But seriously, I've seen it first-hand and in really rough conditions. My wife's first job was a kindergarten teacher in rural South Carolina. She did voluntary home visits and saw the conditions most of the kids lived in. In one case, the family lived in a two-room house (small) with a pile of clothes in the center of the first room. A pig was coming out as she stepped down two feet into the room (dirt floor). The mother's room just had a mattress on the floor.
I visited with her (one of my professors gave me a bunch of toys to take down) at another house. They had, best I could tell, one electrical outlet with extension cords providing electricity to a single hanging light bulb and a 10" or so B&W TV. They were shelling beans that they had grown and wanted to give us about half of them. We politely refused but I think we ended up taking a small handful to be gracious of the offer. I don't remember.
Lunch was the only really solid meal these kids got. The cafeteria workers were mostly grandmothers of the children at the school and they made the best damn food I've ever encountered in not just a school cafeteria, but ANY cafeteria. The cornbread was to die for and there were always a variety of greens, meats, vegetables, taters, and grits. Those kids ate well - THERE. These cafeteria workers did this on a budget that most school districts would laugh at. They worked their asses off to feed the kids and used raw ingredients to create beautiful meals at minimal cost. They served them on plastic plates with stamped steel tableware and washed them by hand after lunch - no disposables other than napkins. This was a school with no paper products (including toilet paper) in the bathrooms and nothing but nubs of crayons, monster cockroaches (black with red heads) everywhere, a rats nest in the wall, etc.
She also taught HeadStart in PA and while the conditions were better, lunch at the classroom was the best meal the kids got for the day. She's also taught at elite schools and now teaches at a private kindergarten/daycare. Most of those kids have a worse diet but aren't hungry - they just eat McFood when they aren't in school and most barely touch the nutritious lunches some days. When I visited her in S.C., there was never a scrap of food left on any plate.
Yes, there is hunger in America - a SHITLOAD of it. Most people haven't seen it, but it is there and in greater quantity than I suspect any of the estimates show.
Edit history
Recommendations
0 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):
= new reply since forum marked as read