Hi everyone,

I believe that one of the things that helps us all be “engaged” with a topic is if we have a personal connection to it or if we at least understand that it doesn’t exist in some far-off place; but instead is also probably right next door.

For this discussion I would like everyone to do one or more of the following:

  1. Find statistic from your local area. Look for numbers that are really for an area that you consider “home” or close enough that they will affect how you look at the people around you.
  2. Share a story, do you have a personal story of how hunger affected you or someone you know? (Remember you can share with Gojo, just include the information in the email).
  3. Reflect on how these stories and information affect how you feel about hunger and if they have changed your view of the problem.


You don’t need to do all of these at one time, take some time to look around, see what others post and discuss what is coming up.

Some information for my neck of the woods:

For Los Angeles County we have about 1 in 15 households who are experiencing food insecurity. Remember that LA County includes many many areas which middle class and many that are upper class. This number may seem low but once I saw it I knew that it means a lot of people in lower-income are suffering. It seems that 30.4% of lower-income households have food shortages… 1 in 3 low income households aren’t sure what they will eat next.

There has been a steady increase from 18.9% in 2002 until now, and it is continuing. Which is very surprising because all indicators are that the economy is getting better and people are getting back to work. But unfortunately, in LA housing is a huge problem. While the economy is getting better, renters are paying more and more (up 32%) and at the same time wages are going down.

Interesting to note is that what is considered a lower-income household is a family of four taking in $71,000 or less. When I was a kid we had a family of six who lived for many years off of less than that. But times are getting worse and worse.

Another major problem in Los Angeles is transportation. One of the areas which has the highest rate of food insecurity is on the far outskirts of LA County. There isn’t much transport from that are to other areas where there is more work and resources. Residents in that valley will often get stuck there because they can’t afford to move any where else and then have little choice but to commute for hours (no joke) to work low wage jobs, with gas costing going up and up this also drains resources. Do you fill your car with gas to get to work or get groceries?

Gassho,

Shoka
sattoday/LAH

Sources:
http://www.publichealth.lacounty.gov...ity_2015Fs.pdf
http://www.lapublichealth.org/wwwfil...insec_0304.pdf
http://www.laweekly.com/news/heres-w...ngeles-8704593