Posted on 03/27/2008 7:30:47 PM PDT by traumer
Ten miles outside Eugene in west central Oregon, little wooden houses and mobile homes make up the town of Alvadore. The homes are too far apart to give the town—population 1,358—the appearance of a city, yet too close together for it to come off as true countryside. Old, domestically manufactured cars line the streets, as well as a few rundown mom-and-pop convenience stores.
Small farmers, mill workers and construction people live here. And they work hard—or at least they do when they can get employment. There’s a dry nuts and prunes plant just outside town, as well as a Country Coach facility that manufactures motor homes. Many of the residents hold down several jobs to make ends meet. Yet for an increasing number of people in Alvadore, getting a paycheck—or even several paychecks—is not the same as earning enough to put food on the table.
Schools throughout the counties of central Oregon, the state’s hunger belt, report that kids come to classes hungry on Mondays—and endure the long summer vacation months when no free school lunches exist.
Alvadore, like many dilapidated towns in modern-day America, is at the wrong end of an array of economic changes—from globalization to higher energy costs—and many of its citizens are falling through the social safety net. The result: increased hunger. Payday loans and food boxes
Many of the town’s residents turn to the corner of 8th and B Streets, where the large wooden Alvadore Christian Church stands. On the fourth Thursday of each month, a sign is staked in the churchyard: Food Pantry.
During the winter months, around 40 families show up to receive bread, muffins, applesauce, canned soups, canned vegetables and other staples. In the summers the number of families served increases.
(Excerpt) Read more at inthesetimes.com ...
Here’s a wacky idea: MOVE.
More evidence of the failed liberal welfare state.
Blaming today's conditions on today's administration is retarded. It takes time for presidential decisions OF ANY SORT to affect the general populace.
And it really chaps my ass that these articles never never never discuss the industrial strength stupid/greedy/lazy decisions that the people themselves made to land them in their situation. It's ALL the far off president's fault.
Give them FREE stuff, and they will COME AND GET IT! This article goes on to talk about “food insecurity” also....what a joke. My sister gets food from a food bank (it’s a LONG story - she and her family are what you might way....”well fed” looking.....I’d like to see the pics of some of these profiled in this story.
Are these people lazy---or what?
I hear Bush eats puppies. Raw. When he isn’t personally waterboarding persons of color who dare to express anti-war sentiments. He and Cheney came up with the master plan to create Oregon’s Hunger Belt right after Karl Rove’s Katrina plot bore fruit. ;)
I was thinking exatly the same thing just the other day after hearing a similar report in another locality.
Many an individual emigrated here and the “tradition” of simply moving on continues in this country.
Go where the jobs are.
Thanks to the Endangered Species Act, such poverty patches are common across America due to the Spotted Owl. Where once there were many small sawmills, only a remnant are hanging on by their fingernails.
Supplying those many small sawmills were once a large number of loggers and small logging companies. Now, both loggers and sawyers are out of business.
These people, and their communities, were destroyed with no sound scientific data AND it turned out that the Sierra Club knew their argument was faulty, but made it anyway!
I also wonder how many $4/pack smokes they go through a week?
I see it all of the time. Spend 10 minutes at a gas station and watch how many folks buy 2 cartons of cigs @ $35 a pop, $10 worth of gas, and walk out to a broken down car full of dirty kids.
I read the entire article you posted. What stood out more than anything was they are suffering because of the collapse of the timber industry.
The rest of the article was about all the suffering and it is very sad but the timber industry has collapsed because of the LIBERALS.
Of the nearly 40 million who fear going hungry, an estimated 11 million-plus Americans occasionally miss meals, according to the USDA. They include many adults in a family who sacrifice their own portions to ensure their children are fed.
In most countries, such people would be defined as being “hungry.” Bush’s America uses a more Orwellian term....
......while talking on their cellphone. Then they drive home to a shack with a satellite dish on the roof.
Oregon leftist government is anti-business. Oregon governor Kulongoski (D) has mandated burning food for fuel. I’ll bet these people voted democrat.
Yep....the timber business is moving....to Uruguay and Brazil....I know...my husband is working on a project in Uruguay....where trees grow REALLY fast, and I doubt they have to worry about the heavy liberal influences....YET!
From that car, it appears Harry Truman is to blame.
OMG
That’s a 1936 Terraplane Coupe! A collectors item.
I guess Oregon needs more ghost towns, seems like they have a good start.
Drive through any trailer park on trash day and look at the boxes out front. I have!
Especially this time of year (tax returns)
very enlightening as to where their money goes.
