Food Arts magazine came today. There's a fat brown cow gracing the cover. The headline says, "America The Bountiful."
Well we are, bountiful. "From sea to shining sea," Food Arts asserts and quite frankly, I agree. We do produce some of the world's finest foods and in some spectacular variety and abundance.
But there is another side to all of this magnificent largess (and those who enjoy it). It is called Hunger and the problem has become acute.
There is a rapidly expanding number of this country's population who regularly sleep with hunger clawing at their belly. These are not the homeless or the disenfranchised but the ordinary families next door, down the block around the corner.....most with children under 18.
This growing population---the newly poor who are out of work for the first time in their lives---forgo food to stave off landlords, banks and utilities. Another 44 million American depend on food stamps to eat...that is 1 out of every 7 human beings living in this fabulously bountiful land.
Feeding America, which distributes more than 2 billion pounds of food every year, says the demand at food banks has gone up a startling 30% since 2008.
So how the disconnect from a publication devoted to the art of food? Quite irresponsible I'd say. I intend to send them this blog.
