NEW YORK-Former presidential and vice presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina toured the Yorkville Common Pantry in Harlem on behalf of the "Half in Ten" Campaign on Wednesday. The New York City Coalition Against Hunger (NYCCAY) and World Hunger Year (WHY) joined Edwards in promoting "Half in Ten," which aspires to cut poverty in the United States in half in the next decade.
More than 1.5 million New Yorkers live in poverty, according to the Census Bureau. That numbers includes almost half a million children. Organizations such as NYCCAY and WHY provide assistance for solutions to solve hunger, including but not limited to food pantries and soup kitchens.
In addition to NYCCAY and WHY, the Half of Ten campaign has united with a variety of community and rights organizations.
"It is time we all joined in the fight, and made a nationwide commitment to ending poverty in America," said Edwards. "When you have people – mothers, children, entire families – going to bed hungry right here in the richest nation in the world, that's not just wrong – it's immoral. I have seen it all over the country and I have also seen the hard work and dedication of the good people like the folks who are here today, who have dedicated their lives to putting an end to this injustice. It is time we all joined in the fight, and made a nationwide commitment to ending poverty in America."
NYCCAY's Executive Director Joel Berg echoed Edwards and lauded his efforts to fair awareness of poverty in America.
"Poverty in the U.S. and New York are unacceptable, and Senator Edwards is absolutely correct in calling for it to be cut in half in a decade. In a society with as much wealth as modern America, hunger should be doubly unacceptable. The Senator's visit not only highlights the growing domestic hunger problem, but enables us to being a national discussion of the basic steps necessary to make sure that all Americans have access to the food they need to lead productive and healthy lives."
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