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"Hunger" is a word that is often used in connection with poor developing countries, but it is also a word that has become increasingly common in the United States - where, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture,
49.1 million households experienced food insecurity at some point in 2013. And newly released figures by the U.S. Conference of Mayors serve as additional proof of just how dire the problem remains as the U.S. continues to grapple with the fallout of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s. On December 11, the U.S. Conference of Mayors released its 32nd Annual Report on Hunger and Homelessness. The report covered 25 American cities:
71% of them said that the number of requests for emergency food assistance had increased in the last year, while only 25% said that requests for emergency food assistance had decreased. And
84% of the cities surveyed expected emergency food requests to increase in 2015, but many food banks may not have the resources to meet those requests.
Helene Schneider, mayor of Santa Barbara and co-chair of the Task Force on Hunger and Homelessness, warned in the report that
Congress will increase hunger in U.S. cities if it defunds federal anti-hunger programs: the report found that in eight of the 25 cities, at least 20% of the emergency food being distributed came from federal funding (in Los Angeles, it was 51%). And if Republicans step up their attacks on food stamps and federal anti-hunger programs after retaking the U.S. Senate in January, hunger in American cities will likely worsen.
Below are ten U.S. cities in which an appalling number of Americans are going hungry.
1. MemphisIn 2010, a study by the Food Research Action Center declared Memphis to be the
hunger capital of the U.S. and found that 26% of its residents had suffered from food insecurity at some point during the previous 12 months. And four years later, Memphis had the worst hunger problem of the 25 cities examined in the U.S. Conference of Mayors' new report:
46% of the requests for emergency food assistance in Tennessee's largest city - almost half - were being unmet. Food pantries in Memphis are overwhelmed with requests, and according to the report, they are having a hard time "securing funds to purchase the food needed to meet the need." Unemployment, low wages and poverty were cited as the main causes of hunger in Memphis, where the official unemployment rate is 7.5% and 26.2% of its residents are living below the poverty line. And the Conference of Mayors noted that in 2015, "city officials expect requests for food assistance to increase moderately and resources to provide food assistance to decrease moderately."
Comment: A young girl realizes her 12-year old brother was just shot and is lying alone, bleeding. She attempts to help him and is thrown to the ground and 'detained' for doing so. What a sick, heartless, fascist machine the modern police force has become. This is America - the grim reality of a police state.
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