Western North Carolina hunger report reveals 'pandemic of poverty'

[ccharles000]

ASHEVILLE — The shelves at the Crisis Ministry at the Asheville Buncombe Community Christian Ministry on Monday were well stocked.

Cabinets were packed to the edge with cans of vegetables, boxes of pasta and jars of peanut butter. That's thanks to area churches who keep the agency's pantry stocked with necessities. The waiting room was half-full, with about a dozen people waiting for help.

But for many Western North Carolina shelters, food kitchens and pantries, the shelves are quickly bare.

The national report, Hunger in America 2010, released Monday at MANNA FoodBank, reinforces the recession's effects on local families. The study was sponsored by Feeding America, the nation's largest hunger-relief organization.

“Our food stamp outreach program has gained momentum in these last couple of years partly because people out in the community have decided that folks need to eat whether their economic circumstances permit it or not,” Kitty Schaller, executive director of MANNA, told a gathering Monday, including N.C. state Rep. Susan Fisher, state Sen. Joe Sam Queen, U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler and a representative from U.S. Sen. Richard Burr's office.

http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20100406/LIVING/304060029

[Triana]

1. The shameful stuff you never hear on the evening news.

Poverty. Hunger. Abuse. Social injustice. They want people to think it doesn't exist or isn't important, I guess.

[zazen]

2. "and a representative from U.S. Sen. Richard Burr's office . . . "

Maybe he does have a sense of shame, after all. Or was he afraid one of the unwashed poor might confront him? Or most likely, he was at a golf resort fundraiser at the Grove Park.

Fucker.