Causes of poverty in the United States

In the United States, hunger is not caused by a scarcity of food. There is more than enough food to feed everyone. We have the infrastructure to deliver it. There is a network of interstate highways and a trucking industry ready to move mountains of food daily wherever it needs to go. The supermarket store shelves are stocked to the ceiling. But none of this matters if customers have no money in their pockets. Poverty spoils every meal.

We live in the world's wealthiest nation. Yet 13 percent of people living in the United States live in poverty.

Nearly one in four children live in households that struggle to put food on the table. That's 16.7 million children.The most direct way to reduce hunger in the U.S. is through national nutrition programs. But while food assistance to hungry people is vital, it is not enough

• Approximately 9.2 million children under the age of 5 die each year, mostly from preventable diseases. That's 
• approximately 25,000 children each day.
• 2.5 billion people around the world do not have access to adequate sanitation and about 885 million people do not have access to clean water.
• Every day, 4100 children die each day from severe diarrhea - as a result of poor sanitation and hygiene.
• Approximately 600 million children live in extreme poverty.
• Nearly 11,500 people die every day from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Nearly two-thirds of these people are living in sub-Saharan Africa.
• 69 million children are out of school around the world, a figure equivalent to the entire primary school-aged population in Europe and North America.

As a result to the Global Economic Recession, those living in extreme poverty have suffered the most.  Recent increases in the price of food and oil have had a direct and adverse effect on communities that were struggling for survival even before the recession hit. The long-term effects of this recession are expected to potentially push millions more into extreme povery.

World Hunger

• 925 million people do not have enough to eat more than the populations of USA, Canada and the European Union combined.

• 98% of the world's undernourished people live in developing countries.

• Two-thirds of the world's hungry live in just 7 countries: Bangladesh, China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia and Pakistan.
• Where is hunger the worst?
  • Asia and the Pacific: 578 million
  • Sub-Saharan Africa: 239 million
  • Latin America and the Caribbean: 53 million
  • Near East and North Africa: 37 million
  • Developed countries: 19 million

Poverty

• 1.4 billion people in developing countries live on $1.25 a day or less.

• Rural areas account for three out of every four people living on less than $1.25 a day.

• 22,000 children die each day due to conditions of poverty.

Family Poverty

  The factors leading to child and family poverty are numerous, diverse and complex. They start with economic self-sufficiency and the difficulties that many families have in finding and keeping quality jobs with benefits that provide protections and supports. The reasons for poverty also include educational deficits, the high cost of living, health care crises, a lack of assets and supports to build family financial security, family structure changes, discrimination and other factors.