason people no longer seem willing to become involved and expect the Government to take over these projects and you can see how well that has worked out.

I recently moved to the mid west, you know the Bible Belt. I started attending a Fundamental Baptist church. At a women’s meeting we were discussing upcoming projects and someone suggested collecting food for the local food bank. Great idea I thought. Boy was I wrong. Hardly anyone donated and those that did donated canned goods that expired in 2007..really! If we are not willing to help out our neighbors than we wind up with the miserable Government system that is in place now. My son once wrote a paper that stated:

“Once we looked to the church for salvation, now we look to the Government for salvation where there is none.”


9 posted on 11/23/2010 4:37:31 AM PST by heylady
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Remember when you were a kid and your mom would urge you to eat all your food on your plate because of the starving kids in China.

Soon Chinese moms will be telling there kids the same. The tables are reversing on us.

10 posted on 11/23/2010 4:41:59 AM PST by riri
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To: aruanan
Record number of Americans going to food banks for free food so they can use the money formerly spent on food for other things.

That is exactly what my husband says probably happens. Many of them probably have cell phones and have bought at least one foo fooey coffee in the week leading up to going to the food bank.

11 posted on 11/23/2010 4:45:04 AM PST by riri
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Well, for any one of them who voted for Obama; “Eat hot hope!”


12 posted on 11/23/2010 4:50:20 AM PST by Caipirabob ( Communists... Socialists... Democrats...Traitors... Who can tell the difference?)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
I would love to see the average weight/height ratio of these non “food secure” households. I'm betting they have as much, if not more obesity, than the average household.

Of course this can't be happening, Obama was going to pay my rent and gas, feed my chil’ren!

Obama Is Going To Pay For My Gas And Mortgage!!!

13 posted on 11/23/2010 4:55:37 AM PST by Brett66 (Where government advances, and it advances relentlessly , freedom is imperiled -Janice Rogers Brown)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

“The percentage of food insecure households rose to a record high 14.7% in 2009”

Food Insecurity: “Have that extra helping of gravy today, you may not get dessert tomorrow”


14 posted on 11/23/2010 4:55:37 AM PST by RFEngineer
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To: heylady

Maternal Mineral had the same reaction at the church she attends. Church people seem to talk charity but seem not to manifest much of it.


15 posted on 11/23/2010 4:57:15 AM PST by AceMineral (Clam down!)
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To: aruanan

If food is a right, the government’s bill to regulate home gardens and farmer’s markets is even worse. You can’t get a job because of their policy, and it may be illegal to raise your own food to feed yourself, too.


16 posted on 11/23/2010 5:25:37 AM PST by tbw2 (Freeper sci-fi - "Sirat: Through the Fires of Hell" - on amazon.com)
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To: Rummyfan
People are going hungry yet obesity is epidemic. I can’t keep up!!!!

Americans are starving so the government cut off the water supply to California's Central Valley - an agricultural powerhouse. I, too, am confused.

17 posted on 11/23/2010 5:30:23 AM PST by Free State Four
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To: tbw2
If food is a right, the government’s bill to regulate home gardens and farmer’s markets is even worse. You can’t get a job because of their policy, and it may be illegal to raise your own food to feed yourself, too.

Well, then the federal government will have put itself right back into the place of King George III and we know what happened there.
18 posted on 11/23/2010 5:42:27 AM PST by aruanan
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To: RFEngineer
“food insecurity”

That is the liberal buzzword running throughout the article. Sort of like, “global warming”, “climate change”, etc.

Look for this phrase to enter the MSN mantra just like “progressives” (as opposed to liberals).

The MSM cannot die soon enough for me.

19 posted on 11/23/2010 11:04:32 AM PST by lowbuck (The Blue Card (US Passport) Don't leave home without it.)
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To: lowbuck

According to what was said on FNC, *food insecurity* means that the person/family had *ONE DAY* out of the _month_ when they were not *certain* they had enough food.

Well, that happens here when we get so busy, there is no time to go shopping until all we have left in the fridge is condiments and the *pick up* grocery list expands into 2 full pages because we have had to dip into storage supplies.

Meaningless.


20 posted on 11/23/2010 11:20:39 AM PST by reformedliberal
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