This story is featured in the 2018 Hunger Report: The Jobs Challenge
At a 2014 congressional hearing before the Budget Committee, Barbie Izquierdo, a single parent of two young children in Philadelphia, PA, explained the predicament that working low-wage jobs presents to parents like her.
“I was proud to be working, to have a place to go each day and bring a paycheck home to support my family. Getting a job, I hoped, meant more stability with an increased income."
But the job did not lead to more stability. Instead, her earnings pushed her and her children above the income eligibility limit for SNAP—leaving her with less money for food. “So, my kids and I were hungrier than ever,” she told the committee.
Barbie Izquierdo, who has experienced hunger while raising her two children, has testified on Capitol Hill and was featured in the 2013 documentary about hunger in America A Place at the Table.
Young children are more vulnerable than any other group to the damaging impacts of hunger, even for short periods.
Afghanistan would be considered likely to have high rates of hunger because at least two of the major causes of global hunger affect it—armed conflict and fragile governmental institutions.
Malnutrition is responsible for nearly half of all preventable deaths among children under 5. Every year, the world loses hundreds of thousands of young children and babies to hunger-related causes.
Bread for the World is calling on the Biden-Harris administration and Congress to build a better 1,000-Days infrastructure in the United States.
“As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in faith.” These words from Colossians 2:6 remind us of the faith that is active in love for our neighbors.
The Bible on...
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is designed to respond to changes in need, making it well suited to respond to crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bread for the World and its partners are asking Congress to provide $200 million for global nutrition.
In 2017, 11.8 percent of households in the U.S.—40 million people—were food-insecure, meaning that they were unsure at some point during the year about how they would provide for their next meal.