San Gabriel Valley : GOING HUNGRY
“Shocking,” is how Pasadena Mayor Bill Paparian describes a city report which estimates that more than 19,000 children in the community are going hungry on a regular basis.
The report, compiled from public and private agencies, paints a very different picture from Pasadena that the world sees each January when it hosts the Rose Parade. According to the report, the city of 132,000 is a place where more than one-fifth of children live in poverty and low-income children eat an average of one meal a day. More than half the school district’s 23,000 students are in federal and state meal programs.
“Despite the efforts of both public and private agencies . . . hunger in Pasadena is growing, both in breadth and depth,” according to the report. Emergency food distribution programs in Pasadena are experiencing their highest demand ever, the report stated.
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