S.C. man starves to death after losing job.

[dgibby]

ANDERSON — A South Carolina deputy coroner say a man who disappeared shortly after losing his job starved to death.

Multiple media outlets reported that the body of 39-year-old David Scott Condon was found in a tent near Lake Hartwell on Saturday night. Anderson County Deputy Coroner Charlie Boseman says Condon died of malnutrition and pneumonia. He had been dead less than 24 hours when he was found.

http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2009/sep/09/coroner-man-found-starved-death-tent/

I have no words.:cry: :grr:

On edit: I found another, more indepth article:

http://www.independentmail.com/news/2009/sep/08/anderson-mans-death-leaves-questions/

This is an article from a local Anderson source, with interviews of people who knew him.

[Pool Hall Ace]

1. I wonder what those who insist

that the United States is the "greatest nation on Earth" would say regarding a man starving to death after losing his job.

This is so tragic, I have no words either. :cry:

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

3. Unemployment compensation? Food stamps? Soup kitchens?

People don't starve to death in the United States because of a lack of food.

[Craftsman]

5. I was asking the same question?

I pass a food bank and soup kitchen on my 25 mile drive to work every day.

[undeterred]

Maybe he didn't have a car.

Much of the country has no public transportation. Believe it or not, people don't always know where to go or what to do to get help.

[cliffordu]

53. I'm sure he could have walked right over there.,

[Warpy]

8. No address, no services

Yes, there are soup kitchens. However, shame is often more powerful than hunger is. With no address, that's all he had, begging at a soup kitchen.

In addition, he fell through the cracks of our shredded health care system. He should have been under treatment for depression, at the very least.

At least they called it starvation instead of just pneumonia or heart failure.

I suppose when it begins to happen more, they'll go back to Depression standards and lie about the true cause of death.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

11. How do you know he didn't have an address?

Yes, there are soup kitchens. However, shame is often more powerful than hunger is. With no address, that's all he had, begging at a soup kitchen.

Nothing in the article indicates that he had no address. It indicates that he "disappeared" and was found in a tent. Who knows why. Furthermore, refusal to access available services is not the same thing as services being unavailable. If the service was available and he failed to make use of it, what exactly are you suggesting should be done?

In addition, he fell through the cracks of our shredded health care system. He should have been under treatment for depression, at the very least.

How do you surmise this? You've got no idea what was wrong with him. He may have even had health care at the time. He may have been depressed. He may have been crazy and thought he could live off the land. You've no way of knowing.

I suppose when it begins to happen more, they'll go back to Depression standards and lie about the true cause of death.

There's a very good reason why you don't hear many stories like this - because it's extremely rare.

[Warpy]

24. How many tents sport mailboxes?

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

39. Does that mean that when I go camping I'm homeless?

Nothing revealed so far indicates that he was kicked out of his house. It indicates that he disappeared.

[Warpy]

50. Is that your primary residence?

Is your house now owned and occupied by someone else?

THINK.

Thank you.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

52. I don't see anything that indicates that either of your assertions are true.

Can you point me to something that does?

[Qutzupalotl]

75. He died partly of pneumonia.

If he had a home to go to, wouldn't you think he'd go?

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

101. Judging by the descriptions we've seen, it appears he had clinical depression...

...as well as other possible medical problems.

[4lbs]

116. Just because he had pneumonia doesn't mean he was homeless. 60,000 people die every year from

pneumonia, and most of them had homes.

Nine years ago I developed pneumonia as one of the illnesses I had when my immune system was severely compromised. I certainly wasn't, and am not, homeless.

[Qutzupalotl]

118. Were you sleeping in a tent at the time?

And if you were, would you go inside?

[Xicano]

83. What? You again?

Why is it every fucking time I see your posts you're beating the same fucking stupid drum against people. Seriously, you ask some seriously dumb questions and make some seriously dumb points.

But, its a free country. Knock yourself out.

:eyes:


n/t

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

102. I object to people hijacking the death of a human being for their personal political beliefs.

So far in this thread we have heard that his death is due to the governor of South Carolina, the lack of an adequate health care system in the United States, the plight of soup kitchens, organized religion, the fact that the food stamp program has been reduced, insufficient public transportation, and the fact that the greedy CEO of his gigantic corporation (even though nobody knows where he worked) laid him off so he could be a "fat cat."

[Wednesdays]

113. Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?

Looks like Disney's Scrooge is a tad early this year.

[Ikonoklast]

97. It doesn't think. It makes noise.

Stupid noises that make sense only to itself.

It will be less noisy here one day.

[Warpy]

98. I think s/he just desperately wants to be off the hook

for not fighting for services for people who lack homes and addresses, who doesn't want to believe s/he is that hardhearted and that the poor guy starved to death because he wanted to.

Then again, it might just be the peculiar blindness of the entitled, who are unable to understand that some of us have spent part or all of our lives without entitlement.

