Study Shows Increase in People Collecting Food Stamps
By: Sarah Hatten
Updated: March 12, 2013
(ST. JOSEPH, Mo.) You'd hope that children would never have to worry about finding their next meal. Across the nation, and here in St. Joseph, more and more children are struggling with hunger, and more families are collecting food stamps than ever before.
At Second Harvest Community Food Bank, boxes full of food move in and out of the building pretty rapidly.
"We at Second Harvest are distributing more food than ever before in the organization's history and serving more people than ever before," said Tamara Grubb, with Second Harvest.
The organization serves more than 52,000 people and says the numbers continue to climb. That's on par with the national trend.
Studies show last year was record-breaking with around 47 million people collecting food stamps every month.
"Sometimes there's a stigma with that word "underprivileged" but you know what, it's not a stigma anymore and that's what's scary," said Mike Buckler, Backpack Buddies Task Force Chair.
When Buckler started working with the program five years ago, 450 elementary students in St. Joseph were on board.
Now, 1,000 students take home a backpack of food every Friday.
"It's scary, oh yeah it's unbelievable. A lot of times we don't understand that until we get involved with it. A lot of us don't worry about where our next meal comes from and we don't realize there's kids out there, there's adults out there that worry about that. And how in the world can they concentrate on schoolwork or anything else when they have a hungry stomach? And that's scary," said Buckler.
Buckler blames the economy for the food insecurity.
"And you talk about families that come on hard times and some of them are on worse than hard times. It's bare bones for a lot of these," he said.
About 63-percent of students in the St. Joseph School District are on free and reduced lunches.
Buckler says hunger hits children the hardest.
Grubb says of the 52,000 people Second Harvest serves, 17,000 are children.
At Second Harvest Community Food Bank, boxes full of food move in and out of the building pretty rapidly.
"We at Second Harvest are distributing more food than ever before in the organization's history and serving more people than ever before," said Tamara Grubb, with Second Harvest.
The organization serves more than 52,000 people and says the numbers continue to climb. That's on par with the national trend.
Studies show last year was record-breaking with around 47 million people collecting food stamps every month.
"Sometimes there's a stigma with that word "underprivileged" but you know what, it's not a stigma anymore and that's what's scary," said Mike Buckler, Backpack Buddies Task Force Chair.
When Buckler started working with the program five years ago, 450 elementary students in St. Joseph were on board.
Now, 1,000 students take home a backpack of food every Friday.
"It's scary, oh yeah it's unbelievable. A lot of times we don't understand that until we get involved with it. A lot of us don't worry about where our next meal comes from and we don't realize there's kids out there, there's adults out there that worry about that. And how in the world can they concentrate on schoolwork or anything else when they have a hungry stomach? And that's scary," said Buckler.
Buckler blames the economy for the food insecurity.
"And you talk about families that come on hard times and some of them are on worse than hard times. It's bare bones for a lot of these," he said.
About 63-percent of students in the St. Joseph School District are on free and reduced lunches.
Buckler says hunger hits children the hardest.
Grubb says of the 52,000 people Second Harvest serves, 17,000 are children.
