Sunday, June 22, 2008

A Hunger crisis

I wrote this more than two years ago, and it is sad that things have not changed.
A Hunger Crisis,
What is a crisis? According to dictionary.com, a crisis is: A. A crucial or decisive point or situation. It is also a turning point.
B. An unstable condition, as in political, social, or economic affairs, involving an impending abrupt or decisive change.
Something that is affecting the children today is hunger. Many people suffer from hunger in the US. This happens because of lack of money, expensive things, and because services are denied.
I remember one time when I did not eat for several days because I did not have enough money. I receive SSI which is: supplemental security income. Unfortunately, I only get 800 Dollars a month and that is below the poverty level. Out of that money, I took some money to pay for rent and utilities. Also, some of that money went for transportation. When I counted how much money I had, I only had enough for a drink. During those few days, I only drank juice.
I felt angry not being able to get money to eat, but I was also sad because I used to sleep most of the day, so I could not think of my misfortune. When I awoke, I would only listen to music and do the usual necessities that a human must do.
Their have been other occasions, where I have had money, but the food was expensive. When my mom told me about this I said, “how can it be possible that food is expensive?" One time I wanted to bye eggs, tortillas, chicken, and milk, but I only had money for the tortillas and the milk. This ruined my plan because I wanted to have a nice meal. As I entered the store, my mom began to read the tags on the things that we were going to bye. As we went to pay for the stuff that we bought, I was thinking" Why does this have to happen again." When I Got home, my mom went to the refrigerator and saw that there was a bit of food left over, and I had to eat an egg, a slice of cheese, and two tortillas.
Finally, I have been denied services. Because their was not a way that I could get food, I went to apply for food stamps. However, the person who helped me said that I could not do that because I was receiving SSI. When I got home, I started telling my mom that other people get money and food stamps but nothing has happened to them. I also told her that the poor have to struggle more to get the things that they need and want.
We cannot let hunger affect children any more. One solution to this problem would be to help anyone who is on the streets by taking them to a shelter. If rich people got rid of their selfishness, ego, and of the ambition to have more things, life could be much better for them and for the kids. Because they would give the money they do not need to these people, the poor would have money for food. It is hard to believe that the US has money to build things and for wars, but they don't have money to get these kids food, or a place to live. There have been food drives in different cities in the US to help hungry people. For example, nonprofit organizations do annual food drives, but this should not be dun once a year. I think, it could and should be dun every day.
Many kids suffer because of hunger. Even though this has been affecting children, know one stops to give them a hand. I am slowly getting out of that situation. I have been able to do it by doing things that will get me some money. Because of the reasons already mentioned. My wish is that other people could follow my footsteps, so they could be able to do what they love as I am doing it now. I hope that everyone could finally get a job or career where they would be able to make a lot of money and get out of this situation. I pray for this to happen.

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