Those most at risk of empty refrigerators and growling tummies are the 10 million people who make up the working poor, says Mariana Chilton, a public health professor at Drexel University School of Public Health and the director of the school's Center for Hunger-Free Communities.

She says reductions in government programs such as food stamps coupled with rising costs of food, housing and utilities force poor families to choose between buying food and paying bills.

"This is a massive public health crisis, and it is a silent crisis," she says.

In November, Congress reduced food stamp benefits to 47 million people. On average, a family of four receiving $668 a month saw that allotment drop by $36.

Preliminary data show that the cuts are affecting families, Chilton says. Children's HealthWatch, a network of doctors and public health researchers who collect data on children up to 4 years old, says 29% of the households they track were at risk of hunger last year, compared with 25% the year before.

have a real problem.

I was in the hospital visiting a relative who had a person employed as a sitter for fragile patients.

I had brought in a large take-out container of pasta salad and was raving about it--took out some for myself, a little for the sick relative who couldn't eat much and then I noticed that the sitter was eyeing the container wistfully, saying "that sure looks good." I asked her if she would like the rest of the container and she was so grateful. Obviously she had no lunch. It was like, "food glorious food"...

Scrounging. That's how they make it. If you really see hunger in this country--it's a lot more common than people think.

hunger? Of course the MIC would claim they are hungry.

Much conflict has food or water resources at its tooot.

...from three years ago. I haven't been able to get it out of my mind:

How much money does 250,000 bullets cost,... times how many "insurgents" have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan...equals what?

How much food could that buy?...

TYY

On edit, after using the google: That's a pretty old 'statistic' that goes back to at least 2005. Not sure how accurate it is or how those numbers may have changed since 2005. Still, the concept is a pretty sobering one when you consider that people are going to bed hungry in the United States.

in cities like Sacramento and Fresno that are surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of square miles of the most productive farmland on earth.