[watrwefitinfor]

20. Yes there are soup kitchens. In my part of South Carolina

where the unemployment rate is around 12 percent or higher, I have learned of one church that runs a soup kitchen. It is open for one meal, one day a week. IF you can get there.

Wat

[Warpy]

26. That's the case in much of the country

Once you're outside the big cities, a handout at somebody's door is the best you can do most days.

It's amazing how many people just don't realize the social safety net is almost as shredded as it was in the early 30s.

Unfortunately, they might be due to find out first hand.

[rbrnmw]

86. I live in Columbia

they limit people's stay in the homeless shelter the food pantry is 1 time every 3 months the soup kitchens are hard to get to and dont serve everyday it can take up to 30 days to receive unemployment it is the same with food stamps if you don't have children 30 days or more we had a man who came to us for help he couldnt get either right away because he had his wallet stolen did not have ID no birth certificate no money to send for a birth certificate he couldnt get his social security card without it. People who assume there are all these resources have never worked with or been homeless. It is very sad that people would assume things they dont have first hand knowledge of.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

94. Thanks for the reality check

I've worked with homeless youth on and off since 1994, and unless you live in a core city, it's not so easy to get free food and other services.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

103. Do they also ration punctuation? n/t

[ArbustoBuster]

114. You have just proven yourself to be a complete troll.

Either argue substantively against the points made in rbrnmw's post or be silent. Since you couldn't argue against her points, you slammed her punctuation. This is a textbook ad hominem attack, and it shows that you are devoid of any possible positive argument in support of your own position.

[Donnachaidh]

12. many of those soup kitchens are running out of funds

People do suffer quietly in this country, and then we have people claiming *they don't starve to death in this country*. :eyes:

[ipaint]

17. Yes, here in america there is a soup kitchen on very corner

and welfare reform didn't cut food stamp allotments.

I face living in a tent every month. There is no help. You know what the wait is for food stamps in FL if you can manage to get through the red tape, get approved and have a cell phone that you can spend a thousand minutes at least to get through to a semi human, 4-6 weeks.
Unemployment compensation same deal on applying only good luck with no address.

"People don't starve for lack of access to food here"...well they do now.

[ipaint]

22. When the Month is Longer Than the Money

When the Month is Longer Than the Money

Billy MacPherson believed that for many of her friends and pantry clientele “the months are longer than the money.” What little income they brought in each month— from work, from Social Security or disability checks, in food stamps or welfare payments— was never quite enough to last a full four-plus weeks. And so they faced an unpalatable choice: try to stretch the family budget to cover the whole month, which involved scrimping on food and missing meals throughout the entire period, or eat semi-decently for the first two or three weeks of the month and pray that something, somehow, would come about to tide them through the lean times at the end.

Once gas prices started going up, food prices also headed north— at least in part because so much corn and arable land was diverted into biofuel production in response to the energy crunch; in part, too, because oil-based fertilizers soared in price and inflation took root throughout the broader economy. In the last years of George W. Bush’s presidency, that lean period at the end of each month began to grow. Instead of a few days, it became a week; then it became ten days, even two weeks. For low-income Americans, wages and government checks lagged far behind inflation, leaving them little choice but to watch as month after month their never particularly munificent purchasing power collapsed.

...By 2008 America’s impoverished classes were, albeit to a lesser extent, facing a similar price-induced hunger. Unlike the destitute of countries such as Ethiopia and the Sudan, who too often went hungry because crops failed and what little food the was got bought up by their richer neighbors, America’s poor were being priced out of a market flush with excess eatables. Theirs was a hunger amid plenty, an inability to buy their way to seats at the most food-laden table in history. At the same time as hungry Milwaukee residents— on false rumors of free food deliveries— were fighting each other for access to hoped-for supplies in the spring of 2008, at the same time as immigrant shoppers in many neighborhoods were stampeding to buy up large bags of rice in the face of rising prices, hot dog–eating and fried asparagus–eating competitions were gaining in popularity from the Coney Island boardwalk in New York to the agricultural town of Stockton, California. One visit to any of these binge-eating orgies would have been enough to put paid to the notion that American hunger, twenty-first-century style, was in any way about the country as a whole facing food shortages. Yes, food prices were rising, but they were rising due to increased energy costs and growing global demand for American food exports rather than in response to a collapse in the nation’s food supply. The country’s growing epidemic of hunger was less a symptom of food market contractions and more one of the stealth spread of poverty and inflation into more and more corners of American life.

http://www.alternet.org/rights/140926/breadline_usa:_why_people_are_going_hungry_in_the_land_of_plenty/

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

34. No, he didn't starve because of lack of access to food.

More than likely he starved due to his mental illnesses.

http://www.sciway.net/org/anderson-sc-homeless-resources.html

He was not in a situation where he couldn't have gotten help.

