On Thanksgiving Day, when surrounded by family, mounds of turkey and pumpkin pie, it’s not hard to pause and count our blessings.
Yet, this sense of gratitude normally fades shortly after packing up the leftovers and heading back to the real world. Before we know it, we’re back to being consumed by work, bills or other challenges.
Alas, it’s easy to allow life’s daily stresses to overshadow our many fortunes. And it’s even easier to forget about the state’s most impoverished individuals.
Consider this sobering statistic: Nearly 1.8 million Georgians (19.1 percent) currently live in poverty, according to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Most of these people qualify as food insecure – meaning they don’t always know where they will get their next meal.
That’s why St. Vincent de Paul Georgia operates 38 food pantries throughout the state, and processes over 20 tons of food per month through our food recovery and distribution program in partnership with local supermarkets. We believe that it’s our responsibility, as a community, to ensure that no Georgian goes in need.
We provide the poor with numerous other services, including more than $6 million in direct financial assistance per year, in addition to temporary shelter, emergency shelter and transitional housing – adding a necessary adjunct to the public safety net of social service programs provided by taxpayers.
But we don’t stop there. We seek to break the cycle of poverty by empowering our clients with job training, education and key life skills, with programs in nutrition, literacy, finance and more.
Still, there are many other issues affecting Georgia’s poor, chief among them being limited mobility. According to a 2011 report by the Brookings Institute, only 38 percent of working age metro Atlantans live near a transit stop (lagging far behind the national average of 69 percent).
Making matters worse, only 22 percent of metro Atlanta jobs are accessible in 90 minutes via public transit. This continued sprawl makes it even more difficult for workers, especially poor workers without cars, to take advantage of much of the region’s job opportunities.
Until metro Atlanta leaders take action to expand its transportation infrastructure, this lack of mobility will continue to perpetuate the cycle of poverty in Atlanta’s most-underserved communities.
Georgia’s transportation shortcomings also worsen problems like food deserts, or areas without nearby grocery stores or farmer’s markets. These often-minority, rural and low-income communities lack access to affordable fruits, vegetables and other important foods – furthering issues like malnutrition and childhood obesity.
The Georgia Food Industry Association estimates that two million Georgians, including half a million children, live in food deserts. Innovative solutions, like store incentives for stocking fruits and vegetables or the development of urban gardens, are needed to address this ongoing problem.
Fortunately, St. Vincent de Paul Georgia, along with partnering organizations like the Atlanta Community Food Bank, United Way and CredAbility, will continue to find creative ways to address these highly complex issues. In fact, we are currently developing a mobile family support center system to deliver food and other services to remote areas of the state.
While Thanksgiving is a natural time to reflect on our blessings, it should also be the time when we acknowledge the problems of poverty and resolve to address them.
We are not powerless over poverty. Even one person’s actions can create a wave of change that will impact the world. Spend a day at a food pantry or food shelter; volunteer at a disadvantaged school; call your local elected officials and ask them to address issues of dependency and need with real solutions, not just spending and program cuts.
The list of ways you can help those in need is endless. Meaningful change just requires action on your part.
