Today is Blog Action Day

Today is Blog Action Day.  This year’s topic is “food.”

I’m choosing to blog about hunger – the lack of food.  The Food Bank of the Rockies (FBR) does a lot to fight hunger in my part of the world.  They have some alarming statistics…

• 42% of the members of households served by FBR are children under 18 years old.
• 10% of the members of households served by FBR are children age 0 to 5 years.
• 5% of the members of households served by FBR are elderly.
• 43% of households include at least one employed adult.
• 71% have incomes below the official federal poverty level during the previous month.
• 49% report having to choose between paying for food or paying for utilities or heating fuel.
• 44% had to choose between paying for food and paying their rent or mortgage bill.
• 36% had to choose between paying for food and paying for medicine or medical care.
• 25% of households served by FBR have at least one household member in poor health.

Get this…

In Colorado, the Fair Market Rent (FMR) for a two-bedroom apartment is $857. In order to afford this level of rent and utilities, without paying more than 30% of income on housing, a household must earn $2,856 monthly or $34,277 annually. Assuming a 40-hour work week, 52 weeks per year, this level of income translates into a housing wage of $16.48.

In Colorado, a minimum wage worker earns an hourly wage of $7.28. In order to afford the FMR for a two-bedroom apartment, a minimum wage earner must work 91 hours per week, 52 weeks per year. Or, a household must include 2.3 minimum wage earner(s) working 40 hours per week year-round in order to make the two bedroom FMR affordable.

Monthly Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments for an individual are $674 in Colorado. If SSI represents an individual’s sole source of income, $202 in monthly rent is affordable, while the FMR for a one-bedroom is $684.

In other words, there are a lot of hungry people who live in my community.

I have made a contribution to the Food Bank of Rockies this blog action day.  Please consider making a donation to a group devoted to fighting hunger in your community.  If you do, I will send you the eBook version of one of my career success books.  Just send me an email telling me you made a donation to an anti-hunger group and I’ll send you the book right away.

Thanks for reading on this blog action day.  Please do what you can to fight hunger in your community.

Bud