Dear Next President,

Hunger is a major problem in America and we need to do something about it. The government needs to make sure that everyone has food.

Some people in America can't afford food to eat and they will starve. Such as people in Minnesota and Iowa, whose farms are threatened and are unable to produce enough food. Also, in Texas and Louisiana, resources of oil and natural gases have declined. In the article “Should America be measured by it 3.5 million millionaires… or by its 30 million hungry?” written by The Nation states that “The report was based on field investigations in four areas of the country: Texas and Louisiana, where the oil and natural gas industries are in decline; Minnesota and Iowa, where the family farm is threatened; Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, where many once high-paying steel and mining jobs have disappeared, and California's Silicon Valley, where service workers, including many immigrants, earn minimum wages amid the wealth of high technology.”

All over America more homeless are left without food. Fifteen percent of families (11 percent overall) request food assistance. This number rose fourteen percent over the past few years. The article “More Homeless More Hunger”, by America states that “....in the past year emergency shelter requests were up fifteen percent for families (11 percent overall), and requests for food assistance rose fourteen percent” , as was reported by the U.S. Conference of Mayors' Annual Status Report on Hunger and Homelessness in American Cities, released in mid-December. This report states that in the past year emergency shelter requests were up 15 percent. The U.S. Department of Agriculture did a study in 1999 that showed “...more than 36 million Americans- one third of them are children under the age of 12-- are suffering from “limited or uncertain” access to food.” This study proved that the Clinton and Bush administrations were wrong when they claimed that poverty was no longer a big issue and cut food stamp assistance by 27 billion dollars.

In the article, “Working to Combat Hunger in the U.S.A”, it states that according to Peter Hendry, former editor of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization's journal, “The ability to produce a sufficient food supply does not mean a nation will eliminate hunger.” Family farms are threatened…” in the United States, for example, where surpluses are so large that farmers are paid to produce less, the government must provide food stamps each month to more than 19 million people so they can get food.” By providing stamps the government is helping to reduce hunger.

There are those who think it's not the government responsibility and that citizens should do something about it themselves, with the help of religious organizations and other private groups. Well this could be a big problem for other people and they should go to the government.

To summarize I think that people that don't have food get help by either the government or other willing citizens and those people should help get food and give it to people in need of food. Thank you for listening to our issue and I hope you can do something about this issue.

Sincerely,

Elijah H and Vincent J