Select Concerts Planned for 2006
Faris Family will perform a select series of concerts throughout 2006 that are planned to bring awareness to the issue of hunger and food insecurity in the U.S.
They will be joined at some of these concerts with other concerned bluegrass musicians. The concerts will gather food donations and raise funds for local food pantries.
CLICK HERE for concert locations, dates and details.
Hunger Statistics In The U.S.
The U.S. Census Bureau just released new data on poverty and health insurance that revealed: 37 million people were living in poverty in the U.S. in 2004, a 1.1 million increase from 2003. 13 million children live in poverty in the U.S. - nearly one in five children.
By September 16, 2005 congressional committees have instructions to cut $35 billion from mandatory programs. The Food Stamp program is threatened. Medicaid could be cut by as much as $10 billion. Consider advocating for a moral budget by contacting your congressional leaders.
40% of households seeking emergency food banks assistance had one or more family member currently employed. Hunger is becoming a growing problem among the working poor.
Though the number of people participating in the Food Stamp Program has risen in recent years, about 56% of currently eligible people still do not participate, often because they do not know they are eligible or face other barriers to participation. Food banks have had to fill the gap. America's Second Harvest - the nation's largest network of food banks - serves an estimated 23 million people per year, nearly as many as the number of people who receive Food Stamp benefits (23.8 million). That assistance, while worthy of praise, is misleading. Local food banks can provide only 1/16 of assistance compared to Federal programs. Much more is needed.
Children are twice as likely to live in households where someone experiences hunger and food insecurity than adults. One in ten adults compared to one in five children live in households where someone suffers from hunger or food insecurity.
Read more on the web...
The Face of Hunger and Food Insecurity in the U.S.
If all 37 million Americans faced with food insecurity stood in line at a food pantry in New York City, the line would stretch to Los Angeles and back. Twice.
Americans were shocked at the devastation and death in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The poor and working poor who had been denied attention for too long were there on our TV screen displayed by the constant contact cable news cycle. So many people. So many stories. Their frustration so evident. Their need so immediate.
Most were embrassed at the slow response to this tragic need. But as the news story unfolded a view of poverty in America came into focus. In an Associated Press wire article from September 17, that appeared in Central Iowa's Times-Republican, former North Carolina Senator John Edwards offered that television images left by Hurricane Katrina have brought the face of poverty in America into focus. He offered in a telephone interview for the article that it is the duty of national politicians to keep that focus. He said, "Our task is to make sure that attention is not transient." Edwards, a founder of the Center for Poverty Issues at the University of North Carolina continued, "...people who have been hurt understand and now recognize that we have to maintain the country's attention on this huge moral issue."
As we look forward as a country to the task of rebuilding in the aftermath of such tragedy we realize as a society we have paid little attention to the everyday needs of those seemingly most effected. President Bush while speaking in Washington D.C.'s National Cathedral during the National Day of Prayer and Rememberance service for victims of Hurricane Katrina vowed to help rebuild the region with an eye toward wiping out the persistent poverty and racial injustice that exist there. He declared, "As we clear away the debris of a hurricane, let us also clear away the legacy of inequality." As we marshall our national resources to follow through on President Bush's proposed mandate to erase the "legacy of inequality" it is important to note that one in four U.S. workers make $8.70 per hour or less. On the high end of the scale that breaks down to $18,000 per year or roughly the current poverty level for a family of four in America.
Beth Shulman a former vice president of the United Food Workers union has written a book on this subject titled, "The Betrayal of Work: How Low-Wage Jobs Fail 30 Million Americans". But now there may indeed be hope for the forgotten. With the attention paid to the low-income and poverty stricken victims of Hurricane Katrina a window of opportunity is at hand while images are fresh in our minds.
The low-income and poor are truely our brothers and sisters. As Shulman has written: "They are nursing home and home health care workers who care for our parents; they are poultry processors who bone and package our chicken; they are retail clerks in department stores, grocery stores and convenience stores; they are housekeepers and janitors who keep our hotel rooms and offices clean; they are billing and telephone call center workers who take our complaints and answer our questions; and they are teaching assistants in our schools and child care workers who free us so that we can work ourselves." They are our children who struggle in school with developmental issues and lack of concentration due to chronic malnutrition and our elderly who all too often need to choose between prescription drugs or going to the grocery store.
Please consider supporting our efforts and look for ways to get involved. Many hands make the task lighter!
Read more on the Web...
Book A Concert...
If your food bank, church, or other service organization would like to book a Young & Hungry Concert in your area please CLICK HERE
