Song in my head: Well the kids don't eat...And the dog can't sleep...There's no escape from the music...In the whole damn street....The Who

We are your neighbors, your senior citizens, the alter-abled and we are hungry and poor.....

"The face of hunger doesn't have a particular color, and it doesn't come from a particular neighborhood," said Ertharin Cousin, executive vice president of the group. "They are your neighbors, they are working Americans, they are senior citizens who have worked their entire lives, and they are children." Via Cookie Jill

From Newsday: Characteristics of The Hungry

* Thirty-nine percent were white, non-Hispanic; 38 percent were black; 17 percent were Hispanic. * About 9 million were children. * Nearly 3 million were 65 or older.

* Nearly 70 percent had incomes below the official poverty level, which is $15,067 for a family of three.

* Twelve percent were homeless.

* Forty-one percent said they have had to choose between buying food or paying for utilities.

* About a third said they had to choose between buying food or paying for medicine or medical care. * Nearly 30 percent had at least one family member in poor health.

And what do chronically ill people have to look forward to:

U.S. Health-Care Costs to Go Up -- Way Up

Predictions that health-care costs in the United States will rise dramatically as the population continues to age appear to be coming true.
According to federal forecasters, by 2015 one in every five U.S. dollars will be spent on health care, for total annual health-care spending of more than $4 trillion. LINK

I am one utility bill away from being a cave woman....Two cylinders away from being Amish....Three fleece shirts away from freezing...Four hours of sleep away from feeling refreshed...Five days away from not having hot water..I know I will make it....yet depression has a way of making all these challenges seem overwhelming. The ONLY redeeming feature: I.Am.Not.Alone.

37 million poor hidden in the land of plenty. Via Blah3

· There are 37 million Americans living below the poverty line. That figure has increased by five million since President George W. Bush came to power.

· The United States has 269 billionaires, the highest number in the world.

· Almost a quarter of all black Americans live below the poverty line; 22 per cent of Hispanics fall below it. But for whites the figure is just 8.6 per cent.

· There are 46 million Americans without health insurance.

· There are 82,000 homeless people in Los Angeles alone.

· In 2004 the poorest community in America was Pine Ridge Indian reservation. Unemployment is over 80 per cent, 69 per cent of people live in poverty and male life expectancy is 57 years. In the Western hemisphere only Haiti has a lower number.

· The richest town in America is Rancho Santa Fe in California. Average incomes are more than $100,000 a year; the average house price is $1.7m.