December 10, 2020
By Rev. Eugene Cho
U.S. Census data from last year found that poverty in the United States was at its lowest point since the government started tracking it. Since then, we have experienced personal and economic hardship in ways that were unimaginable at this time last year.
Twelve percent of all adults in the country – nearly 26 million people – said that their household didn’t get enough to eat in the last seven days. Nearly 40 percent of Black and Latino families with children are struggling to put food on the table. Globally, hunger could reach 270 million people.
Congress passed the CARES Act earlier this year, and the number of poor people in the U.S. dropped by 4 million. Yet 8 million Americans have slipped into poverty since those benefits ended, and Congress and the administration have provided no additional support to a nation in distress.