Words of so-called journalists mean nothing. There are enough poor people where I live. But I do not see the faces of the hungry. If I want to see the faces of the hungry, I do a search for the photographs of Walker Evans. I do not see the faces of physical starvation. Now when it comes to spiritual starvation, that is an entirely different matter. After twenty years of depending on Jeremiah Wright for his spiritual food, I would say that Barry is in the depths of spiritual starvation.
So how is this Bush's America?
For all the Howard Hughes’ here, just resting up between billions, I’m going to remind you “Karma Is A Bit^h”.
The elderly lady on SS had her entire life to learn the beauty of compound interest, yet decided to rely on SS to get her by. Now she is not being afforded the standard of living she desires. Sheesh.
yup... they'd all rather sit there and starve waiting for the govt tit to fill their belly than move to where the work IS.
"Bush's America" indeed.
The author of this piece is some expatriate Brit who went from political activist there to sociology professor in California and sees America through a fecal filter. Obama would probably dig him.
This story is the result of one single government decision.
Listing the Northern Spotted Owl as an endangered species.
Environmentalists can burn in hell as far as I’m concerned. If FR was moderated like daily kos and the other loony left sites, I’d write how I really feel.
Well we certainly can’t blame any of this poverty on the public school system and the NEA. The work they are doing to raise our children’s self esteem will surely pull us out of these hard economic times.
Americans can’t be without jobs and going hungry, we imported 20 million illegals to do the jobs they wont do. Remember the libs (including BushMcaniac)want the illegals to stay and Ahnold says illegals dont hurt Kalyfornia.
Why can’t they get a job at a lumber mill or a fishery? What is wrong with these lazy people the forest is the friend of working people. /sarcasm off ,P>
Did the paper mention that liberal environmental laws make it hard for working people to work?
Remember how you could have the semi- automatic shift or unplug it from its socket, stow it in its bracket, and shift normally?
I thought maybe it was written by John Steinbeck.
We live, by choice, in a town of about 500 souls. I wonder how that dumb snob would evaluate us. But we're probably too small for him to deign to even take note of our existence.
If he shows up here, I'll stick my plier handles up his nose.
Uh-huh. The cupboards are bare but I’ll bet the CD racks and the DVD racks and the video game racks are overflowing. I’ll bet the cell phone minutes are maxed out and then some. I’ll bet the Premium Cable Package or Satellite Dish Package gets paid for every month.
And where, pray tell, is the Governor of Oregon???? Bush’s America might be better if there were actually effective governors in more states who did more than squat to help their own citizens.
If you go to Google Earth, you can plainly see that the parking lot at the nearby private airport is ...ahem!...nearly empty.
We need to re-open logging and similar industries in this area ... FOR THE CHILDUURRRRRRRNNNNN ....
I worked in paper mills in Oregon and Washington in the early 70s. I drove my daughter to U of O in Eugene a couple years ago and I was absolutely shocked at how all the old mills were rusting and seemingly replaced by Indian casinos. This is precisely what the Libs have wrought — economic destruction. Why should liberal newspaper “journalists” be surprised by this?
That's were liberals come from.
This is like the stories of the increase in the numbers of homeless that was supposed to be due to Reagan. Everyone, of course, was fat and happy when x42 was President.
besides...the University of Oregon is 10 miles away....I find it hard to believe that these people can't find work at Phil Nike University...
many small towns are now made up sadly with welfare recipients because they can rent cheap.....
I met a person few weeks ago...he had the money but he didn't want to pay for medical insurance.. of course he required hospitalization and he immediately filed for govt "help"......but he did have a brand new lap top and a new cell phone....
people make choices....that's why my mom cooked every night and canned tomatoes and made her own pizza dough....she sewed all her own curtains and made slip covers for the furniture...she could fix a broken appliance as well....
but doing for yourself is so passe'.
Ya, it's easy to bash these simple folks who would work the fanny off 99% of the Howard Hughes wannabes around here.
The famous Oregon Health Plan? No good if you have a job making anything near minimum wage. So once your off OHP, you got to pay for every tiny bit of medical expense --- UNLESS YOU ARE ILLEGAL!!
And the service providers HAVE to garnishee your wages. So what is minimum wage less 33% and minus taxes ?
And Yes, it's Dubya the Mumblers fault.
LOL
My dad rebuilt Model As after he ‘retired’ and so hung out with the really old car crowd. Went to a few rallys with him.
Those old Hudson;s were - Cool - and had lots of power.
Negligent parents. It isn't the function of schools to feed children. The task is to educate them. Parents are responsible for food, clothing and shelter. Place the blame where it belongs.
I didn’t know Bush ran Oregon.
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