Starving Children In America

[mikey4444]

Just seen this on the BBC News website. I could hardly hold back the tears. This, in the worlds richest country, in a city where countless millions of dollars is wasted each year on slot machines :::

http://www.bbc.co.uk/panorama/hi/front_page/newsid_9695000/9695217.stm

[sara3]

we're doing a food collection at work, for a local food bank in an affluent part of London. I feel a little cynical, but if someone needs it I'm happy to donate.

[Tilly2]

One of my relatives volunteers to work in a Food Bank in a deprived area of her town. People who come for parcels of food tend to be those who have fallen on hard times and they all have to have a referral from social services, doctors, teachers etc. They are only allowed to receive three separate parcels of food. They cannot turn up on a weekly basis.

[sara3]

I didn't know that Tilly. I hope they're all run along the same lines

[puternut]

Whilst I agree with the sentiment the 'news' is actually dated February last year.

I also know there is a 'poverty' problem in the UK where even benefits claimants are struggling - and before all the moaners start it does exist as I know from not personal but near relative ecpierience.

[mikey4444]

Naomi...wrong, wrong wrong. The Food Bank where I help out is part of the Trussel Trust. You just can't turn up and get a free hand out. This will explain all.
http://www.trusselltrust.org/

[emmie]

don't be poor and black, that is a very sad but true expression, i heard from any number of people whilst there, we have our own poor, London has plenty, some who use the free food outlets, run by sally army, or any number of charities. Shameful in this day and age for people to go hungry, no matter where they live.

[woofgang]

Naomi, in the Uk, it depends on the foodbanks. Some only accept people who have a referral from a statutory service or charity, some want to see evidence of hardship. Very few just hand stuff out to anyone.
Needy poor in the Us is not new. I lived in NJ 20 years ago in a very wealthy area, the supermarkets used to have food drives for the local homeless and when we left, a friend of ours too all our non perishable food to a family he knew who lived near his vacation cabin and were on the breadline.

[emmie]

as afar as i know you have to be referred if you want to use the foodbanks, by a doctor or someone in social services.

[mikey4444]

The point of my original post early this morning was to point out what is happening to the poorest people in an otherwise wealthy city, in a very wealthy country. We also live in a wealthy country...count how many BMW's, Mercedes, Audi's, etc you see next time you drive anywhere. I don't wish to blow my own trumpet here but if I can help out with a Food Bank, and I am in no way wealthy, believe me, than so can other people. A small amount given by enough people would make an awful lot of difference to pretty miserable lives.

I heard Bill Gates on Saturday Live this morning. Thank goodness for him and other Americans like him. How do you nominate somebody for a Nobel prize ?

[Sqad]

I realise that this not the point of the question but it is related.

In the UK at the start of the Welfare State ..say the 50's.....there were no starving children, no food banks needed ( as far as i was aware)....so what has happened in the last half century announce the need for these handouts?

[emmie]

no one went hungry in the 1950's, are you sure about that.

[Sqad]

em....I am talking about the UK and just giving my experience....no, as far as i was aware......nobody went hungry.

[emmie]

for one thing rationing was still on, for another there were dire shortages of many things, many of the men didn't come home from the war, so women who were bereaved would have likely struggled. Our family wasn't well off, in fact we were pretty well down the food chain, we didn't starve, but we didn't eat all that well either. And most of the families i grew up with fared the same, even though most were in work.

[emmie]

sqad, so am i.

[Sqad]

em.......OK, so when did this "hunger" aspect of our lives with the associated "handouts," arrive?.........roughly 70's 80's when?

[albaqwerty]

Over the decades, people have gone hungry, usually the parents so they can feed their child(ren)

The Beeb news a couple of weeks ago said that 500,000 were needing to go to foodbanks.

21st century UK, yeah, great place to live.
The need is for foodbanks, is lack of income, rent/mortgage needs to be paid, then there's the cost of heating a home, then the cost of food.

Different subject altogether, but the minimum wage has a lot to answer for. IMO

[ummmm]

Absolute tosh, Sqad.

[emmie]

my mother did to feed us, she was the last to get food, not always putting much on her plate, she didn't starve, but all of us struggled, this wasn't the 1970's either but long before. Many of the families were in the same boat, they all worked, but in low paid jobs, no one had a life of luxury, and many did without.

[mikey4444]

Sqad...I appreciate your point. I was born in 1953 and I never heard of anyone starving but society was very different back then. For instance, we had pretty much 0% unemployment.

But your general point holds I would have thought. The Welfare State does seem to have left a significant amount of people in Britain poorer, which on the face of it is odd and doesn't make sense.

On the subject of Food Banks, my experience over the last 18 months that I have been involved is that it isn't only young single mothers who appear at our door. We are seeing an increasingly larger proportion of older people who have lost their job and the welfare money is either not kicked in yet, or is inadequate. We are also seeing lots of older single men, who are in work but are paid so little or have so few hours, or a combination of the two, and just don't qualify for enough, or in some cases any benefits at all. This last group seem genuinely ashamed to be appearing at our side door.

[ummmm]

Were kids still suffering from rickets in the 50's?