For all its wealth and opportunity, even the United States is not immune to hunger. Approximately one in eight Americans go hungry each and every day — forced to skip meals for sometimes days on end — and contrary to popular thought, the problem is not limited to the inner city. Feeding America, an organization devoted to stamping out hunger, estimates that more than 42% of its clients reside in rural or suburban areas. What’s more, in 2006 4.2 million suburban households experienced food insecurity, while an additional 1.5 million were living in a state of very low food security. The bottom line? Your neighbors, your co-workers, your child’s classmates could be going hungry right now.
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David Arquette, dad to 5-year-old Coco Riley with wife Courteney Cox-Arquette, has heard these sobering statistics and was motivated to help as a result.
A volunteer with Feeding America, the 37-year-old actor has pitched in at Los Angeles-area foodbanks two times a week for the last year.
“It’s amazing when you see the people face-to-face,” he tells PEOPLE. “You see a kid in a stroller, and you give his family a bag of food, and the kid just reaches in and pulls out a piece of bread and just starts eating it. You can tell right away that this is a serious situation.”
For our smallest Americans, especially. With proper nutrition so vital to their growth and development, it is particularly distressing that Feeding America currently serves more than 9 million children, 2 million of which are under the age of five.
“The problem of childhood hunger is not simply a moral issue,” Feeding America notes. “Scientific evidence suggests that hungry children are less likely to become productive citizens. A child who is unequipped to learn because of hunger and poverty is more likely to be poor as an adult. As such, the existence of childhood hunger in the United States threatens future American prosperity.”
Click below to read about Hunger Action Month and David’s special delivery on day one of the Drive Out Hunger Tour.
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