Holiday Giving and the Working Poor

Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.

Working Poor

 
Last night while sitting around the dinner table with my wife and two of my sons, the topic of my oldest sons X-wife came up because of some resent events that had transpired.

Sometimes I wonder how some conversations get started but its part of what differentiates the human race from the animal kingdom. Anyway, it was suggested that my X-daughter-in-law might at this very moment be in jail for various contempt of court issues she has failed to resolve through proper channels. I, for one, feel very sorry for her.
In my estimation, she is a very lost and unhappy person, but I wouldn’t wish prison on anyone during the Christmas season when we should all have good will towards our fellow man (or X-daughter-in-law in this case). As I sat a the dinner table cogitating over what was being discussed, I wondered what the thousands of prisoners in our jail systems would have for their annual Christmas dinner feast and realized they would probably eat better than millions of the less fortunate and unemployed in our country.
Typically when I think of someone who is hungry, I assume they are unemployed or living on the streets but a little research has proven that’s not necessarily true. I was amazed at what I found on the net about hunger in America. Apparently, hunger is another one of those epidemics that we don’t hear enough about and from what I read, millions of Americans are hungry, sometimes even our own neighbors.

It didn’t take me long to find Census Bureau reports showing figures from a multiplicity of studies they generate every year and hunger in America is one of them. They claim that as of 2010, there were 21 million people in families where at least one person was working but the family still lived at or under the national poverty averages.(1) That means that almost 10 percent of all American families are living in poverty even with at least one family member working to support the household which are classified as the working poor.

I found some interesting facts about the Working Poor:
 – Single moms who were the sole source of monitory support for their families were two times more likely to be classified as working poor than families with men fulfilling the same responsibility. (2)

– For families with one member working only half the year and have children, they are four times more likely than families with no children to be living in poverty. (2)

– The United States Conference of Mayors took a survey on hunger and homelessness concluding that almost 89 pecent of those surveyed had unemployment as one of the three biggest reasons for hunger in their city. (4)

– In a survey done by Feeding America, it was concluded the almost 40 percent of all adults served completed high school or equivalent with no further education. (2,3)

– According to Feeding America, 4 percent of all households have had to make a choice between buying food or buying needed medicine and medical care. (2,3)

You would think in a country as great as ours that this kind of hunger among the working poor and needy would not exist but in fact it does.
I lived the first eleven years of my life in what is commonly referred to as “The Projects”. Dad was a nonfunctioning alcoholic and never held a job while I was a child. It was up to mom to take in laundry and ironing that she would do after us kids all went to bed and babysit for parents who both worked. I didn’t really think I was poor because mom always made sure we had three descent meals a day and the apartment was spotless, even with seven children at home. She sacrificed a great deal for her family and I remember her with enduring gratitude.
I remember a Christmas when I was only about 6 years old and mom seemed especially sad about something from my little boy perspective. It was Christmas Eve and I thought from my perspective that everyone should be excited and happy that Santa Claus was coming to town. Then came a knock on our apartment door and I thought, who could that be? To my surprise there was a man from our church with several boxes of food and Christmas gifts for the family! I was too young to understand then, but apparently, that particular Christmas we would have had nothing if not for the generosity of several unknown individuals who anonymously gave of their abundance.
I hope that my little bit of research and sharing has perhaps rendered a new perspective on poverty and hunger. So next time you have an opportunity to give during the holiday season or any time of the year from the abundance you enjoy, do so with a grateful heart that you can give. I have been truly blessed so I regard it as a privilege to give generously to institutions that help feed the poor and needy and I’m humbled that I can.

(1) U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, 2011 Annual Social and Economic Supplement.
(2) U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
(3) Rhoda Cohen, J., Mabli, F., Potter, Z., Zhao.Hunger In America 2010. Feeding America. February 2010.
(4) The U.S. Conference of Mayors, 2008 Hunger and Homelessness Survey. December 2010.