Today, the AP reported that: "More than one in seven American households struggled to put enough food on the table in 2008, the highest number since the U.S. Department of Agriculture began tracking food security levels in 1995. That's 14.6 percent of U.S. households, or about 49 million people. The numbers are a significant increase from 2007, when 11.1 percent of U.S. households suffered from what USDA classifies as 'food insecurity'—not having enough food for an active, healthy lifestyle."The numbers for 2009 are anticipated to be even worse because of escalating unemployment and the lingering recession.
What does this mean for White Center families? Hunger and food insecurity are likely to be even worse here than in King County as a whole because one in three WC families live in poverty as opposed to one in five in KC. And you know from reading this blog that childhood hunger is rampant.
Folks: White Center is a small community. It has a population of a little over 20,000. Not too overwhelming. Do you think we can resolutely come together to work toward mitigating hunger or even "just" childhood hunger in this one small area of our world? And not just by giving to the White Center Food Bank, although that is very good and necessary help indeed...but by deciding to act on the belief that our neighbor's and our neighbor's child's wellbeing is as important as our own?
Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack is quoted in this AP article as saying "This [USDA] report suggests its time for America to get very serious about food security and hunger." No kidding. We'd love to hear your ideas for making sure that at the very least, WC children do not go hungry. We've got a couple ideas of our own, but the more brains that are involved in this venture, the better. Stay tuned for more details...and please join the conversation.