[undeterred]

55. Well gee whiz, I wonder what he was depressed about?

And since we have free national mental health care that even seeks out homeless people, there's just no excuse for him not getting treatment.

:sarcasm:

[nadinbrzezinski]

56. I know this may be hard for you to grasp

but PEOPLE DO STARVE IN THE US. They also die in ERs from LACK OF TREATMENT

And there is more...
'

We have real crushing poverty that rivals that which I saw as a medic in the ciudades perdidas in Mexico, especially in places like the back country in every state of the Union...

The Nobody starves is pure and sheer propaganda. Here you have a story where that happens and your lying eyes cannot believe it. What you are suffering from is COGNITIVE DISSONANCE... Look the terms up.

[dgibby]

64. I'm guessing anyone who thinks that has never been to Appalachia.

We had patients who would have starved had it not been for emergency intervention. The poverty and illness there is stupefying.

[nadinbrzezinski]

68. I've never been to Apalachia

I just need to go to the nearby Indian Reservation...

But you are right... many people do not realize what is happening along many a country road in this country.

And even in large cities, the buildings may look ok, but inside, ooh boy.

And thanks for working with that population.

[Ladyhawk]

112. Do you understand that depression itself makes it difficult, almost impossible, to

get help for oneself?

[lunatica]

18. I think the pneumonia was probably the killing factor

But it sounds so much more dramatic for the headline to be exaggerated. The body of the article says malnutrition and pneumonia.

[ipaint]

33. Of course

job loss, depression, the resulting loss of health care and home. That situation could never happen here to anyone. More importantly it would never kill someone.

So lets pick these people's lives apart, assume they are all mentally ill, don't know there are fully stocked food banks everywhere, were extremely unlucky to contract pneumonia, and wash our hands of it.

Can't have that kind of drama in the land of plenty.

[marshall]

30. And mental health care

Obviously he was in dire need of some.

[Hippo_Tron]

43. That's a bit of a broad statement...

Do we have an epidemic of people dying of starvation like many third world countries do? No, we don't. Do people starve to death in the United States? Certainly. Do we have a serious problem with hunger and malnutrition? I would say that we do.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

48. Please cite one instance in recent times...

...of an individual starving to death through anything other than:

1) Their own irrational actions (or the actions of their parents if it's a child.)

2) Mental disability of substance dependence issues.

3) Untreated eating disorder.

4) Getting lost in the wilderness.

It just doesn't happen. And in a lot of those cases you're far more likely to die of dehydration than starvation.

[Pool Hall Ace]

46. I didn't read whether or not Mr. Condon had a wife/partner or children.

I am an unemployed female, recently separated from my husband. I visited the local commission for women, but was disappointed to find out that "women" seems to only mean "mothers with young children."

If not for the generosity of friends, I would be in a tent also. Maybe Mr. Condon didn't have friends who could help him.

In fact, if I were to ever become wealthy, I would want to establish a program to allow childfree adults to seek assistance, shelter, and search for jobs with dignity.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

47. From what I've gathered reading various different sources...

...he didn't seem to have a wife, girlfriend, or children, but had friends and family who were concerned about him. Not sure whether they were local, though.

[LanternWaste]

62. I imagine that should...

I imagine that should he have a mailing address to receive govt. subsidies, and had he either private or public transportation to the soup kitchens to receive a meal, and should he be healthy enough despite his pneumonia, your point about "not starving to death in the U.S." may be valid.

However, knowing the state of the poor in the U.S., that's quite a list of presumptions to make...

[AllieB]

66. It's called depression.

Maybe he didn't have the support network to help him both physically and emotionally. This is so sad. :-(

[notadmblnd]

110. Niether article said he starved to death

It said poor nutrition and pneumonia. And yes, the poor do have a problem with access to nutritional food.

[woodsprite]

4. I know some of those kinda people

and they'd just say he didn't try hard enough to find something else.

:cry:

[JonQ]

31. I'm guessing many factors were at play here, most likely

depression is at the top of the list.

You don't starve to death in the US for lack of money. There are options available for people with no money, might not be gourmet but it will prevent malnutrition.

This wasn't a case of an evil careless nation turning it's back on the poor, but rather a very disturbed individual who was not recognized as mentally ill in time. That could happen (and does) in any country.

[Maru Kitteh]

100. Yes, some people DO starve to death in the US for a lack of money

Is it en masse? No. But it DOES happen.

[JonQ]

120. Not really

they starve because they are poor and don't know about/don't utilize programs that provide food for the poor.

Food kitchens exist in every major city and provide free food to the homeless.

[hobbit709]

2. But we're the GREATEST country in the world

Extreme :sarcasm:

[boobooday]

6. A 39 year old man, dying of starvation?

Shame upon us all.

