Who is lining up at food banks? A lot of working families (WSJ)

[swag]

Blogging Economist Mark Thoma excerpts today's Wall Street Journal article (sub. req.) by Roger Thurow on the US's rising population of the working hungry:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says government surveys show that 11.9% of U.S. households ... were uncertain they could afford to feed their families at some point during the year in 2004. About a third of those, or 4.4 million households in all, said that at least one household member went hungry at least some time during the year because the family couldn't afford enough food.

At the same time, the economy has been growing in many regions around the country. ... "There is a rising tide, but it's not one that lifts all the boats," says Ray Perryman of the Perryman Group, an economic-analysis firm .... "Some sink along the way."

A recent survey by America's Second Harvest, a network of more than 200 food banks across the nation, indicates that those relying on pantries and emergency kitchens include a large number of working families who aren't making enough to make ends meet, particularly with high heating and gas prices and medical bills. Mr. Perryman says the adults in such families generally don't have the education or skills demanded by high-tech jobs being created.

"Hunger is a hidden issue, particularly ... where unemployment is low and there's a lot of economic activity," says Robert Bush, executive director of the East Texas Food Bank. "But every day, we touch people who have to make hard choices about food: pay medical bills or buy food, repair car or buy food."

The Second Harvest survey also paints a portrait of the hungry at odds with common stereotypes: Only 12% of those served by the nation's food banks are homeless; 93% are American citizens; 40% are white; nearly half live in rural or suburban areas; and, more than one-third of the hungry households have at least one working adult. In these households, the survey found, parents are often working nights and over the weekends, meaning children sometimes must fend for themselves at mealtimes. And there are a lot of those children.

[Greyhound]

1. See? I always knew that the WSJ was a front for the "loony left".

Imagine printing this obvious communist propaganda. :sarcasm:

[swag]

2. The disconnect between some of their excellent reporting

and their infantile editorial page is always funny.