Hannah King

English IV Honors

Mrs. Wilson

27 April 2018

Poverty

Thesis: Soup kitchens, donations, and fundraisers effectively combat poverty in the United

States, North Carolina, and Rockingham County.

I. Poverty is a very real in the country.

II. Soup kitchens is a way to contribute feeding the poor.

III. Donations help to clothe and give the poor things they need.

IV. Fundraisers raise money to to give to charities that help people in poverty.

V. Federal and State Welfare programs is another assistance to help the less fortunate.

VI. Soup kitchens, donations, and fundraisers all contribute to helping the poor.

VII. Contributing to all of these different programs effectively help people living in poverty.

Poverty
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Poverty is an ongoing issue in the United States, North Carolina, and Rockingham

County that needs to be addressed. For as long as humans have been alive there has always been

people living in poverty. There are many ways to help people in need, but how can poverty

someday come to an end? Soup kitchens, donations, and fundraisers effectively combat poverty

in the United States, North Carolina, and Rockingham County.

Soup kitchens are an effective way of helping people living in poverty. Soup kitchens

have groups of people like churches, and companies which are volunteers to feed the poor in

their community all over the United States. Soup kitchens are non-profit organizations meaning

they do not pay anyone or make any money. The people in need are provided with free meals

three times a day seven days a week.

The Soup Kitchen Inc. is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization, established in 1983

with a very focused goal - to help the less fortunate members of our community.

We feed the hungry and assist in our humble way to keep families together by

providing them nourishment, clothing and education. We provide a safe, clean,

uplifting environment for guests in need of food and fellowship. We provide

assistance to anyone who walks through our doors – no paperwork, no questions

and no fear of embarrassment. The Soup Kitchen provides meals at no cost to our

guests and it is sustained by committed and compassionate volunteers. (“About

Us”)

Soup kitchens are extremely helpful with sustaining the needy with food each and every day. A

good thing about soup kitchens is they do not require any paperwork, not a single person has to

worry about embarrassment or worry of anyone knowing their personal information. Soup

kitchens are well known in the United States, North Carolina, and Rockingham County. In 1987
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New York City soup kitchens serve roughly 269,061 each week; the amount of meals served

have been on the rise since then. (“Soup Kitchens Rise Sharply Report Finds”).

Donations to nonprofit organizations are extremely helpful to clothe and pay for meals

provided to the less fortunate and homeless. It is very important to donate to the right

organizations. Some organizations that people can donate clothing and other items resell and

make profit off of them instead of giving back to the needy. Goodwill is guilty of using the

items donated to make profit and pay their CEO’s more, when there are people in the United

States who cannot afford to buy clothing and other items for themselves.

According to an analysis of the 2016 American Community Survey, an estimated

4,609,826 people in poor households were living “doubled up” with family and

friends. This represents one of the most common prior living situations for people

who become homeless. The 2016 rate is 5.7 percent lower than 2015, but still 30.0

percent greater than in 2007. (“Support Our Work”).

Some people who are homeless are not just living on the streets they are also living in boxes. If

they are lucky they have family or friends that have provided them with somewhere to live.

There are also homeless shelters that people can stay in especially in the winter when

temperatures are severely cold. It is better to donate items to a trusted organization than going

out and buying things for the homeless and giving it to them directly. Non-profit organizations

do a great job at giving the items donated out to the people who really need them. Covington

Wesleyan Church has a Food Distribution every month on the last Thursday and provide people

with coffee, drinks, and snacks. Prayer tables are also open with people willing to talk to them if

the people would like. The church also provides singing and a service and once that is over the

people are given a box of food, bread, and milk. This is all completely free and the church pays
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for all of it. Some things are donated, but the church goes through any food that is donated and

makes sure everything is still good and not expired. Around holidays they are fed a full

Thanksgiving meal and at Christmas members of the church donate clothing and toys as gifts.

Holding events like the Food distribution impact the people in need greatly and the church is so

thankful to be able to provide people with food each month. Non-profit organizations are a great

way to help the less fortunate.

Fundraisers are a great way to raise money for the less fortunate. Typically the money

raised goes to non-profit organizations which helps people in need. There are many different

types of fundraisers that people can participate or host to raise money. Fundraisers are not just

raising money, some churches have food distributions each month. The way a food distribution

works is one day out of each month the less fortunate get a meal, entertainment, prayed for, and a

box of food to take home. Around Christmas the church donates items as presents for the kids

and adults.

Fundraising is one aspect of engaging children in civic minded activities from a

young age. It creates awareness in a young person that they are part of a

community, and that this position entails a certain amount of responsibility and

also self empowerment. When they are raising funds for other segments of

society, it teaches them to appreciate what they have and to understand that they

have the ability, even from a young age, to help others. (“Why Fundraising is

Important”).

Not only can adults help with fundraising, but kids can too. Fundraising teaches kids

responsibility and gratefulness for what they have. Getting kids involved with helping the less

fortunate shows kindness and how important it is to help others. There are many kids that grow
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up not knowing anything about poverty and those kids may think that everything can just be

handed to them without working for anything. Getting the youth of this generation involved with

helping others could teach kids to have good values and shows that they need to be appreciative

of what they have. Fundraising is beneficial to the less fortunate in many different ways, and it

is a good cause to help people who are in need.

Government assistance whether it be federal or state also provides help to the elderly and

low income families. The two forms of assistance is Medicare and Medicaid; these two types of

welfare programs are quite different with the type of assistance and the people who need it must

meet the criteria of either program.