[GCP]

7. Possibly mentally handicapped or suicidally depressed?

Poor guy.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

95. That was my thought, and the pneumonia would have worsened

any mental problems he might have had and made him too weak (or delirious from fever) to go for help, not to mention malnutrition making him more likely to die from pneumonia in the first place.

[Odin2005]

9. "At least we can say that nobody has starved" -Herbert Hoover

[hlthe2b]

10. 39 years old, lost his job, undoubtedly depressed....

and somewhere, from afar, a fat cat CEO looks at this as "collateral damage" to the goal of increased productivity (and large bonuses/profit margin)

RIP, Mr. Condon... Hopefully, your tragic death will not be in vain.

[kctim]

32. While every night, millionaire celebrities and politicians

are eating a 14 course meal in one of their 5 houses and complaining that "somebody" needs to help the hungry and homeless.

[Doremus]

41. Correction.

They don't give a single thought to the hungry and homeless.

They might as well not exist in their beautiful world.

[SoCalDem]

65. and when single men of his age, do apply for "services", they are usually turned away

we have compassion for women with children, and for old people, but if you are "young" and male, it's automatically assumed that you can always find enough work to keep yourself alive, or that you will have friends & family to help out.

This man may have had friends and family, but depression and pride may have kept him from asking..

[KansDem]

91. "...but depression and pride may have kept him from asking..."

I'm going to go out on a limb here and ask, "Could this man simply willed himself to die?" We might not ever know that answer, but let's look around at the current situation we are all facing: loss of jobs, loss of health care, loss of home, loss of savings/security...mounting debt and families breaking up due to stress. All of this in combination makes for a pretty miserable life, especially if the future looks dimmer and dimmer every day.

Perhaps this man just couldn't see any more reason to continue...

I wondering if we'll see more of this.

[charlie]

13. Medical history of seizures and depression

There's a pic of him here:

http://www.helpfindthemissing.org/forum/showthread.php?t=16079

If the pic is recent, the guy might not have eaten the whole month he was missing. Sad, so sad.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

14. More information

http://www2.wspa.com/spa/news/local/article/authorities_in_anderson_search_flights_buses_for_missing_man/25007/

After a K-9 assisted search in Anderson, authorities will search flights and buses for a missing man.

Anderson Police say David Scott Condon was reported missing August 1.

Condon is a 39-year-old white male, 5’5” 185 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes.

Police do not suspect foul play, but say Condon has a medical history of seizures and depression. He has not had any contact with family members since his disappearance.

So it looks like the guy had issues.

[Are_grits_groceries]

23. If he got depressed enough,

he may have just laid down and died. The pneumonia would have contributed somewhere along the line.

I have been very depressed at times, but luckily I still had a place to live and people around. If not,.....

[dgibby]

35. The comments on this article say it all.

He had friends and family who loved and missed him. According to a second article I added to my original post, he was very good at his job, and well-liked there, as well. So sad.

[varelse]

109. He had health problems

I know some people like to pretend otherwise, but that doesn't mean mental health problems don't exist, can't be treated, or are merely symptoms of moral or personal failure.

Sometimes, untreated mental health problems kill people, as is likely the case here (although we can't really be sure). In a society with universal access to health care, this would be considered an avoidable death. Here, it's more like inevitable. And people accept this inevitability. They blame the victims and sneer at the unfortunate. It's like a disease in itself, this total lack of comprehension, empathy, or compassion.

[stray cat]

15. It says he died from pneumonia - easy to catch while homeless.

[stray cat]

16. Many with dementia suffer a similar fate as they forget to eat or forget how

[Mari333]

19. rural areas dont have access to urban soup kitchens

there are a LOT of people in my county, that, if they ran of food, would be shit outta luck . We dont have a soup kitchen closer then 50 miles from here. One night a week ONE church out of 85 or so has a free dinner. There are food pantries, but not everyone has a car. Yes, a lot of people are mentally challenged or are very very old. My one friend who works for senior services keeps an eye on people as best as she can but many fall through the cracks.

[JanMichael]

25. Anderson, SC isn't rural

Lake Hartwell is a popular lake for weekenders, and is close to several colleges.

This is just a tragedy.

[Are_grits_groceries]

29. It's not flat ground for miles around.

There would have been plenty of places to make a camp that wouldn't be seen. Not may people are going to go nosing into the woods if they are there for the lake.

Boaters spotted the tent. That is a huge lake, and he could have been anywhere.

[JanMichael]

70. Yep. I agree with that. But, it's not "rural" in the sense that

he couldn't have found some type of services to ask for help. Seriously sad; says something about this country, eh.

[Posteritatis]

119. And a lot of *urban* areas are trying to shut them down

Hell, "outlaw feeding the homeless" is a new fad in a lot of cities.

