Hunger vs Poverty
I believe an American anti-poverty campaign would have been very helpful for my Mom in the 1970s. A 3rd-party, like a counselor, may have been a real help. All the times I remember waiting in the bank’s guest area while Mom was arguing with the teller over bounced check fees. Mom lost this argument much more than she won it. And she’d leave the bank upset and frustrated because the bank account was in overdraft.
It would have been helpful if the bank had a finance counselor that was part of an anti-poverty campaign for someone like my Mom.
There were times when Mom went without dinner so that me and my brother could eat. We also got special tickets for free lunch at elementary school in the 1970s. I do recall anxiety over making sure I had those stupid little tickets. Looking back, I would have preferred anti-poverty campaigns over anti-hunger campaigns. Why? Because food wasn’t enough to keep the phone from being shut off or the power company cutting our power or the bank charging overdraft/bounced check fees.
Hunger is just one of many symptoms of poverty. Lifting a family, a neighborhood, a community out of poverty has a positive effect above and beyond just food scarcity.
