I’m grateful for this opportunity to blog about poverty along with my fellow bloggers out there in the blogosphere on Blog Action Day.

Poverty is an important topic of discussion as it affects every single person, even if they don’t realize it. Poverty affects people of all ages, races, all around the world. It also can not be easily defined. Although the government believes it can. According to the US Census Bureau 37.3 million people were living below poverty level in 2007.  The government takes into account the number of family members living in the household and gives them a monetary value based on their threshold of need. Then the amount of income for that household is divided by the amount of threshold for need. If the income is greater than the threshold of need then that family is not considered to be in poverty by official definition.

But unfortunately the world does not always work like that. Can living paycheck to paycheck be considered poverty? I mean sure you aren’t going under- but still… your not making anything to better your situation. It’s all quite controversial really, but this isn’t the point of my post. My point is that it’s not only the homeless and hungry who are suffering. Because there are speculations out there that the gap between the upper class and lower class is widening and the middle class is disappearing, this tells me that there are many many more than just 37.3 million people out there who are suffering from poverty.

It’s a scary and sad thought. Many of us have friends and families who, especially with this economic downturn, are worried how they are going to feed their families dinner next week, how they are going to buy diapers for their babies, afford daycare so the parent can get a job (possibly second). Millions of children don’t have healthcare, and so parent’s suffer those burdens. I wish there was an easy fix-all solution to these problems but unfortunately there really isn’t- unless we are willing to adopt communism (which thank goodness we aren’t). Every program, solution, non-profit, and volunteer make a difference.

One of my friends at work, Candace is a great example of being just one person but making a difference. Every month she volunteers at the soup kitchen, she participates in a food co-op and I have seen her give away her lunch to homeless people before. She just has a giving attitude and that has translated into blessing the lives of others. I think if the world was full of Candace’s it would be a great place to live.