(ed. I kna spel gud rilly)

[Samantha]

21. This tragedy happened on The Love Gov's watch

he turned down the stimulus money for the unemployment -- or perhaps that was just the extension of the unemployment benefits? Regardless, people dying from starvation and pneumonia just should not be happening in this Country. It is the 21st Century's version of "America's Shame" rearing its head once again.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

36. He was overruled on that.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/06/04/south.carolina.sanford.stimulus/index.html

Governor Happypants is an asshole, but I fail to see how that is relevant to this situation.

[dgibby]

37. It's only relevant because our "dear leader"

is an arrogant asshole who's callous disregard for his constituents is mind boggling. His pat answer to people who are experiencing these types of difficulties is: "I'll pray for you".

This man could have starved to death in a tent in the front yard of the Governor's Mansion, and Sanford would be too self-absorbed to even notice.

[rbrnmw]

87. I totally agree with that

he would probably say I am praying for you everytime he walked past him

[jeremyfive]

27. I Am Reminded of Ronald Reagan

I am reminded of Ronald Reagan and how he came to New York and held up the Want Ads, stating that there were plenty of jobs going unfilled.

As anyone searching for jobs in New York at that time knew, almost all of those ads were placed by agencies, mostly temporary ones, and were not real. Agencies had the ability then to list jobs that they had filled weeks and months before--those currently listed jobs simply did not exist anymore (as they would regretfully inform you when you called).

But then, Alzheimers was the hallmark of Ronald Reagan--he forgot that Aids even existed, though thousands of Americans were dying.

Ronald Reagan was a monster.

I feel very sorry for this S.C. man--hopefully others will not be taken in by the lies of the right wing.

[deaniac21]

28. This was probably due to mental illness. He disappeared

and his friends couldn't find him.

[dgibby]

38. A deadly combination:

A history of seizure disorder and depression.
Loses his job.
Moves into a tent.
Can't afford his meds or food?
Becomes even more depressed, which interfers with his ability to care for himself, reach out to family/friends.
Becomes malnourshed, which makes him more succeptible to illness.
Develops pneumonia.
Dies.

Many factors contributed to David's untimly demise; however, according to the Coroner's report, cause of death was malnourishment and pneumonia, so in a very real sense, he did starve to death.

[LiberalEsto]

40. Speaking as someone unemployed and depressed

I can see to some extent what he must have been going through.

Compared to this poor man, I'm fortunate. I'm 57 and haven't worked for nearly a year, but my husband has a decent job. When he got laid off a couple of days before last Christmas, he was out of work for more than a month and a half, and we were scared shitless. We went through every penny of our savings, and have absolutely nothing left for a fall-back. My husband's job pays 12% less than he previously earned, but at least he's working. Still, if anything happens to him, heaven forbid, I'll be out on the street.

Like Condon, I have depression, but being unemployed increases existing depression exponentially. You feel useless, worthless, invisible. And ashamed. It's impossible to describe how lousy and useless you feel when you don't have a job and aren't doing your share.

If I didn't have medical problems, I'd be bagging groceries at the supermarket or walking dogs or something. But having painful fibromyalgia, depression and back problems doesn't qualify me for disability. And if it weren't for the three anti-depressants I take daily, I probably wouldn't be here at all.

But like I said, I'm extremely fortunate compared to this poor guy.

[dgibby]

49. I have a friend here in SC with those exact same symptoms.

She had to hire a lawyer, but she got disability.

[RaleighNCDUer]

42. It would be technically incorrect to say he starved to death -

he was severely weakened by malnutrition (but did have food available, as evidenced by the unopened pack of Chik-Fil-A sauce) and when he was hit by the pneumonia he was unable to get out and get help. When you come down with pneumonia it's hard to walk even if you are well-nourished.

But no doubt, malnutrition (not starvation) was a big contributor.

[WI_DEM]

44. I was thinking the same thing.

[dgibby]

45. No telling how long that sauce had been there,

or how long since his last meal.

[RaleighNCDUer]

51. Have you ever been really, really hungry?

If he had been literally starving, that packet would not have been there. Even that trivial bit of sauce is food, and he'd have sucked it from the packet if he was hungry enough. I've been there, or close to it. I know. Go to a fast food joint and buy an order of fries, then load up on a couple dozen packets of catsup and mustard and sugar to make a meal of it.

I suspect he'd been spare-changing enough to get a meal a day or so from fast food, which left him malnourished, and thus susceptible to the pneumonia. Then, he got so sick he couldn't leave the tent and tried to sleep it off, and subsequently suffocated because of the pneumonia.

You can survive, albeit malnourished, on one sandwich a day, and it's not hard to panhandle two or three bucks. He didn't starve to death. He died for lack of healthcare.

[armyowalgreens]

58. Malnourishment contributed to his death. This is not simply lack of healthcare.

[Hannah Bell]

59. he died for lack of a job.

& i'd bet shame is why he was camping & hadn't talked to his friends.

