I'm most suprised by the number showing more households with senior citizens than children faced hunger. With our rapidy aging population is this the face of things to come?

3children--correct me if I'm wrong but the people being referred to in that article have been receiving unemployment benefits for almost 2 years. The state and it's taxpayers cannot afford to indefinitely support all of these people......

and I thought it was just because I missed lunch.

Just wait...we'll see even more hunger and homelessness.

http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/g...

Thanks Davvic.
By the way my "Well said?" question wasn't meant for you. It was for PBRMan. Our timing made me laugh, though.

Well said? Sounds like a grave discrepancy to me: Hank said: "What makes me sad is all the people that ignore our fellow Americans hunger..."
But the article clearly states: "Food pantries, meal sites and shelters in southwestern Wisconsin ARE SERVING an unprecedented number of people..."
And:
"Local organizations ARE PROVIDING assistance to 83 percent more people than they did four years ago..."
Please show me where it says anything like: "As Americans, we choose to IGNORE our hungry so we can send our resources to Haiti..."
Yes, we have people who need help with food, many (but not all) for reasons beyond their control. And of course, there are people who don't get personally involved. Maybe if you got personally involved you would SEE that the problem wasn't being ignored. The only way you could imagine the problem was being universally ignored was if YOU are ignoring it.

RUSerious - Well said.

Hank and truth1 - well said...

The ones I truly feel sorry for are the elderly who are too proud to ask for a handout or too frail to make it to the food pantry. I believe there are many, like someone else said, that will take anything that is free whether they need it or not. We worked with a family with four children several years ago. We tried to get them to see how cooking a chicken at home was so much cheaper and better for them than going thru KFC for a bucket of fried chicken, just to name one thing. They were not used to planning their menu or shopping for bargains--they just ate fast food all the time. I also agree that young people don't like not having the latest technology or expensive shoes, etc. They want it now. A lot of parents don't set priorities for the family for saving for things but want to charge it and have it now. If getting some food free helps thats what they do. It makes it hard on those who really do need the food.

Hank, you mistakenly said "What makes me sad is all the people that ignore our fellow Americans hunger, and send aid to Haiti" and "we fail to mention 1 in 8 American go hungry daily, and because it is not trendy no one cares." All the people? Not true by a long shot-and if you were truly involved you would know that countless-yes, I said countless-people (and schools, churches, business, agencies, organizations of all types) give a lot to feed the area hungry. But the word "hunger" in our part of the world, and especially around here, is relative. If our area hungry were to trade places for a day with the hungry in Haiti, they'd see just how well off they are, and the truly hungry people of Haiti would finally get some nourishment.
For the record, this is not to say there aren't people in our midst who don't need our help. There most certainly are, but you do a great disservice to all the many, many people also in our area who do everything in their power to do their part in helping them-and some literally give 'til it hurts (themselves). You are so insulting to those who do so much for their own neighbors, but also saw the need to help in this Haiti emergency. How dare you say they can only help locally when they see there are people in Haiti (and elsewhere around the globe) who really don't have a neighborhood agency they can go to?
Of course there are people who might be helping because it's "trendy", but that goes for local as well as international, and is undoubtedly the minority.
I'm thinking that people in need here would truly have to be hiding to not get at least some kind of help-but yes, sometimes they do have to do the legwork.

melstew42, consider that someone may have bought everything you see when they had a job. Food stamps are a subsidy, an additional payment to families based on income during the month in which they receive the benefit. They may well work, they may well buy the shoes used, they may well save for a year to buy the TV or Xbox. You just don't know.
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So you do know they receive a benefit. That is based on verifiable income information, and if they cheat and are caught, they have to pay it back with substantial penalties.
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A phone is not exactly a luxury item these days, and if you are looking for work, it is practically a necessity. You don't know what plan they have, whether they bought the phone used, whether they use it for 20 minutes a month or 2000. This idea that it's somehow a reason someone should not get a benefit does not hold up to scrutiny.

