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A new Hunger in America 2010 report shows that 37 million people  one in eight  receive emergency food each year through the nation’s network of food banks and the agencies they serve. The hungry include 14 million children and nearly 3 million senior citizens. In a nation of unprecedented wealth, this is a national shame.

The landmark study on hunger was released this month by Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization. According to Feeding America officials, the number of hungry Americans is up 46 percent from the last study in 2006  a clear indication of the effect of the national recession on the working poor and those living in poverty. Nationally, one in six Americans struggle to put food on their table.

Almost one in five households across Washington state reported they didn’t have enough money to buy the food they needed in 2009. Families with kids are hurting even more, with 23 percent saying they struggled to put food on their tables, according to a new report released by the Food Research and Action Center.

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Work is not a guaranteed route out of poverty, according to research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. The way employers organise their workforces, and the support people receive to remain and progress in their jobs, are key factors.

The charity found that many people slipped in and out of poverty because they moved repeatedly between unemployment and low-paid, temporary work. Employers in industries with fluctuating and often seasonal demand - such as food processing, packing, cleaning, childcare and leisure - could offer a better mix of permanent and temporary employment opportunities without jeopardising their business, the study found.

The public sector should use its purchasing power to favour companies that offered greater job security, the researchers said. Getting people off benefits and into work had been a key part of the government's drive to tackle poverty, and work "does remain the best defence against poverty", the foundation said.

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Welfare-cheque lineups and tent cities were identified months ago by the B.C. government as potential public-relations disasters during the Winter Olympics, according to a confidential risk-management plan.The "2010 business continuity plan" from the province's Housing and Social Development Ministry, obtained by The Globe and Mail, noted the Games could affect the ministry's ability to deliver welfare cheques to its normal clients, provide enough shelter space, prevent evictions and deal with people sleeping on the streets.

Possible tent cities raised the danger of "negative public perception and increased risk of violence," while there could also be "possible adverse public perception of cheque issue line-ups," the plan noted. Some information in the files was blacked out.

Welfare cheques are issued the third Wednesday of every month in B.C., frequently resulting in long lineups outside welfare offices on that day, as well as an intense period of drug-buying and street mayhem immediately after in the Downtown Eastside. In February, Welfare Wednesday will fall on Feb. 17, five days after the 2010 Winter Games start.

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In light of the economic downturn, family dependence on food stamps has grown significantly in Missouri from August 2008 to 2009. According to a study published by the Brookings Institution and First Focus in December, nearly 150,000 additional people relied on these Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for food purchases.

The study, which compares child poverty rates to the need for food stamp benefits, found that 3.4 million more children received food stamps nationally. Nearly half of SNAP participants are now children, and one in five children under the age of 18 lives in poverty.

“Poverty is associated with a variety of health complications for children like asthma, lead poisoning and so on,” said Mark Rank, professor of social welfare. Rank also said that children living in poverty might be undernourished, affecting their performance at school.

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The number of pensioners living in poverty has fallen by almost a third in 10 years - but at least two million remain below the breadline. There were 2.9 million poor pensioners in 1998, according to the Office for National Statistics. That had fallen to two million by 2008 figures showed yesterday but experts fear the number has since risen as a result of the recession and last year's harsh winter.

The number of companies cutting pension benefits is likely to drive the number higher in future. In 1977, the state pension provided 53% of the average pensioner's income but, after the Conservatives cut the link with earnings in 1980, its relative value fell. By 2007 it made up just 37% of their income.Pensioners are officially in poverty if they are forced to survive on less than 60% of average wages, after housing costs.

Andrew Harrop, of Age Concern & Help the Aged, said progress had "come to a standstill" at best in the past three years. He explained: "Many pensioners on a low income will be struggling to make ends meet as their bills soar after the recent freeze."

The increase in food prices coupled with the financial crisis has reversed the achievements of poverty alleviation programs in many developing countries in Africa and Asia.

As a result of the food price hike and the financial crisis, the world’s poor have been affected not only by financial poverty but also social and resource poverty. Armed conflicts raging across the globe have exacerbated the plight of the poor, especially farmers and wage workers.

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The number of children living in severe poverty in the UK rose by more than 250,000 to 1.7 million in the four years before the recession, it was claimed today.

Save the Children is warning that the effects of the recession, which started in the second quarter of 2008 and according to official figures released today ended at the end of 2009, are likely to have exasperated the problem since then.

Its research found London to be the worst culprit for child poverty in the UK, accounting for around one fifth of all children living in poverty.

And the children's charity has warned the number could rise further, and in the run up to the general election has said it wants the next government to "take urgent action in the first 100 days after the election to end child poverty".

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A national poverty reduction expert gave the state kudos for its success in taking steps to help Alabama's impoverished, but she also issued the new Alabama Commission to Reduce Poverty a big challenge: change how the state thinks about poverty.

"We should refuse to accept the perception that Alabama is always going to be poor," said Jodie Levin-Epstein, deputy director of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Law and Social Policy. "I believe the over-arching work of this commission is to not make it acceptable that Alabama is going to be at the bottom when it comes to poverty."

Levin-Epstein praised Alabama for being a leader in providing health insurance to children and its successes in pre-kindergarten programs and raising the threshold for which the state taxes income. But she said the state has to dig deeper if it wants to do more than just ameliorate poverty, and it has to get more people on board to address the issue.

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Fifteen per cent of the population were estimated to be on the threshold of poverty in 2008, according to statistics released by Eurostat.

The figure may be slightly better than the EU average of 17 per cent but the island's elderly seem to be in a more vulnerable position, with 22 per cent of those over-65 considered to be at risk of poverty, three per cent more than in the EU as a whole.

According to economic theory, the at-risk-of-poverty rate is set at 60 per cent of the national median income. In Malta this was calculated at €7,800 per household in 2008.

Eurostat said even when including the receipt of social benefits, including pensions in the case of the elderly, 15 out of every 100 Maltese did not live in a household that reached the median income.

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The chanting and clapping, mainly by women, echo from hill to hill, street to street, as Haitians pray for their dead and ask God to spare them more suffering after an earthquake that has killed thousands and flattened much of the capital.

While the widespread singing provides comfort, the jarring shrieks and sobs of injured children -- some lying in the street clutching bloody gashes -- are a haunting reminder of the untended suffering in Haiti. "Oh my God, who will help my country now?" said Manuel Deheusch, a Haitian businessman who came rushing back from neighboring Dominican Republic to check on his friends, family and properties.

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