Three years ago in 2010, 22% of American children under 18 lived in poverty.  The Breakdown isn’t surprising:  12.4% of white, not Hispanic children lived in poverty.  38.2% of Black children lived in poverty.  35% of Hispanic children...  13.6% of Asian children.  It is estimated that 13% of children in America are born into poverty and will likely not get out of it.  These statistics mean that one in five American children lives below the poverty level at some time during childhood, which puts America, the wealthiest nation of the world, at the very bottom of the ranking among other wealthy nations. Of the children living below the poverty level, more than half of them live in extreme poverty. Those are the ones who likely will not break out of it. Following the announcement that the food stamp program has been cut by Congress, how can politicians, and all of us, not be concerned about the poor, and especially about the children who regularly go to bed hungry.  

The Washington Post and the L.A. Times report today that about 47 million Americans who rely on food stamps for their meals will have to get by on less after their benefits were cut Friday.  The reports said that the cut was originally meant to be timed to a brightening economy, yet many Americans remain stuck in poverty.  About 14 percent of Americans are on food stamps. The program has grown rapidly in recent years, attracting the attention of deficit hawks, who note that it now costs taxpayers $75 billion a year. The legislation passed by the Republican-led House could lead to nearly 2 million Americans losing access to the program, according to congressional analysts. It would cut $40 billion over the next 10 years. 

The L.A. Times report says that in Texas, about 4 million people receive food stamps each month, a dramatic increase from 2.5 million five years ago. The latest cuts will drain $411 million from the state’s economy, said Celia Cole, chief executive of the Austin-based Texas Food Bank Network.  The Washington Post reports that Mississippi has the highest proportion of children 8 and younger considered low-income - - 63 percent. It’s not likely that conservative Republican governors Phil Bryant of Mississippi or Rick Perry of Texas will do any more to help people rise out of poverty than their predecessors Haley Barbour in Mississippi or George W. Bush did before them. It is obvious that the problems of poverty in America can be solved only when we have cooperation and compromise between the major political parties in federal and state governmental institutions. 

Compromise and cooperation are not likely to happen soon enough to help a whole generation of our poorest children stuck in abject poverty. Going to bed hungry is only one of many complications for the typical child growing up in poverty.  Poor children are more likely than those living above the poverty level to suffer from what psychologists call “toxic stress.”  Poor children are more likely to be exposed to violence, to be subjected to abuse, and to be deprived of adequate emotional support needed for normal cognitive development.  Poor children are typically not able to take advantage of pre-K education and therefore begin behind and continue to lag behind more privileged children after they begin compulsory elementary school.  The curse of poverty continues through childhood and adolescence.  A poor adolescent is more likely to become a teenage parent, and children born to young parents are likely to continue the cycle of poverty.  

What should be done?  What can be done?  Who can do it?  Of course, I don’t know how to eradicate poverty in America, but I continue to believe that the beginnings of support for children must happen at the grass roots level. City council members, county council members, and mayors must address the reality of children living in poverty directly… with determination to change whatever needs to be changed to give all children a chance to develop outside of environments overwhelmed by poverty. In the present political race to determine who will become San Diego’s next mayor, I want to know which of the candidates will commit to being the city’s leader in an effort to end poverty.  Leaders of community groups and organizations like churches must make eradicating poverty their first priority. Any pastor, priest, imam, rabbi or other religious leader who doesn’t accept as first priority the education of a congregation about our individual and community responsibility for the poor should find another line of work. Any politician who doesn’t demonstrate commitment to ending poverty in a district should be voted out of office.  People who are not committed to ending poverty, especially for children, are complicit in their deprivation and almost certain abuse.