Unfortunately this sight is not an aberration but an indication of the choices and values we are responsible for. For the first time in six years, households in the United States experienced an annual increase in their income. Second, the number of poor and the poverty rate dropped - the number of poor decreased 1.6 million between 1994 and 1995 to 36.4 million people and the poverty rate decreased from 14.5 to 13.8 percent. Although this report indicates an improvement in poverty conditions in our country, the number which remains is staggering. There is debate over the validity of these numbers.
Some critics say the methods used to estimate poverty in the United States is unreliable.
Even so, everyone agrees there are millions in our country, thousands in our local community, who live in poverty. The least of these causes is choice or laziness. Beverly, her husband, and their two-year old child sat across the table from me as I asked them how often they had to rely on the soup kitchen for food. He reports each day to a labor pool, looking for work. If he does get some work, he pays bills and they can eat at home.