Poverty in America

The images were haunting,
the stories disturbing,
but it was all too real.
The faces of poverty in the United States.

The men and women WANTED to work, they were not welfare cases from generations past; they were hard-working Americans living in a town where the mines, the construction, and the plants had all shut down. The stores along Main Street were shuttered, vacant.

The families lived in small trailers, or in their cars, or small houses with multiple family units living together.

The local food bank had seen a huge increase of people needing food in the last two years...the food pantry could barely hold on, yet they are the source of food for many in this small town in America. The lady behind this food bank was so inspiring and laudable.

Heart wrenching to be sure...the need is so great and the town's continual plea....where are the jobs promised by the administration?

But, did anyone notice, like I did, that many of the children and the adults were - obese, fat, overweight? Such a stark contrast; starving, yet big?

Comparison photos were shown of the long soup lines during the Depression, and yet, looking at those people from the 1930s, they were lean and skinny...

So, what is the difference? Skinny in the 30's; big now?

Could it be that the people in the soup lines from the 30s were actually served SOUP, while today's poor are fed macaroni and cheese or french fries or carbohydrates because they are CHEAP foods?

The dilemma here is that we are trying to solve the problem of poverty and hunger, but we create another huge health crises; obesity and diabetes.

No easy anwers.