What’s wrong with America’s moral compass?
Posted by Michael McKenna on Thursday, October 21, 2010
What’s wrong with America’s moral compass?
Over the weekend, my mom sent me an article called “A Portrait of Hunger” from my hometown newspaper, The Philadelphia Inquirer. At Share Our Strength’s exciting Conference of Leaders, we discussed the great work our organization and our partners has done so far to fight hunger in America and the dynamic plan we have to take us even further on behalf of families and children in need. While I was still feeling the extraordinary energy from that event, this article served as a crushing reminder of how great the need remains and how important the No Kid Hungry campaign is for this country.
The Inquirer article chronicles the trials of several families in Pennsylvania’s 1st Congressional District who are barely getting by, burdened down by one of the worst manifestations of poverty – hunger.
By the time I finished reading, I was livid! Livid because that kind of human suffering exists in our own backyards, in a country whose economy is 14 trillion dollars. Livid because a 2-year old in the “City of Brotherly Love” is eating a slice of American cheese as a meal…..and she’s at least six pounds underweight, condition that could affect her human potential for the rest of her life. Livid because a mother of three boys is contemplating suicide because being unable to provide adequate nutrition for her children and herself has ravaged her sense of self-worth. Livid because the U.S. Census Bureau is reporting the staggering growth in poverty in this country, and yet Congress adjourns to head out on the campaign trail without passing a Child Nutrition Reauthorization Bill.
Please read this article. And find out about stories like this in your own community. And if what you learn makes you angry like it has for me, channel that anger and use it to help us on the No Kid Hungry campaign. Start by taking the No Kid Hungry Pledge. Because hungry kids and frustrated parents are our neighbors and their suffering is real. And that truth is a stain on the identity of our country, a country whose Constitution pledges all of us to “promote the general Welfare”.
October 21, 2010 | 0 comment(s) | Tags: Child Nutrition Reauthorization, extreme poverty, hunger
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