With this new image comes a new lexicon: In 2006 the U.S. In the United States more than half of hungry households are white, and two-thirds of those with children have at least one working adult-typically in a full-time job. “Today more working people and their families are hungry because wages have declined.” “This is not your grandmother’s hunger,” says Janet Poppendieck, a sociologist at the City University of New York. The image of hunger in America today differs markedly from Depression-era images of the gaunt-faced unemployed scavenging for food on urban streets. “It’s Not Enough” Christina Dreier describes the difficulty of feeding her family on an inadequate budget.Ĭhances are good that if you picture what hunger looks like, you don’t summon an image of someone like Christina Dreier: white, married, clothed, and housed, even a bit overweight. “We have to eat, you know,” she says, only the slightest hint of resignation in her voice. Bills go unpaid because, when push comes to shove, food wins out. Running the errand would mean forgoing overtime pay that could go for groceries. It’s peak harvest time, and he often works until eight at night, applying pesticides on commercial farms for $14 an hour. But that will happen only if Jim finishes work early. She and Jim need to open a new bank account so they can make automatic payments instead of scrambling to pay in cash. On this particular afternoon Dreier is worried about the family van, which is on the brink of repossession. Congressional cuts to SNAP last fall of five billion dollars pared her benefits from $205 to $172 a month. She and her husband, Jim, pit one bill against the next-the phone against the rent against the heat against the gas-trying always to set aside money to make up for what they can’t get from the food pantry or with their food stamps, issued by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The fear of being unable to feed her children hangs over Dreier’s days. “I eat lunch if there’s enough,” she says. She’s gone through most of the food she got last week from a local food pantry her own lunch will be the bits of potato left on the kids’ plates. She shakes the last seven chicken nuggets onto a battered baking sheet, adds the remnants of a bag of Tater Tots and a couple of hot dogs from the fridge, and slides it all into the oven. Keagan ignores the school breakfast on offer and is so hungry by lunchtime that Dreier picks through the dregs of her freezer in hopes of filling him and his little sister up. Dreier knows her gambit might backfire, and it does.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |