PLATFORM : A Tough Choice?
A study completed this week by our organization revealed that in 1990, 62% of the people who turned to Catholic Charities did so for food, shelter and other forms of emergency assistance; in 1980, less than 23% asked for these services.
While our primary mission is to help the poor achieve self-sufficiency--to help children learn, the unemployed get jobs and single mothers work to avoid welfare--we are now struggling to keep people alive just one more day.
Hungry children can’t learn or grow into an educated work force or become future consumers. We’re calling for passage of the Mickey Leland Childhood Hunger Relief Act to improve the nutrition of this nation’s children. For the price of one B-2 bomber a year, 11.5 million children can get basic nutrition. Why is this such a tough choice?
About $1 billion from our defense budget has been proposed to aid the Soviet Union. An additional $1 billion to feed hungry American children will not put this nation at risk. Not doing so might.
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