WAR ON POVERTY

In 1964, my senior year in high school, President Johnson declared a War on Poverty. Here we are a half century later. So how are we doing?
* 1 in 5 children live in poverty
* 1 in 6 adults live in poverty
* 1.2 million students are homeless, including 100,000 athletes
* Here in Massachusetts 25% of families in the suburbs of Boston are on food stamps
* In Massachusetts last night, 2000 families spent the night in a shelter and 2000 more in a motel
* Here in Newburyport, Salisbury and Amesbury there are 7 soup kitchens and 5 food pantries
* In these same 3 towns there are over 200 homeless students
* Within 1 mile of my house are 3 tents with people living in them year round

I don't think the War is over. Far from it. We have a long ways to go. Eliminating poverty or significantly reducing it is a complicated process. I think one of the keys is education. We have to keep our students in school. Today 25% of high school students do not graduate or don't graduate on time. And 50% of those entering college do not graduate. What happens to all those who drop out of high school? Many will be homeless, commit crimes, turn to drugs, get pregnant and get minimum wage jobs, if that. A recent study indicated that close to 75% of all crimes are committed by high school drop outs. If we keep them in school, see them graduate, they will earn several hundred thousand dollars more over a lifetime than a drop out. So poverty goes down and so does crime. There are close to 2 million prisoners in our jails. The average cost is close to $80,000 a year per prisoner. Keep them in school and the cost to incarcerate prisoners drops significantly as well.

Short term there are many things we can do to alleviate poverty in our towns, increase awareness of those in need, and raise money and food. 6 years ago one person in Newburyport had a dream-that if every citizen just put 2 cents a day into a can, donated 2 food items a month to a food pantry and volunteered 2 hours a month, we could make a difference. A non profit was formed, made up of all volunteers, no salaries and hardly any overhead. Today over $70,000 has been raised and given out as grants and donated to the food pantries. Food drives the past 3 years have raised $19,000 worth of food that was donated to the food pantries. Over 80 businesses in the community have Pennies containers on their counters for donations, which goes to the food pantries.

If everyone just in Newburyport, Ma contributed 2 cents a day, that is over $120,000 a year. 2 food items a month is over 400,000 a year and 2 hours a month is over 400,000 a year. And this is just one town. Imagine if every one of the 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts did this? It wouldn't eliminate poverty but would ensure most of our citizens went to bed (somewhere) with a full stomach.

So the war is not over, there are many battles to be fought and won. Let's continue to march forth.