[polly7]

115. Sorry, I happen to disagree.

I've picked people up who were clinically depressed, .... a fridge containing food, rotten and not ... yet so dehydrated and malnourished they'd have died given another day or two. People give up, the depression makes it impossible for them to even get out of bed, let alone fix a sandwich or think to get enough fluids. It does happen.

[Cleita]

60. Also, fever makes you not hungry. He probably was dehydrated and

died because there was no one to look after him. He should have been able to go to a hospital. I wonder how many homeless die because they couldn't call an ambulance to save them.

[Generic Other]

61. I had it...couldn't walk three steps

You are right. I would have starved in his situation because I could not have moved to even get help.

[JackDragna]

54. "Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?"

The greatest tragedy of Reaganomics is the complete abrogation of our responsibility to the poor.

[Rex]

57. Shortly? He must have been starving while working.

You don't just starve to death right away. It is a wasting away type thing. Poor fella, I wish this country cared more about the homeless and downtrodden. Sigh.

[dgibby]

63. He had been missing since Aug 1st.

Autopsy revealed no food in his stomach.

[Are_grits_groceries]

67. Hunger Fact Sheet

Hunger Fact SheetWho We Are
America's Second Harvest -- The Nation's Food Bank Network is now named Feeding America. We are the country's leading domestic hunger-relief organization, with a network of more than 200 regional member food banks serving all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Each year, we provide food to more than 25 million low-income Americans, including more than 9 million children and nearly 3 million seniors.

The Feeding America network secures and distributes nearly 2 billion pounds of donated food and grocery products annually. Our efforts support approximately 63,000 local charitable agencies operating more than 70,000 programs including food pantries, soup kitchens, emergency shelters, after-school programs, and Kids Cafes.

Who We Help
The Feeding America Network provides emergency food assistance to more than 25 million Americans in need every year.


Ethnic Background of Clients
40%are white
38% are African American
17% are Hispanic
5% are American Indian or Alaskan Native
0.5% are native Hawaiian or orther Pacific Islander
1.0% are Asian
Poverty
According to our most recent hunger study, 66% of all Feeding America client households have annual household incomes at or beneath the poverty line. (Hunger in America 2006; Table 5.8.4.1)
17.5% of all client households have annual incomes between 100% and 185% of the federal poverty level. (Hunger in America 2006; Table 5.8.4.1)
6.2% have annual incomes of 186% of poverty or more. (Hunger in America 2006; Table 5.8.4.1)
The number of people below the poverty threshold numbered 36.5 million in 2006, a rate of 12.3% of all Americans. (U.S. Census Bureau, Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2006)
The average annual income in 2004 among client households served by the Feeding America Network was $11,210. (Hunger in America 2006; Table 5.8.4.1 )
Food Insecurity
An estimated 35.5 million Americans are food insecure; meaning their access to enough food is limited by a lack of money and other resources. (USDA/ERS, Household Food Security in the United States: 2006)
41.5% of all client households served by the Feeding America Network reported having to choose between buying food and paying for utilities or heat within the previous 12 months. (Hunger in America 2006; Table 6.5.1)
More than one-third (35%) of client households reported having to choose between paying for food and paying their rent or mortgage. (Hunger in America 2006; Table 6.5.1)
Nearly one-third (31.6%) of client households reported having to choose between paying for food and paying for medicine or medical care. (Hunger in America 2006; Table 6.5.1)
5.9% of households with seniors (1.59 million households) were food insecure. (USDA/ERS, Household Food Security in the United States: 2006)
Children
Over 9 million children are estimated to be served by the Feeding America Network, over 2 million of which are ages 5 and under, representing nearly 13% of all children under age 18 in the United States and over 72% of all children in poverty. (Hunger in America 2006; Table 5.3.2N)
According to the USDA, an estimated 12.6 million children lived in food insecure households in 2006. (USDA/ERS, Household Food Security in the United States: 2006)
Proper nutrition is vital to the growth and development of children, particularly for low-income children. 62% of all client households with children under the age of 18 participated in a school lunch program, but only 13% participated in a summer feeding program that provides free food when school is out. (Hunger in America 2006; Table 7.4.1 )
51% of client households with children under the age of 3 participated in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). (Hunger in America 2006; Table 7.4.1)
Nearly 41% of emergency food providers in the Feeding America Network reported "many more children in the summer" being served by their programs. (Hunger in America 2006; Table 10.9.1)
Emergency food assistance plays a vital role in the lives of low-income families. In 2002, over half of the nonelderly families that accessed a food pantry at least once during the year had children under the age of 18. (Urban Institute, Many Families Turn to Food Pantries for Help, November 2003)
Seniors
The Feeding America Network serves nearly 3 million seniors age 65 and over each year, 2 out of every 10 households served by our network contains at least one member age 65 and over (Hunger in America 2006; Table 5.3.2N).
83.3% of all households with seniors served by the Feeding America Network have annual incomes below 130% of the federal poverty level. (Hunger in America 2006; Table 15.3.5)
30.8% of client households with seniors had to choose between buying food and paying for utilities and heating fuel. (Hunger in America 2006; Table 15.5.2)
Among client households with seniors, nearly 30% have had to choose between paying for food and paying for medical care. (Hunger in America 2006; Table 15.5.2)
Among client households with at least one senior member, 27.4% are served at program sites located in center cities, 25% are served at program sites located in suburban areas, and 18.1% are served at program sites located in rural areas. (Hunger in America 2006; Table 15.4.3)
Working Poor
Nearly half of all non-elderly low-income families that used a food pantry in 2001 consisted of working families with children. (Urban Institute, Many Families Turn to Food Pantries for Help, November 2003)
36% of client households served by the Feeding America Network include at least one employed adult. (Hunger in America 2006; Table 5.7.1)
The average monthly income of client households in 2005 was $860, or 75% of the federal poverty level. Overall, clients indicated that a job was the main source of income for their households for the previous month. (Hunger in America 2006; Table 5.8.2.1 and Table 5.8.3.1)
66% of all client households served by the Feeding America Network have annual incomes below the federal poverty line for 2004.
46% of client’s households do not have access to a working car. (Hunger in America 2006; Table 5.9.2.1)
Rural Hunger
42.6% of adult clients served by programs in the Feeding America Network reside in suburban or rural areas. (Hunger in America 2006; Table 5.2.1)
28.5% of client households served in nonmetropolitan areas reported that their children often or sometimes did not eat enough during the past year because there was not enough money to buy food. (Hunger in America 2006; Table 15.4.1)
12% of rural households are food insecure (low food security and very low food security), an estimated 2.3 million households. (USDA/ERS, Household Food Security in the United States: 2006)
17.5% of all rural households with children are food insecure (low food security and very low food security), an estimated over 1 million children. (USDA/ERS, Household Food Security in the United States: 2006)
According to ERS, more than one out of every three persons living in nonmetro families that are headed by a female is poor. The highest poverty rate by type of family is for female-headed, nonmetro families. (USDA/ERS, Rural Income, Poverty and Welfare)
Counties with disproportionately high rates of persistent poverty are often rural, with 340 of 386 persistent poverty counties primarily rural. (USDA/ERS, Rural Income, Poverty and Welfare)

