The United States has more poor children now than it did a year ago.
As recession-hammered families increase, more are using food stamps to feed their kids, according to a study by the Brookings Institution and First Focus, a bipartisan child advocacy group.
“They are a really good barometer, a kind of economic-needs test,” said Mark R. Rank, an expert on social welfare programs at Washington University in St. Louis. “If you’re receiving food stamps and you’re a child, by definition, you’re in poverty.”
Rarely do I think persons of either political leaning are uncaring about this travesty; I believe there is such a profound disagreement about the causes and solutions that it is hard to make progress on this front politically. There is little disagreement about the responsibility of the Church in this area, however. We should do much better for the sake of the little ones and of the Kingdom.
Agreed, Montanan.