On Monday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that 49 million Americans, about one in six, suffer from what is bureaucratically known as "food insecurity" but is better known as hunger.

 

Single mothers with children are having the hardest time putting food on the table. This number of households in which children were occasionally or frequently hungry has risen by two-thirds in the past year alone to more than a half-million.

 

In October of this year, 10,971 individuals and 5,056 households in Carter County received food stamps, representing a total of $1,342,689 issued in food stamps. Every single county in the state of Tennessee has shown an increase in the number of people and households receiving food stamps.

 

The extent of hunger in a land of plenty, and plenty of obesity is maddening.

 

Statistics released this week by the USDA indicate that about 2.5 million families in Tennessee do not know where they are going to get their next meal. The statistics also show that 13.5 percent of households in the Volunteer Stare are classified as "food insecure," up half percent over last year.

 

In Tennessee, 14 percent of the people or one in seven Tennesseans receive food stamps. On average, Tennessee households receive $1.07 per person per meal. About 76 percent of Tennessee food stamp program benefits go to households with children, many of them in working families. Most of the rest go to households containing elderly people or people with disabilities.

 

While the statistics rise, donations to Second Harvest Food Bank in Northeast Tennessee are down. Approximately 27,000 people are presently being helped each month by Second Harvest of Northeast Tennessee.

 

Most of us will never face the prospect of going without a meal. We can only imagine what a life of hunger and poverty must be like. The reality, however, is more present than many of us realize.

 

Poverty is an issue that touches all of us, every community, either directly or indirectly. All of us are vulnerable and any one of us could find ourselves in a situation where we had to rely on food stamps or food pantries. Nothing in this life is certain. This recession has also also worked as a socio-economic leveler. Married middle-class moms and unemployed professionals can be found in the food stamp line with the chronically underemployed and hard-core poor.

 

There's much to be concerned about in the economic times we live. But, there's also much to be grateful for. This holiday season we must keep in mind that not everyone has the luxury of being able to cook what they want. Turkey and the trimmings will not grace every table this Thanksgiving.

 

Requests for food from the 200 charitable food agencies that rely on Second Harvest Food Bank for food and supplies are higher than ever before. These agencies work hard to see that their neighbors do not go hungry. That's why they need your support to keep up with the ongoing demand for food. This holiday, it is more urgent than ever that those who have share with those who do no not.

 

You can help this weekend by donating a few cans of food to the Boys Scouts, who will be collecting food for the Scouting for Food Good Turn Project. People who received bags recently are reminded to fill them with canned good items and set them on their porch early Saturday morning for pickup.

 

It's only through the good work of churches and organizations and many individuals that poverty is not a bigger issue in our communities.