Blog Action Day 2008: Poverty
At DataCraft, we're excited to be participating in Blog Action Day. We're also really excited to have Kim Adams-Bakke from the Rock River Valley Food Pantry as our guest blogger for this week.
Staggering numbers, increasing percentages, millions affected-I'm not talking about the Wall Street bailout but about people living at the poverty level in Illinois!
It is astounding to me that today in Winnebago County, where the majority of the Rock River Valley Pantry clients live, 41,900 people live below the poverty line (annual income of $20,650 for a family of four) and another 21,200 individuals live in extreme poverty ($10,325 annual income for a family of four). These individuals are children, the elderly, employed men and women, the disabled, and the homeless, going hungry. Hunger is a hidden symptom of poverty.
Hunger effects the preschooler that is developing both cognitively and physically, the first grader sitting in the classroom that can't concentrate because his belly is growling, the single mom at the end of the month scraping together change from the bottom of her purse to buy milk, and the grandmother wearing her coat and sitting under a blanket in her home in order to keep the heat turned as low as possible in order to have money for food.
For the majority of our clients the hardest thing they have ever done was to cross our threshold and ask for food for themselves and their families. We have lost count of the number of times we have heard, "If it wasn't for my children needing to eat I wouldn't be here asking for help." A person's life can change overnight, with one phone call, with one layoff notice. As a matter of fact some of today's Pantry clients were yesterday's donors!
At the Rock River Valley Pantry our clients are eligible for two days worth of food each month. We would love to be able to provide more but right now we are trying to ride out the "perfect storm." A storm that finds us with donors that have less discretionary income to help support the Pantry and yet a client base that grew by 35% over the last six months, a storm that finds funding agencies, corporations, and foundations with fewer funds available to help those that may be giving up a meal so that a child can eat.
If you would like to be part of the fight against hunger we can use your help as warehouse volunteers, food drive coordinators at your place of work, with food recovery from local retailers, program sponsors, individual donations, and advocates for those that need help.
Hunger exists-you may not see it but it is happening all around you. Ask the more than 63,000 individuals here in Winnebago County what they had to eat today.
The Rock River Valley Pantry is located at: 1080 Short Elm Street Rockford, IL 61102 (815) 965-2466