Hunger in the Heartland

Have you ever been really hungry, but you for some reason couldn’t eat, perhaps you were away from home or you were busy for a long day at work without lunch or breakfast.
Didn’t it feel good when you got home and got in your refrigerator and got yourself something to eat?  Now imagine when you got home there was nothing in the refrigerator or in the cabinets so many live through that scenario every day of their lives.
In America, 1 in 8 struggle with hunger.  A total of 13 million children and 3.6 million seniors, all in all, 37 million people live in poverty.  Households with children experience almost double the rate for those households without children. Single women, 6% use emergency food assistance and federal food assistance programs headed 18%.

Feeding America provides emergency food assistance to 4.5 million in any given week.
In 2007 53.9% of low-income houses participated in 1 of 3 assistance programs.  Supplemental nutrition program for women, infants, and children
The national school lunch program and the food stamp program.

In Harlan, Ky. Cindy gave A knock on the neighbor’s door asking to borrow food for her children, she said they were hungry and without food and it was two weeks before check day.  Cindy is not alone in this hunger epidemic.

36 million Americans struggle with hunger. People in these rural areas are without proper nutrition.  They lack fresh fruits and vegetables.  Recently a group from Ohio went to a town in Kentucky to offer aid in health care, nutrition, school supplies, and clothing for lower or no income families.

Ky Harvest of Louisville, Ky. Donated 47 million pounds of food, free of charge.  Simply put Ky Harvest is people who move food to those who need it without charge.
Ky Ranks 5th highest in the nation for poverty.
The top 5 states include (in alphabetical order)

Arkansas 14.4%
Georgia 13%
Kansas13%
Kentucky 12%
Main 13.3%

These states lead the nation in nationwide hunger. Hunger is the lack of enough food for an active healthy life; limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate food.

                                                Stats from Feeding America.Org.

Feeding America is the National leading hunger-relief program on Aug 4th, 2012 Rock for hunger took place in Columbus Ohio this was the 8th year for the concert., they raised $120,000 for the food bank it will help the Ohio food bank.

Nationwide hunger fast kicks off, protesting proposed budget cuts to food assistance programs. According to USA Today.  Nutrition assistance programs that protect low-income families are being eyed for cuts.  Feeding America and Share our Strength have teamed up to have a nationwide hunger fast.

Congress proposed cuts to food and nutrition programs come at a time when 47 million Americans live below the poverty line.

“It is hard to imagine a more dire set of circumstances and a more compelling reason to make a statement on behalf of those most voiceless.” Said Bill Shore, founder, and executive director.  They want the public to contact their public officials.

Feeding America is collecting pledges of participation in the fast at http://wwwhungeractioncenter.org/register_fasting.aspx or you can follow it on twitter using hnshtag#Hungerfast.

To Donate:
Kentucky’s Heartland
PO Box 821
Phone: [phone]
Toll-free: 877-532-2767
Fax:  [phone]
Email: [e-mail]