Ray, a few months back I saw a show on tv about the hunger problem in Oregon. There are many people who do not know when or where they will find their next meal. And one problem for these people is that they do not
know how to apply for food stamps. The problem is so severe that a public employee was on the streets,
helping people fill out forms so that they could receive food stamps. In many cases, there wasn't any food
in the cupboard.
Many low wage earners, especially women, who found minimum wage jobs during the good times, are entitled to food stamps, but they were too embarrassed to ask, or often they didn't know they were entitled to participate in the program. Now, these women are without jobs because of the recession.
I was astounded at the the number of hungry people in Oregon and in parts of Washington state. Generally, you don't think of people here as so hungry and desperate that they don't know when they or their families will eat their next meal. The situation is so bad that, in one instance, a woman who owned a restaurant taught people on food stamps how to prepare a nutritious meal with the meager resources that they had available. |
