In the United States, there are currently about
18,400,000 vacant homes. That's 11% of the houses in Amerika (this is the most recent # I found, from February 2011). There are about
671,859 homeless people in Amerika (according to the
National Alliance to End Homelessness). That means that there are
17,728,141 more vacant homes than there are homeless people. How does that make sense?!
Unemployment, we all know, is at record highs.
According to the
food security report (as a result of an annual survey conducted by the US Department of Agriculture), 15% of US households experienced a food shortage at some point in 2009. That doesn't count our homeless brothers and sisters. US authorities say that figure is the highest they have seen since they began collecting data in the 90s. Those suffering the most (not taking into account the homeless) are single mothers. About 3.5 million said they were at times unable to put sufficient food on the table. Latinos and African Americans also suffer disproportionately. Welcome to Amerika.
Hunger statistics from 2009:
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In 2009, 43.6 million people (14.3 percent) were in poverty.
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In 2009, 8.8 (11.1% percent) million families were in poverty.
- In 2009, 24.7 million (12.9 percent) of people aged 18-64 were in poverty.
- In 2009, 15.5 million (20.7 percent) children under the age of 18 were in poverty.
- In 2009, 3.4 million (8.9 percent) seniors 65 and older were in poverty.
- According to the USDA, over 17 million children lived in food insecure (low food security and very low food security) households in 2009
This past January, CommonDreams.org published an article titled
"People Die From Hunger While Banks Make a Killing on Food". This past spring,
Oxfam warned that prices of staple foods will more than double over the next two decades unless urgent action is taken to change the rules of world agriculture.
In Boston, doctors have reported seeing more dangerously hungry and thin children coming into the ER. In 2007, 12% of children 3 and under in the ER were significantly underweight. By 2010, that became18%.
Recently there was an
article in the New York Times about Urban Foraging. This practice has become necessary for many.
Concrete Jungle in Atlanta has created a database of locations of fruit trees on abandoned property and foreclosed homes, and donates the food they collect to the homeless. Technically, this is illegal, as the banks own that property. The bank isn't going to eat that food, but the police might stop real people from eating what will otherwise go bad, on the banks behalf. Who is it the police serve and protect? What a joke. Today my nine-year-old daughter learned that putting coins in other people's parking meters is illegal. She was baffled. Rightfully so. We had a brief and sad discussion about how sometimes the government makes laws so that people cannot help each other.
Another example of the law preventing people from helping each other is Food Not Bombs. Earlier this year in Orlando, a federal appeals kourt ruled that city officials can enforce an ordinance restricting weekly feeding of the homeless in downtown parks. The
Orland Food Not Bombs chapter is currently meeting at City Hall while still fighting against this unjust decision by the kourt.
29 people were arrested for participating in Food Not Bombs in Orlando this past June. That is,
29 people were arrested for feeding the hungry. On their website, they state:
We Act...
Because Food is a Right not a privilege!
Because there is enough Food for Everyone!
Because Scarcity is a Lie!
Because Food grows on Trees!
Because Poverty is Violence – unnecessary and unnatural!
Because Capitalism makes food a source of Profit not a source of nutrition!
Because we need Community not Control!
Because we need Gardens not Lawns!
Because we need Homes not Jails!
Because we need...
Food Not Bombs!!
This is nothing new in Amerika. In January 1969, the Black Panthers began their Free Breakfast for School Children in Oakland, CA. In the next year, the Black Panthers had set up kitchens in cities across the U.S., feeding over 10,000 children every day before school. A few months later, J. Edgar Hoover declared that the Black Panthers were the "greatest threat to the internal security of the country."
There is so much more. Mother Jones published an article in their March/April 2011 showing the
Income Inequality in the United States. "
It's the Inequality, Stupid." It has wonderful (terrible) and educational charts, one of which I will post here:
The bottom 80 percent of American households have lost ground in share of income since 1979. The top one percent, meanwhile, has seen its slice of the pie increase more than 120 percent. The top 10 percent of Americans earn nearly three-quarters of all income in the country, leaving the poor with whatever is left.
These statistics are disgusting! What can you do? Feed people. Ignore any and all laws that prevent people from helping each other. Participate in or organize
Food Not Bombs in your nieghborhood or city. Volunteer for community kitchens.
Cook a big stew and bring it out to your neighbors under the bridge. And then get involved in Action to make change! Organize for and/or participate in the
Global Day of Action on October 15, 2011. Go to
Washington DC on October 6, 2011 and be a part of the Revolution! Get involved with other organizations and movements to fight the system so that we the people can help each other, so that social services are available to everyone, so that food is available to everyone,
so that the government is run by and for the people, not by and for the corporations and the top 1%.
Why shouldn't these people have shelter?
Why shouldn't these people eat?
Another post to come soon about Occupying Wall Street and the other Occupations being planned around the country!
