Posted on 11/04/2002 2:15:15 PM PST by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
| Table talk Breakdown by ethnicity of households using the San Francisco Food Bank: 35% Chinese 22% white 18% black 9% Hispanic 7% Filipino 3% Korean 2% Vietnamese |
The UCLA phone survey found that of San Francisco households without enough to eat, only 21 percent are in the government's food stamp program, which can provide an average of $79 per person per month for groceries, according to the survey.
"The food stamp program is the big dog of eating programs, and it needs to be reformed," said Paul Ash, executive director of the San Francisco Food Bank.
While children may take advantage of the free lunch program at school, the rest of the family suffers, Ash said.
"Oftentimes children are the only ones to get food stamps in a household, leaving parents, grandparents and others without a key source of food."
Why would hungry families resist food stamps? Ash said it mostly has to do with the arduous 18-page application and the fact that every adult member of the family must be fingerprinted to qualify.
Another barrier is that anyone owning a car worth more than $4,600 does not qualify, which eliminates many landscapers or painters who need a pick-up truck to do their jobs.
While politicians bicker over The City's notorious homeless problem, the less visible but more pervasive problem of hunger is growing at an alarming rate, Ash said. The number of clients using food pantries has grown 12 percent during the past year, to 41,000. And with San Francisco's astronomical cost of living, even those earning $30,000 a year, twice the federal poverty level, are having trouble getting enough to eat.
"These are people you would not know are hungry," said Ash. "These are people you know -- the busboy in the restaurant, the guy behind the counter in the hotel. You know them, but I don't think you realize their predicament."
In fact, 28.8 percent of city residents making $30,000 still suffer from "food insecurity" and struggle to put enough food on the table. About 10 percent of those worried about going hungry actually suffer from hunger.
The study showed that Bay Area layoffs directly fueled the growing problem. Of the families using the food bank, 36 percent had someone in their family lose a job or face reduced work hours during the past year. Thirty-one percent have at least one member working.
Of the families surveyed, 41 percent include children and 64 percent include a member over 65.
I'm not sure. I will count the dead bodies along the roadside tomorrow on the way to work and post a report.
I also wonder where all the homeless people go to live every time a Democrat is elected president. Eight years of Clinton and the press could not find a single homeless person to write about. As soon as a Republican is elected, starving homeless people are a big issue.
I always wondered what happened to Ash. It's not the same around here without him and Don Morgan's ASH ALERTS. :>)
Good question. And where are all the (any?)pictures of this "Calcutta by the Bay"?
We can provide "fairness" and balance to the discussion by linking to recent threads in the FR archives.
Nearly a Third of Adults Rated Obese On 10/08/2002
New Law Seeks To Reduce Obesity On 09/23/2002
Month after month, it's feast or famine in the good ol' U. S. of A.!!!
Maybe but not necessarily from the reason sited in this article. When people are old and living alone they can quit or even just forget to eat.
a.cricket
Bernie Goldberg made this point in his best seller "Bias."
Hard to believe the guy who cleans the table wouldn't "clean the plates."
You have to take into consideration: he knows how it was prepared back in the kitchen.
I thought there was a standard solution to this problem - get the hungry to eat the homeless. Alternatively, the Gay City could perhaps stop paying people to be hungry or homeless.
This is a very odd statement, did the children EAT the food 'stamps' card!? If the family gets the food stamps for the children and shop wisely, there will be enough for them all!
I once knew someone on food stamps and she and her two young children got more than they could ever use. She actually gave food to other people!!
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