Lending a Helping Hand
There have always been organizations that provide help for the needy. Now the economy is going through a downward spiral giving these institutions a greater importance in helping the lives of those who need it. Miami County residents have seen firsthand that some people who live in this area really need the help. The statistical evidence shows that Miami County, Indiana is being affected by the economy. The average salary of a resident in Peru, Indiana ends up being $28,487. (Indiana) That number may not seem profound, but when you have a family to support, the budget gets tight. The normal wage annually for a resident in the state of Indiana is $45,434. (Indiana) That makes it roughly 38% more money than what Miami County residents. If people everywhere in Indiana are having trouble in this economic recession, how can we expect those in Miami County to get by? Luckily for them, many organizations are at their disposal to help not only their lives, but to better the overall community. Miami County has a poverty rate of 22.4%, ranking them among the top fifteen poorest counties in Indiana. Times are already extremely strenuous, but without institutions such as Helping Hands and United Way, the quality of life for Miami County citizens would be unacceptable.
Times are very arduous, and for the people of Miami County, they may become even troublesome. There is hunger everywhere in Miami County. Adults, young and old go without provisions, or enough to support a healthy life. Many families need food for themselves and their children. If the families go to bed at night hungry, it prohibits them from having a successful start the following morning. It will turn into a vicious circle until death or illness comes ...
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....S. Census Bureau. American FactFinder. Web. 14 Sept. 2011. factfinder.census.gov/servlet/STTable?_bm=y>. Manhart, Hershal. Telephone interview. 03 Nov. 2011.
Miami County Helping Hands. Here Is Page Two of the Brochure. Miami County Helping Hands. Miami County Helping Hands. Web. 14 Sept. 2011. .
Miami County Helping Hands. Miami County Helping Hands. n.d. Web. 14 Sept.
2011. .
"United Way of Miami County Mission & Vision Statement." United Way of Miami County Home. United Way of Miami County. Web. 03 Nov. 2011.
"Creating Opportunites for a Better Life for All." United Way of Miami County Home. United Way of Miami County. Web. 04 Nov. 2011. .
There are many policy issues that affect families in today’s society. Hunger is a hidden epidemic and one major issue that American’s still face. It is hard to believe that in this vast, ever growing country, families are still starving. As stated in the book Growing Up Empty, hunger is running wild through urban, rural, and even suburban communities. This paper will explore the differing perspectives of the concerned camp, sanguine camp, and impatient camp. In addition, each camps view, policy agenda, and values that underlie their argument on hunger will be discussed.
In The Working Poor: Invisible in America, David K. Shipler tells the story of a handful of people he has interviewed and followed through their struggles with poverty over the course of six years. David Shipler is an accomplished writer and consultant on social issues. His knowledge, experience, and extensive field work is authoritative and trustworthy. Shipler describes a vicious cycle of low paying jobs, health issues, abuse, addiction, and other factors that all combine to create a mountain of adversity that is virtually impossible to overcome. The American dream and promise of prosperity through hard work fails to deliver to the 35 million people in America who make up the working poor. Since there is neither one problem nor one solution to poverty, Shipler connects all of the issues together to show how they escalate each other. Poor children are abused, drugs and gangs run rampant in the poor neighborhoods, low wage dead end jobs, immigrants are exploited, high interest loans and credit cards entice people in times of crisis and unhealthy diets and lack of health care cause a multitude of problems. The only way that we can begin to see positive change is through a community approach joining the poverty stricken individuals, community, businesses, and government to band together to make a commitment to improve all areas that need help.
Food insecurity is one of the major social problems that we have in our world today. The concern about this problem is the increasing number of people that are beginning to experience hunger more often. “While hunger has long been a public health concern in developing countries, it has received varying degrees of attention in the United States, most notable during the 1930s and 1960s” (Poppendieck 1992). In addition to lack of food, there are consequences that follow. People, especially children, who suffer from food deprivation also undergo some health issues such as malnutrition and obesity, which leads to more health care and hospitalizations. “In the early 1980s, most reports of hunger involved families with children, the elderly, the unskilled and unemployed youth, the mentally ill, the homeless and minorities” (Brown 1992; Nestle and Guttmacher 1992). However, a particular ethnic group that is greatly affected by food insecurities are the Hispanic...
The United States has provided food, shelter and education for the past 75 years. When the Great Depression hit many families suffered. It was estimated that one-fourth of the labor workforce was unemployed during the hardest time of the depression. Many families were living in poverty and needed assistance in order to live through the hard time many were faced...
