"The Canary in the Coal Mine"

Food pantries and food banks across the country are noticing a startling trend - their lines are growing longer with new faces.  They are the faces of individuals and families with stable jobs and middle-class incomes, who cautiously and humbly come to accept services they never thought they would need.  An article published yesterday by the New York Times reported on food insecurity encroaching on suburbia.

  

“If one of our richest counties has people signing up for food stamps who have never signed up before, that indicates the depth of this problem with the lack of food,” said Kathleen DiChiara, executive director of Community FoodBank of New Jersey “It’s the canary in the coal mine.”

This undoubtedly has implications for food donations; moderate-income households who used to donate food are now receiving it.  Nevertheless, I can't help but wonder how those truly living in poverty feel about the person standing behind them in line taking their bag of food back to a cozy house on a tree-lined cul-de-sac.  But perhaps this is the wake-up call that is needed to catalyze larger efforts to eliminate poverty, rather than alleviate it.  Dr. Anderson of Ohio University agreed.  "The middle class is dropping down into the working poor group.  That’s causing the problems, and we’re realizing that something needs to happen with these people.”

Thank you to Dr. Scanlan for pointing me to this article.