Meredith Pollack
Intro To Journalism
Food Stamp Edits
There is no better example of the disparity between the rich and poor than in New York City, where the homeless and hungry sleep right on the sidewalks. In reality however, most New Yorkers cannot even process what a million dollars looks like, and are more concerned with putting dinner on the table.
New Yorkers have slowed their rate of descent into poverty and unemployment. Rates for unemployment in the state are at 8.0%, only one percent lower than the national average. In New York City however, the rates are at 8.6%. The gap between the poor and rich still exists, and when looking at average income levels for New Yorkers, the people on the lower half of the wealth spectrum still are in need of aide.
According to Forbes and the NYC Coalition Against Hunger, 57 New York City billionaires have as much money as 13 million minimum wage workers. Now, it is curious to think of how all of the money that funds a billionaires lavish, albeit unnecessary lifestyle, could be put to much better use in aiding the one million New Yorkers who will need to access emergency food stamps this year. Because while it may not be a steaming plate of fillet mignon, everyone still needs to eat. ]
Whether it is working three jobs to support their families or not being able to qualify for food stamps, there are still major problems that need to be addressed to help the hungry and homeless. While there is no longer an increase in poverty in New York City, the real problem lies in the fact that bigger things need to change. The poor are still poor, the rich are still too rich, and Cuomo’s state budget of $30 million to aid hunger programs is exactly the same as it was last year. Triada Stampas, Director of Government Relations and Food Bank NYC says, "Quite too often, people make it about politics, taking partisan business into consideration. But these are lives and livelihoods at stake. And the best way to meet these goals is to ensure quality from all angles--government, organizations, citizen involvement. By working together through all these approaches, we have no choice but to help the food banks and poverty programs to prosper."
There has been a lot of citizen involvement in New York City to raise money for the hungry. But in reality, a bake sale shouldn’t be needed to raise money for the food banks. It is something that the government should be on top of, seeing as how this is in reference to a bake sale held in Grand Central that raised $50,000. The sale was held by Sara Lee, a Food Network personality, but more importantly, Andrew Cuomo’s girlfriend.
This unfortunate disparity of wealth does not only exist in New York, but in other major cities across the country as well. In Houston, Texas for example, the city’s unemployment rate is higher than the states as a hole, with 8.8% in Houston and 8.3% in the rest of state. Also, incomes below the poverty level in Houston are at 20.6% versus only 17.2% in the whole state. Of course these disparities have a lot to do with the breakdown of age, gender, family size, and race. However, a city like Los Angeles, with an extremely low city unemployment rate of 11.5%, is doing great with the wealth gaps, with their median income at $48,617. While all of the states have high hopes for the end of the recession, there still is no clear solution to problems such as feeding the hungry, providing shelter for the homeless, and pulling state residents out of poverty in general. Steve Murdock of Rice University and a former state demographer for Texas said, "It is very clear how extensive the economic difficulties are. Health insurance. Job hours worked. Poverty rates. Income. Those are all in the wrong direction in terms of what we'd like to see for America.”
So while statistics are showing extremely small but fortunate declines in people living below the poverty line in New York City, those numbers are still hungry people, making the improvements seem very small indeed. Danny Meyer, CEO of Union Square Hospitatlity Group, a donor to food banks puts it, “There are still families, hard-working families, I meet in this city who have no idea what fullness is. That’s something that has always come off as crazy to me. As fortunate as I am personally, I have this intense gut feeling that there is still so much that has to be done here... “ and there is.
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