Food Facts
The Feeding America Network of over 200 food banks and food rescue organizations distributed nearly 2 billions pounds of food and grocery products in 2005.

529 million pounds from national product donors
478 million pounds from US Government programs
904 million pounds from local product donors
206 million pounds from purchase programs
The USDA estimates 96 billion pounds of food are wasted each year in the United States. Real Stories
http://feedingamerica.org/newsroom/hunger-fact-sheet.aspx

Somebody on this thread wanted one example of a death by hunger. Does someone have to die????

These facts are shameful.

[generous ginger]

69. I haven't read the article, so perhaps I am missing something here:

there is probably way more to the story. He probably went into a major depression. You cannot starve to death in America. I have a friend who's a social worker and she told me that in our city they have soup wagons! She said that if she ever becomes homeless, she'll know where to go.

[JanMichael]

72. "You cannot starve to death in America." You must be joking

seriously. Do you remember the article about the doctors in Boston treating malnourished children every single day?

[generous ginger]

78. I said 'starve to death.' Those children could be obese; malnourishment

just means that you are not getting proper nutrients, not that you are not stuffing your face.

[nadinbrzezinski]

74. Yes you can and people do

the further you go away from cities the less of a social net we have.

But keep thinking you cannot starve...

Cognitive dissonance is real...

[generous ginger]

79. Well, I imagine that someone in very far-flung areas may be at slight risk

so I take back my statement.

[nadinbrzezinski]

81. You do not have to be far flung

the social safety net is simply quite shattered even in larger cities.

[dgibby]

96. Far flung?

There are whole neighborhoods in the inner cities who have no access to grocery stores. The only food they can buy is from the 7-11 type stores. No fresh fruit, no fresh veggies. No wonder there's an obesity epidemic in this country!

Another thing that's helping is before and after school programs, in addition to the school lunch programs. If not for that, there would be a lot more children in harm's way.

What about the homeless? Many of them are eating out of dumpsters.

What's going on in this country is a crime against humanity, a sort of creeping genocide against the poor, and it's getting worse everyday.

[Quantess]

77. I agree with you that there was probably mental illness, possibly severe depression.

And that does not detract from the tragedy at all.

[generous ginger]

82. Well, you are correct, but I took the gist of the OP to mean

that it is unbelievable that someone could starve to death in America and I am skeptical of that as a reality.

[Kalyke]

71. I used to work at the Anderson Independent Mail.

FWIW.

