Despite a booming regional and national economy, budget surpluses in 15 Southern states and a likely national budget surplus, there are 14.5 million poor children in America. Children are the poorest group of Americans and Southerners. In 1996, 2.6 million Southern children, or one in nine, lived in extreme poverty, with family incomes below half the federal poverty line. This is not enough to feed, clothe, and house a child.
Children go hungry when family income is so low.
More than 1.2 million Southern households experienced hunger in 1995 according to the U.S. Agriculture Department, and another three million households lacked secure access to food. More than seven out of 10 poor Southern families with children had a family member who worked in 1996, a higher proportion than in the nation. But more than one in four Southern working parents earns hourly wages too low to escape poverty. Merely ending welfare as we know it by shredding the safety net further will not help them. Poverty affects children of all races.