Hunger in New York

It will be difficult for those who believe in an American paradise to

accept that the United States has a steadily increasing percentage of

citizens without access to sufficient food.

The Hunger Index shows that consumption dropped one percent last

October in what was the largest fall since the recession in 2001. At

the time, this fact was overshadowed by media bombardment covering the

attack of the twin towers. The GDP of the United States is close to 10

billion dollars and of that number, internal consumption constitutes

75 percent (7.5 billion dollars). One percent is 75 million dollars.

In the middle of the recession of a failing economy, this is

unsurprising. Unemployment is increasing considerably, and those with

jobs are opting to save their money rather than spend it in order to

prepare for an uncertain future.

This is further evidenced by a number supplied by the Department of

Commerce: long-standing commercial orders have fallen by 6.2%.

Of course, the distribution of wealth remains in the middle of the

crisis. There are thousands of U.S. citizens who are not deprived of

anything while millions lack essentials.

The Coalition Against Hunger revealed that the quantity of people with

insufficient food in New York increased 28% over the last year. The

lines for soup kitchens have grown scandalously. George W. Bush’s

government gave 700 billion dollars to resolve the problems of the

bank owners who had enormous capital – who, from an outside

perspective, unleashed the crisis – and reduced the amount assigned to

social security.

This is Bush’s idea of a “rescue” which he has applied to the U.S.

economy. This does not help those with minimal incomes, evidenced by

the fact that 68.8% of soup kitchens and food pantries (which provide

one meal per day) have announced that they have insufficient funds to

supply what food is needed.

According to 87% of the organizations surveyed, the number of people

who need to use soup kitchens has increased significantly in the last

few months.

The recession is in full swing and every day brings new reports of

banks declaring bankruptcy, factories closing and people becoming

unemployed. It seems that the crisis will continue to worsen.

Joel Berg, executive director of the Coalition Against Hunger, stated:

“The bad news is that we have more agencies than ever running out of

food. The hunger situation which was truly awful in 2007 has now

reached crisis proportions.”