hunger

I almost copied today's suggested reading in it's entirety, because I think it's that important.  Here's a snippet referencing a 2007 US hunger survey:

For example, more than 15 percent of all households surveyed responded "yes" to the statement that "We worried whether our food would run out before we got money to buy more." And 12.4 percent of all households reported that at some point during the year "The food that we bought just didn't last and we didn't have money to get more."

The numbers were even worse for minority households and families headed by single mothers. More than 22 percent of Black households, more than 20 percent of Hispanic households, and more than 30 percent of families headed by single mothers experienced hunger in 2007.

Read the full Socialist Worker article here.

I can confirm this only circumstantially.  I've been volunteering at a emergency shelter for homeless men, called Dimitri House.  They also provide a drop in service and a lunch-time meal three days a week.  Recently, they've been serving something like 50 people at their meals, which far exceeds the capacity of their eating space.  Having never been there for a meal myself, I still cannot imagine 50 people in that place at one time.