Medicare and Medicaid are social insurance programs that allow the financial

burdens of illness to be shared among healthy and sick individuals, and affluent

and lower-income families. Medicare and Medicaid are different in several

respects: they are run and funded by different parts of the government and

primarily serve different groups. (“Differences between Medicare and

Medicaid”).

The federal government provides Medicare to senior citizens who have disabilities no matter

what their income level is. Which is different from Medicaid which is a federal and state

assistance to people with low income. However, senior citizens can receive both health

insurance programs if they have a low income and a severe disability, whereas a person who is

not a senior citizen can only receive Medicaid. Medicaid is also free or low priced health

insurance depending on how low the income level of the person is. Medicaid provides

mandatory benefits from the federal government and then there is optional benefits for the state

to decide who gets. State welfare programs also provide low income families with food stamps
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which is a debit card with an amount of money distributed to a family each month to buy

groceries. There are restrictions on what a person can and cannot buy when using the debit card,

and a person cannot withdraw any money from the card. The chart below shows the amount of

people collecting disability benefits, food stamps, and on welfare in the United States. The

numbers are high for each category, but it shows that people are taking advantage of the

opportunities provided to receive the help they need. Hopefully in the years to come the rates

will go down to show that the amount of people will low income and disabilities is decreasing.

Chart 1: Getting Paid Not To Work

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Source: Ro, Sam. “CHART OF THE DAY: The Stunning Rise Of Disability, Food Stamp And

Welfare Benefits.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 6 Feb. 2014,

www.businessinsider.com/chart-disability-food-stamps-welfare-2014-2.

There are many programs and ways to contribute helping the poor. Soup kitchens,

donations, fundraisers, and welfare are all ways that the less fortunate in the United States, North

Carolina, and Rockingham County can receive help. There is no reason for someone living in

poverty to not receive health insurance, donations, and help in general. It is easy to find out what

programs help the most and to be a recipient of welfare all someone has to do is sign up for

Medicaid or Medicare depending on the situation. Schools also provide help for kids when

going on field trips. Typically other families will sponsor other children anonymously and pay

for that childs trip. In elementary, middle, and high schools there is free or reduced lunch for

every single kids depending on their parents income and how many kids they have. There is also

a backpack program in each level of schools. Kids in the school donate food to provide kids

each week with a backpack full of food that they take home every Friday. In the summer schools

all around the county provide breakfast and lunch for free so that kids do not go hungry. In high

schools students receive laptops and if the parent cannot afford to pay for it at one time the

school will do a payment plan throughout the school year, or the classrooms have a set of laptops

for students to use if they did not rent one for the school year. It’s a blessing to the people in

need to have the opportunity to receive the help they need.

Last year alone, 2.6 million more Americans fell below the poverty line for a total

of 46.2 million living in poverty or over 15% or 1 in 6, the highest number of

poor in over 50 years. At 200% of the federal poverty level, the poverty rate in

America would be 30%. It is the first time since the Depression that median
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household income did not go up. Today's families are in worse shape than they

were in the 1990's and the gap between rich and poor is widening. Government

programs and nonprofit agencies are keeping many families going. If these

programs are cut or funding reduced, a large percentage of people already on the

brink of complete financial disaster will be in dire straits. (“Poverty Program”)

Government programs are greatly important to people living in poverty. Without Medicare and

Medicaid some people would be living on the streets without any money to sustain them. The

difference between today and the 1990’s is that in today’s society prices are a lot higher than

what they were in the 1990’s; the exception to that is with the rising of prices income should be

going up to balance the two out, but in some cases it does not work like that. However, it

depends on what state you live in as to how high the prices are, what benefits you get with

Medicaid. Taxes greatly affect how high the prices are in each state. There is talk about cutting

funding for Medicare and Medicaid, but hopefully it will not happen so that the less fortunate

can still receive the insurance they need.

Contributing to all the different ways that helps the poor is important, because it humbles

a person and shows them to be thankful for everything they have. Poverty is still an ongoing

issue in the United States and probably always will be, but there are still ways to fight it so that

the less fortunate can get help. Soup kitchens, donations, and fundraisers effectively combat

poverty in the United States, North Carolina, and Rockingham County.

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Works Cited

“About Us.” About The Soup Kitchen!,

www.thesoupkitchen.org/about_us.html.

Daley, Suzanne. “SOUP KITCHENS RISE SHARPLY, REPORT FINDS.” The New York Times,

The New York Times, 25 June 1987,

www.nytimes.com/1987/06/25/nyregion/soup-kitchens-rise-sharply-report-finds.html.

“Differences between Medicare and Medicaid.”

www.medicareinteractive.org/get-answers/medicare-basics/medicare-coverage-

overview/differences-between-medicare-and-medicaid.

“Poverty Program:” Poverty Program: USA Poverty,

www.povertyprogram.com/usa.php.

Ro, Sam. “CHART OF THE DAY: The Stunning Rise Of Disability, Food Stamp And Welfare

Benefits.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 6 Feb. 2014,

www.businessinsider.com/chart-disability-food-stamps-welfare-2014-2.

“Support Our Work.” National Alliance to End Homelessness,

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endhomelessness.org/help-end-homelessness/support-our-work/.

“Why Fundraising Is Important.” Fundraising Letters, Checklists, How Tos and Event Ideas, 19

Sept. 2017,

www.fundraisingip.com/fundraising/why-fundraising-is-important/.