Ending Hunger in America, 2014 Hunger Report Full Report

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In addition to fair wages, people need to be able to balance their work and family responsibilities. Forty percent of low-income parents have no access to any paid time off (no sick days or medical leave, no parental leave, no vacation), making it difficult to care for newborn or sick children.4 The younger their children the greater chance that a family will live in poverty. In the United States, children younger than 3 have the highest poverty rate of all children.5 The hardships associated with living in poverty during one’s earliest years have lasting consequences for health, education, and other “quality of life” determinants. More than two-thirds of children living in poverty are in families that have at least one wage earner.6 Government has a role in setting workplace standards so that workers can fulfill their job and family commitments. One example of the support that is needed for work is child care. One of the main differences between U.S. society today and a half-century ago is the presence of large numbers of women in the paid workforce. But this major change is not reflected in our nation’s policies. The United States lags behind every other developed country in the world in recognizing the “Ending hunger in need for government to assist families in affording quality child the United States will care. And child care that includes an educational component require leadership not has three payoffs: it strengthens the safety net for low-income only at the federal level working families, adds to the children’s human capital developbut also at the state ment, and builds a stronger future for America. and local levels.” Ending Hunger by 2030 We can get closer to ending hunger than the United States has ever gotten by improving job quality, strengthening the safety net, and investing in human capital development. In order to make economic mobility a real possibility for children born to low-income families, human capital development needs to start with early education and go all the way through college. But to end hunger altogether, we must also confront knottier social issues, such as racism and other forms of discrimination that drive too many people to the margins of society. Social exclusion is a problem in countries around the world as well as in the United States. Per capita incomes are on the rise in many nations, but not everyone is sharing the gains—particularly people at the very bottom, a group sometimes referred to as the ultra-poor. The United States has its own group of ultra-poor people, including more than a million households with children and with incomes below $2 a person a day. Ending hunger in the United States will require leadership not only at the federal level but also at the state and local levels. There are countless examples of locally-led initiatives that are achieving great success in their communities. At their core, these initiatives are formed around the belief that to end hunger in a community, a broad range of stakeholders must unite behind a common vision and strategy. A sense of community ownership is critical to finding sustainable solutions to hunger. Partnerships at the local level, and between local initiatives and state and federal government, build that ownership. Local partners do more than feed people; they feed information to leaders in government, and they make informed suggestions as to how partners can work together to fight hunger more effectively. Setting a national goal to end hunger would place independent local efforts within a wider framework. Connecting the many community-led anti-hunger efforts will enable them to develop a broadly shared narrative—the story of ending hunger in America. www.bread.org/institute? ? 2014 Hunger Report? 7 n

Ending Hunger in America, 2014 Hunger Report Full Report | Page 17