Need can’t be stereotyped. Sometimes it’s a family huddled in their car, home standing vacant in foreclosure. Sometimes it’s a single mom, embarrassed in line at the food pantry with her kids because she can’t make ends meet. Her children sleep on the floor of their apartment because she can’t afford beds. It might be a husband and wife forced to work far beyond their retirement years because their life savings has been depleted just keeping up with bills. Or it could be a senior citizen on a fixed income, having to choose between prescription medications or groceries.
Across America, 43.6 million people or 14.3 percent of the population are in poverty, according to a 2009 Census report. And double the numbers from a decade ago, almost 50 million people skip meals just to make ends meet—the definition of food insecurity.
It’s worse for kids. Children account for a fourth of those in poverty—and almost one of every two poor children lives in extreme poverty.
But it doesn’t take a poverty-level income to have unmet needs. Need has risen sharply since 2007. The number of people in extended unemployment continues to surpass WWII levels—it now takes on average nearly 9 months to find a job. It’s a problem that impacts people today, but it will also impact the future of Americans for years to come.
Jobs and food are just two issues facing millions of hard-working people in America. But the needs run deep. And the consequences of living in need can last for years. Poverty is experienced not just as lack of money, jobs, or material things, but the lack of choices, mobility, improvement, participation, and self-esteem. For too many, poverty is shaping their lives in distorted ways, and moving out of poverty becomes not just finding a job or an apartment, but restoring a spirit, developing a healthy body, and renewing a mind.
Scripture Verses About Poverty
To learn more about poverty in America, click on the links below.