City Team San Jose is a not-for-profit organization that offers help to those people that are suffering from poverty; addicted to drugs; and are homeless in San Jose, California (City Team San Jose, 2016). This organization provides food, shelter, clothing, and much more to these people, who are in need. City Team San Jose receives all the materials, which it distributes to the needy, as donations from supporters and well-wishers of its mission (City Team San Jose, 2016). The organization has a heritage home that supports homeless and drug-addicted pregnant women during the course of pregnancy to develop into loving mothers (Heritage Home, 2016). City Team San Jose has dining hall whose doors are open to all those in need of meal at any time
At the end, many people may not recognize this problem and maybe the hunger problem that the United States faces may not be as dramatic as in comparison to other countries, but this is only another reason to find and create solutions to stop hunger worldwide; It’s time to educate ourselves about the causes of hunger in America.
“Rising Poverty, Widespread Unemployment: America’s Economic Pain Brings Hunger Pangs.” Global Research. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Dec. 2013.< http://www.globalreasearch.ca/rising-poverty-widespread-unemployment-america-s-economic-plan-brings-hunger-pangs>.
Doug O’Brien, director of public policy and research at Chicago-based Second Harvest, says “’we’ve seen a real shift in who we serve. A decade ago, there were almost always homeless, single men and chronic substance abusers. Now we have children and working families at soup kitchens’” (Koch). These families that are feeling the effects of food insecurity will not be the only ones affected by it, but all of America.
Stillwater, Jane. "HUD "Section 8" Housing: The Revenge of the Trailer Trash?"OpEdNews. N.p., 14 Jan. 2007. Web. 26 Mar. 2014. .
One time, when I was around five, it was night time and I had a school project to turn in the next day, I approached my mother and told her that I needed help with my project. Of course I told her that I had to turn in the project the next day, and she proceeded to scold me for waiting until the last minute to do my work, but never the less she accepted to help me. If I had asked for help when I was five, I must have asked for help later in my life, because I’m sure I’ve needed help many times, and not only from my mother but from friends, teachers, peers, strangers, and family.
...ernment services. Above all else though, the community itself is what should be caring for the hungry. Each individual person should make it a goal to end hunger in East Tennessee because it could be affecting his or her own friends, family, and loved ones. Everyone should strive to end the unnecessary plague.
Although we, as college students, cannot put a stop to this detrimental issue ourselves, we can assist in ceasing the starvation in our local communities. We could conduct fundraisers for struggling families, and place food drives on campus and outside our local grocery stores. As well as fundraisers, we can make sure that more people are aware of how serious this matter is. Hunger is not a selective factor; it is bound to happen to anyone of us. Therefore, we, as a whole, should make an effort to help others as they go through this obstacle because we would want someone to do the same for us or our loved
In the year 2015, around 40 million U.S. citizens were food insecure (Randall para. 3). Food insecurity can be defined in paragraph 3 by “[having] difficulty at some time during the year providing enough food for all their members due to a lack of resources. This 12.7% of American citizens also contains another group - children. Aged 10-17, 6.8 million adolescents struggle with a food insecurity. There have been several years of cuts to the social programs designed to help these people, along with the Great Recession continuing to leave an impact on the U.S. economy (para. 6). Under the Obama administration, $8.6 billion was cut from the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as Food Stamps. From 1993-2001 under the Clinton administration, former President Bill Clinton’s administration “gutted the welfare system” (para. 15). Because of these budget cuts, the families who rely on food assistance from the government have been allotted less throughout the years. From a sociological perspective, the concepts of sociological imagination, class stratification, and social location are in effect when it comes to child hunger in the United States. Being hungry is an issue larger than any one individual can control.
...e is a continuous process. These organizations, though they are established, will continue to change and adapt to the days, weeks, months and years to come. They will have to continue to overcome obstacles that are thrown their way and continue to move forward towards their visions. I have no doubt in my mind that these organizations will continue to successfully serve Stanislaus County. They have impacted individuals life’s in more ways than they could imagine and are surely helping shape these individuals tomorrow.
In anticipation of the Thanksgiving Holiday, we all are salivating over the turkey and all the fixings we plan to stuff ourselves with while celebrating with family and friends. We all take for granted the roof over our heads and a refrigerator stacked with food. Whenever we get hungry we just go to the refrigerator and eat to our heart 's content. While we are overindulging ourselves, many within our community are homeless and hungry, not knowing where their next meal will come from or if they will find shelter. Besides adults, there are hundreds of children who are starving, not getting the proper nourishment they need for healthy physical growth and mental development.