Hungry families need help all year, but Thanksgiving is a great time to start donating to fight hunger in the U.S.

I was absolutely shocked to read at Reuters Web site that “More than 49 million Americans — one in seven — struggled to get enough to eat in 2008.” That’s 14.6 percent of the households. It is endlessly astounding to me that one of the richest countries in the world has 49 million hungry residents and still doesn’t provide health care for its citizens.

The list of huge problems that needs White House attention is getting bigger. The USDA survey on “food insecurity,” which is where the one in seven statistic came from, shows that the most important fights we should be conducting don’t require bombs and should occur in our own neighborhoods.

Where help is needed most

Paycheck loans can help families who don’t have enough money to buy food, but they are only temporary solutions. The federal survey says that 5.7 percent of households in the U.S. ran short of food for seven to eight months of the year. The USDA has conducted this survey for 14 years, and the number of people in 2008 who had trouble obtaining enough food is the highest yet.

“The number of Americans receiving food stamp assistance soared above 36 million for the first time in August, the eighth month in a row that enrollment set a record,” Reuters reports. President Obama wrote a statement saying he vows to reverse the trend. Food stamp benefits already were raised through the stimulus package.

Help if you can

There are a lot of worldwide and nationwide organizations that help provide people with food, but the best place to start is in your own community. We all know how long it takes for government programs and efforts to be effective, so the best thing you can do to help with this national problem is to find a local organization.

If you’re lucky enough to always have food, share! Especially around Thanksgiving, it is easy to find private organizations or churches that gather and distribute food donations. It’s easy to forget that hunger is a year-round problem, not just an issue around the holidays. Encourage your friends to help if they can.

image by flickr

Payday loans applications are flourishing as medical costs continue to weigh down Americans.  Currently there are millions of people seeking aid from government programs.  These programs can be confusing, however, and many people are being rejected for innocuous reasons such as location, rather than need.   Government aid comes in the form of health care, housing aid, and food stamps. But each one comes with its own set of rules and regulations to be eligible, and truly needy people can get caught in the red-tape.

Beverly Johnson of Kosciusko, Mississippi lost her job at a Bible college. When she went to apply for unemployment, she was told that as an employee of a religious school she was ineligible.  “That was a shock,” she said.  Most Americans believe that unemployment is there if they are let go but there are underlying rules with every government program.

Because there is so much fine-print when it comes to getting government assistance, payday loans are filling the gap.  When people need money, they look to payday loans as a reliable option because other options are so uncertain.  Martin Summerstein of Miami, Florida stated, “We use payday loans because they are available to us. You can’t count on the government, because one day help is there and the next it isn’t.”

Studies show

The New York Times did a study of state enrollment for six federal assistance programs and found a huge amount of disparity between them.  In California, only 50 percent of people who need food stamps get them, whereas in Missouri almost 98 percent of people get them.  In South Dakota, 19 percent of unemployed people get unemployment benefits, while Idaho gives benefits to 67 percent of its out of work citizens.

Political scientist at Harvard Theda Skocpol stated, “The system for helping Americans in need is very fragmented, and it confuses everyone. Some people are covered, and some people are not, even though they look like they’re in very similar circumstances,” says the New York Times.

The critics

The stimulus package has about $100 billion in safety net provisions but each state is able to decide whether or not to take advantage of it.  A few governors believe that to increase unemployment benefits would increase taxes on businesses and cut down on new job creation.  They rejected the assistance.

Some critics believe that this extra fund is detrimental.  They cited that payday loans and easily available federal aid can cause people to mismanage their budgets consistently.  “If people have options, they won’t be forced to rework their budgets and cut back where they need to. They can become dependent on extra money instead of being responsible.”  Stuart Butler of the Heritage Foundation believes that added government aid could also discourage people from seeking more education and better paying jobs.

Much-needed reform

In the end, President Obama has a lot to sort through.  His team has to react to the crisis and find ways of including needy people in government aid programs, without driving the economy deeper into a recession.

Shiela Zedlewski, of the Urban Institute, said “We have people (receiving all benefits) but we have far more people who get nothing. … A significant group remains outside the safety net.”  In the meantime, people are trying their best to use payday loans, family assistance and the government programs they are eligible for to stay afloat.  Hopefully, the president will be able to include help for everyone based on need and not on whether they find their way through red-tape.

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Donna Hunter and Gail Deutsch report for ABC News that the economic recession has made a pizza delivery man out of an equity sales trader.

Ken Karpman, 45, currently earns $7.29 per hour delivering pizzas. It’s a job and he does it well. However, he can’t help but wonder when things began to go sour. As a corporate trader, the UCLA M.B.A. had what many would consider the perfect life. Family, $750,000 salary, big house, vacations – he had the world on a string.

“Life was good.”

Hunter and Deutsch write that Karpman was so confident with his place in the strong economy that he left his job in 2005 to start his own hedge fund. To pay for it, he ate through the family’s savings ($500,000) and took out a line of credit against his house. Unfortunately, Karpman ended up having to dissolve his hedge fund due to a lack of investors. The economy was down and he was without a job.

He hunted but came up empty. The Karpmans were in a terrible position, with no savings, hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt and a home in foreclosure.

Enter the pizza job

Desperate for quick payday loans, Karpman took a job at Mike’s Pizza & Deli Station in Clearwater, Florida. He is now earning $7.29 an hour plus tips. He’s grateful to have work, even if it sometimes takes him to the doors of neighbors to his old office building.

There has been stress in the Karpman marriage. But when it comes to who is most at fault for the collapse, Ken Karpman points at himself. “If we didn’t have to worry about the lights getting turned off, we can spend more time talking about us.”

Adjusting to a new life

Food stamps and air-tight budgeting aren’t nearly enough to support their children’s $30,000 private school tuition. But thanks to an anonymous donor, the kids are covered through next year. For now, they won’t have to pay for their parents’ mistakes.

Ken Karpman holds out hope that he can make a comeback and reclaim his family’s old lifestyle that, like many in the Land of Opportunity, he never thought he could lose.

Hunter and Deutsch conclude Ken Karpman’s story with a telling quote. Telling, because it reflects the gambler’s mentality that afflicts millions in this country. “I need a couple of wins,” he said, “and I think that, hopefully, it’ll mushroom up like it caved in.”

Related Video:

Ken Karpman: From CEO to Pizza Man