On Thursday 2/4 The WALK Breakfast Club with Mark & Cindy spoke with Paul Pachter, Executive Director of Long Island Cares - The Harry Chapin Food Bank about "Hunger in America 2010". This report is the largest study of domestic hunger ever conducted, and it provides an in-depth look at who is in need, how the need is met, and by whom.
The numbers are staggering. Long Island Cares and Island Harvest provide emergency food for 283,700 people each year... ON LONG ISLAND. 110,00 are children. This number is saying 1 in 10 people on Long Island (Nassau and Suffolk) are in need of assistance each year.
to Part 1 of our discussion
to Part 2 of our discussion
to Part 3 of our discussion
It is WALK's mission in 2010 to raise awareness of this issue. The problem of hunger on Long Island is widespread and not constrained to impoverished communities. The people needing help are in every community on Long Island. It may be your neighbor or it may be you. If you have ever had to make a choice between groceries and you phone bill you may need help. Maybe you are making $70,000 per year, paying your mortgage, insurance, college tuition and any number of other bills, but some months things are just too tight. You may make too much money for public assistance, but help is there.
We were shocked to hear about the scope of this problem and we are assuming you are probably shocked too. Tell someone else. Tell them to tell someone else and so on. Eventually someone with a great idea or a lot of resources will hear and be able to help. If you have a great idea we would love to hear about it. If you have a success story or gotten help and you like to share your story with others to say it's OK to ask for help we would love to hear from you. Email WALK's Program Director Patrick Shea at pshea@walkradio.com. If you have any questions call Long Island Cares at 631-582-FOOD
