We here at the Capital Area Food Bank aim to help our communities, and empower them. Usually, that empowerment is giving people in need the tools they need to lead healthy, productive lives through food and nutrition.
But on top of that, we all know that knowledge is power, and we want to spread knowledge about today’s reality. That’s why we fully support the work being done by Half in Ten in the run-up to the November 6 election.
The U.S. has the second-highest child poverty rate among wealthy nations, according to a U.N. report (PDF) released this year.
To date, the presidential and vice-presidential debates have not addressed the issue of poverty in our country. We want the final debate, moderated by Bob Schieffer from CBS News to ask a direct question about how our candidates plan to reduce poverty over the next four years. The Capital Area Food Bank, Half in Ten and hundreds of organizations across the country have a real point to make about poverty and our international presence: How can we be competitive in the world when one in five of our future generation lives in poverty?
We only have a few days to go until the debate, so Half in Ten is urging us, if you tweet one thing today, make it this:
US child poverty 2nd worst/wealthy nations. @BobSchieffer how will candidates reduce poverty 2 compete http://ow.ly/eDYN3 #TalkPoverty
Click here to tweet now.
This NPR report which aired last week mentioned just how popular the #TalkPoverty debate is among the population, yet not at the podium.
Half in Ten and all of us in the #TalkPoverty community have been raising our voice louder and louder as representatives of the one in five children in poverty.And President Barack Obama responded in writing to a letter sent by many of our advocacy partners about how he plans to address child poverty if given another term. Check out Jonathan Capehart’s rundown in The Washington Post.
In just the past 24 hours, #TalkPoverty has exploded with an audience of over 700,000! That’s grown by more than 100,000 since the last debate. We need to keep this momentum going and keep pushing for that question. Continue tweeting the community with your photos, statistics, stories, and more. We’re making a big difference already, thanks to the work of Half in Ten, and so many others.