I hate it when the gazette has articles like this, people start trash talking. Do you really follow a foodstamp recipient out of the grocery store to see what vehicle they drive? If you do, that is pathetic. How do you know the tennis shoes they are wearing aren't a gift from a family member for christmas/birthday? Oh yeah, maybe they should downgrade their footwear.

My point really wasn't so much that I have a problem with them having a phone. although having a $20.00 "pay as you go" phone and a $200.00 touch screen are two different issues. The problem I have and did have as a child was not having food, while the adults smoked and drank instead of making sure feeding their children came before the other things.

i agree with alot of the post above,but i will have to say when i see someone with a touch screen phone,expensive tennis shoes,an driving an expensive vehicle it does burn me when they pull out a food stamp card,maybe they had these things before hard times hit them,but its time to down grade a bit.i quit making echo my charity when i seen what comes in there,an people getting a load of food stamps a month going there is ridiculous,an i dont care that its only a supplement,400 plus in food stamps should last any family of 4 or 5.they should not be allowed to go there either.find bargains like everyone else does.

That would be the cheapest way. I agree.

frogger,
Most of the people I work with that are in need of foodstamps have a "pay as you go" phone.
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Callitasiseeit- You must be a genius. Two people couldn't know abusers of a system now could they. WHATEVER. There couldn't be two people who know of somebody that smokes and had a car repossessed.

Whythink- I don't care if they have a phone. But to have a phone every year. Sorry pretty sure that costs a lot of money. Not to mention they "bundle" HOW MUCH IS THAT per month???

BunBun-Exactly my point.

Are we trying to say that the "poor" of this country have it as bad as someone stuck somewhere like the Sudan or Hati? No system is perfect but I'd rather be here and poor than in one of those other countries and REALY poor.

I love the "blame the victim" of some.
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I just wonder, are those outraged at the people who "God Forbid" have a phone while needing food stamps just as outraged at the CEO's of companies taking huge bonuses while laying people off.
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How about some anger at a country that has so much wealth but has a system that allows working people and elderly people to be hungry?
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Your right Frogger. I believe you told that same story when you were still Hannah.

Are there really that many more needy people than previously believed? Or is it that the proliferation of advertising for free food has brought out a whole new crop of people too lazy to make their own food at home and provide for themselves? A handout is a handout and we've all seen how people will take advantage of a system whenever possible.

Hank - 1 in 1 Haitians go hungry daily.

My point being is it's only going to get worse. IMO

It was on the news this morning that in January, 22,000 people in this country had their jobs pulled out from underneath them and sent to other countries. That's just a one month period. Pretty soon, we're going to be part of the third world, getting paid peanuts working for companies out of this country. Reversal of fortune.

emac- I agree. Foodstamps don't cover those things so what little money they do have goes towards the cigs etc and WE pay for their food. I mentioned somewhere before I know somebody that had their car repossessed. The money they spend on cigs would have covered the car payment but they chose to smoke vs having a decent car to get them to work! They also get assistance. BOTH of them smoke over a pack a day each!

BTW..State of WI was just notified..no more Unemployment Extension..as soon as next week for 8000 people statewide. 96,000 by end of February.

I hate to be negative, but I'll bet the lion's share of those people have money for cigarettes, alcohol and cell phones.

truth1- You got it right, but as long as Walmart, Target and Kmart keep selling the cheap junk they buy from China and American consumers keep on buying it,things are not going to change.

janesvillian- Maybe we do do a lot of exporting, but what about the astonomical trade deficit we have with china while our jobs are over there being done for $1 an hour or so?
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China is not exactly our friend these days and our money is paying to modernize their military, to say nothing about the barbarity in their gov't/society.
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There are bad people getting super-rich in this scenario too.

truth1, in case you had not noticed, this is a global recession. Free trade has been the policy of the US for approximately a generation, during times both good and bad. Exports have in fact doubled each of the last three decades, providing the wealth that has permitted us to increase imports even faster.
http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/stat...

"made in china"....."made in mexico"
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"free trade" with no checks and balances to make it FAIR trade equals no jobs and poverty for Americans.