Plague Journal, Hunger’s Edge
The New York Times Magazine dedicated an entire issue to a photo exploration of hunger in America. As you would assume the victims are predominately Black, Hispanic, women and children. The photographs taken by Brenda Ann Kenneally in the course of a three month journey from Oneida, New York to San Diego, California moved me. The struggle for food is documented in these photographs.
Along with Covid-19, unemployment, under-employment, isolation and eviction added stress to families that were already living on the edge. Jobs are disappearing and millions of us are being thrown into poverty. When asked one in eight adults say their households do not have enough to eat.
The Time’s story harkens back to 
Dorothea Lange’s famous 1936 photo of Florence Owens Thompson in Nipomo, California. Thompson and three of her children were huddled under a tattered tent. The image becoming famous after publication, eventually was entitled “Migrant Mother”. The photo increased support for the New Deal programs which became today’s social safety net.
The present day corollary to Lange’s photo can be found in these presented in the New York Times article.
Covid-19 has exposed the dark underbelly of the economy that we have; growth at the expense of the under class, — those who staff the warehouses, the big box stores, and the millions who are under-paid to manufacture the cheap goods that we depend upon. We know and pretend that we do not know the destitution upon which the prosperity of
this rich country depends.
Change has to come. This status quo cannot endure, at the cost of this suffering. We are at the edge.
To read the entire New York Times article America at Hunger’s Edge, CLICK HERE.
2 thoughts on “Plague Journal, Hunger’s Edge”
We currently live in a time when empathy is regarded as weakness by the current administration. Phrases such as “herd immunity”, “unwashed hoards”, “lazy Mexicans” and so many more permeate the dialogue. The country has relegated the poor to a category of sub-human where they are considered expendable.
What this means is that, at least for the time being, the responsible of caring for those in need falls to those of us who do care and have enough resources to do what we can to help. In the past I have donated some goods to food banks, but it is time to step that up. From now on I will have an extra bag in my car and when I grocery shop, I will purchase non-perishable items and place them in that bag which will go to a food bank. This is the very least I can do.
How on earth did we come to this?
Tobin your point is exactly on target. Where is the nearest Food Pantry and how can I participate? To demonstrate compassion is what designates us as human. Without compassion we are only extremely dangerous predators.