[dgibby]

76. It was the most in depth article I could find.

They put a human face on the story, instead of just reporting a statistic.

I took journalism classes in high school and college. Would have loved to have been a journalist.

My aunt and uncle were owners and editors of 2 weekly papers in Va. Used to love to watch them set type, etc.

[Are_grits_groceries]

73. I want to invite any of you to meet me in NE SC,

and I will take you around the area. I'll introduce you to people I know, and you can ask them about soup kitchens and food wagons.
Hell, you can try to find anywhere for them to work within miles or even a place to shop.

I heard that asshole Sanford take a call on the radio from a man who was in a horrible situation. You could hear the desperation about his family in his voice.

That good Christian Sanford told him he would pray for him. You can't eat prayers!!!!!

[nadinbrzezinski]

80. Trust me some of us do understand

I could invite many of these folks to the Local INDIAN reservation, or South East San Diego

We have more of a social network than you do, but not much. Soup kitchens? We have a few, and they are strapped for cash

Food banks? More or less a joke, they are quite bare.

And people still have to chose, what to spend their meager dollars on.

This is a blind spot for many "progressives," and quite a bit of the dissonance that exists in the country. IT COULD NOT happen here... after all, if we believed it could, then it could happen to US.

Also the dream is contradicted by the reality, and the crushing poverty that does exist in the country.

I usually tell people who cannot imagine what crushing poverty looks like (lets spare the smell, it has its particular smell), to watch District Nine... it MIGHT BE A TOWNSHIP IN SOUTH AFRICA, but we have that level of poverty here in the United States.

[Are_grits_groceries]

85. I know some people do understand.

Some people are just willfully ignorant apparently.

[dgibby]

89. Meet me in Appalachia,

where people are living down dirt roads way back in the mountains. They live in tarpaper shacks with no indoor plumbing, contaminated drinking water, outhouses. No warm clothes, no shoes, not enough food, no health care,no dental care.

I once took care of a woman who came in so weak she was unable to stand. She looked to be in her fifties, but was in her late twenties. Her abdomen was so swollen we thought she was at least 8 months pregnant. She wasn't.
She was emaciated, skin and bone, hair thinning and dull, teeth in terrible shape.

They got their drinking water from a stream. Unfortunately, the outhouse was upstream from the house.

Too sick to walk to the bathroom, I put her on a bedpan. Imagine my surprise when I found the bedpan filled with the largest worm I have ever seen before or since. It was the size of a large snake.

The doctors said that she would have starved to death in a matter of a week or so had she not gotten to the hospital when she did.

Another patient, a young child, almost died from a kidney infection. She was passing bright red blood in her urine, but it had gone unnoticed because she was using the outhouse. We got her just in time.

The problem in this country is that "starvation" is not listed as cause of death, but it very much is an underlying cause. Lack of food leads to malnourishment, which leads to a weakened immune system, which leads to disease, which, left untreated, leads to death.

[Are_grits_groceries]

90. I've been through there.

People just don't want to see what is right in front of them.

[Enrique]

84. I wonder if Gov. Sanford will read this story

or is he too busy with his personal situation.

Maybe he can reconsider his position on the stimulus money he refused?

[Are_grits_groceries]

88. He's too busy running around the state

and explaining and apologizing.

We got the stimulus money, but he fought it to the bitter end.

[dgibby]

93. Yeah,

that ended up in the state Supreme Court. Imagine what could have been done with the money spent litigating that.

[rbrnmw]

99. Come to Columbia go try to get all the resources you seem to think are available

The budgets are tight we have dropped in donations it is a nightmare for the hole state we have one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, People who end up homeless are at higher risk for crime we have several places in the area that people live in tents, they have what little they do own stolen If your identification is lost or stolen you have a whole other nightmare on your hands they want ID at the shelters and food banks. Please I invite you to come see for yourself, It is a real wakening and I hope there is a special place in hell for those who think these people are lazy crazy or criminals they are not some are sure but the majority are quite like normal Americans have the same hopes and dreams they are humans not some freaks of nature

[dgibby]

107. Same thing going on in Charleston.

And the rest of the state, for that matter. Things are grim, indeed.

[depakid]

92. Rugged individualism

[yawnmaster]

104. Not 100% sure, but sounds like he went off someplace to die.

tough to handle that case. someone would have had to notice his depression.

[Liberal_in_LA]

105. agreed. Plenty of places to get food.

[baldguy]

106. In America, being poor is a crime punishable by death.

[HughBeaumont]

108. This is what happens when survival is entirely tethered to gainful employment.

Our social safety net is for BEANS compared to other countries.

[Hugabear]

111. Oh come on. Even our poorest have HDTV, cable TV, and two cars.

Or so the rethugs would have us believe.

:sarcasm:

[liberalla]

117. So sad...

and unnecessary. :cry: