Growing Up Empty : The Hunger Epidemic in America

From Publishers Weekly
Schwartz-Nobel, winner of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Award, follows up her groundbreaking 1981 expos‚, Starving in the Shadow of Plenty, with a new report, aiming to tell additional stories of America's hungry children-reportedly more than 12 million in number-because "[n]umbers are for the mind and stories are for the heart." Traveling coast to coast, she reaches into the hearts, minds and hopes of the disenfranchised, in particular single mothers and their children. She uncovers hunger in rural, urban and suburban neighborhoods, among the working poor and immigrants, even within the military and the middle class. The increase of hunger in America she documents as a direct result of Reagan's federal aid cutbacks in the 1980s as well as the 1996 welfare to work laws, which changed welfare and food stamp policies. These changes, coupled with high rents, income disparity and politicians rendering the problem invisible through political rhetoric, have, according to Schwartz-Nobel, exacerbated the hunger crisis. With equal parts outrage and compassion, she emphasizes the effects of hunger on the health of the entire nation and calls for awareness, action and above all a change of political heart. "This silent American epidemic is caused by people, by acts of man, not acts of God or nature." Shocking, informative and often devastating, this is a vital report on the politics of hunger and the silent Americans who are its victims.Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Schwartz-Nobel's first book, Starving in the Shadow of Plenty, was an award-winning account of the extent to which extreme hunger was rampant in Philadelphia in the early Eighties. This work revisits and expands on that topic, looking at the underlying factors relating to the surge in homeless and hungry families in America since then. She pays special attention to the impact of government programs, especially the Welfare to Work Act of 1996, which dismissed the sources and conditions of poverty in the rush to reduce the numbers receiving welfare support, a theme also highlighted in Lost Ground: Welfare Reform, Poverty and Beyond, edited by Randy Albelda and Ann Withorn (South End, 2002). Along with wrenching stories of struggling, malnourished, primarily single-parent families throughout our country, Schwartz-Nobel traces the involvement of food relief networks, private and public services, and other organizations that serve admirably but are still only palliatives. She strongly argues for a responsible political will to support programs utilizing resources, existing know-how, and technologies to deal constructively with the burgeoning number of shelter- and food-insecure households (working and middle class) in America. Recommended for academic, professional, and public attention.Suzanne W. Wood, SUNY Coll. of Technology, AlfredCopyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Kenneth Kusmer, author of Down and Out, On the Road: The Homeless in American History
A penetrating journalistic study that puts a human face on [hunger]. ... A wake-up call to policy makers.


Book Description

Already lauded as "a deft blend of tough investigative reporting and deep compassion . . . an unforgettable exploration of public policy, its failures and its victims" by the most respected senators, members of Congress, journalists and hunger advocates in the country, Growing Up Empty is a study of a hidden epidemic that still remains largely unacknowledged at the highest political levels. A call to action that will reenergize the national debate on the federal government's priorities, Growing Up Empty is advocacy journalism at its best.

In 1981, President Reagan incongruously announced to the world that there were no hungry souls in the richest nation in the world, that poverty had been virtually wiped out. But Schwartz-Nobel had found a different story in America's communities, and she laid bare the horrifying truth about hunger in the United States in her landmark work on hunger, Starving in the Shadow of Plenty. That book caused Americans to reexamine their priorities.

Twenty years later, Schwartz-Nobel returned to see how things had improved -- and discovered that it was all the same. As she tracked this hidden political and emotional battle, she was shocked to find that hunger is deeper and wider than she could have imagined, that it has reached epic proportions. It is running rampant through urban, rural and suburban communities, affecting blacks, whites, Asians, Christians, Jews and nonbelievers alike. And it is getting worse. The stories of the people she encountered are the core of Growing Up Empty. With a combination of skillful investigative reporting and a novelist's sympathetic and humanistic eye for detail, Loretta Schwartz-Nobel portrays an unforgettable reality of human suffering that need not exist.

Among the people we come to know in these pages are the new breed of homeless born of the "Welfare to Work" program -- working poor who have jobs but do not make enough to support their families-, immigrants who work under horrifying conditions for little money and fewer benefits; a formerly middle-class dentist's wife abandoned by her husband, reduced to stealing in order to feed her hungry children; soldiers who fight on our front lines, while their hungry young wives and children stand on bread lines and are denied benefits and baby formula at military health clinics.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"Already lauded as "a deft blend of tough investigative reporting and deep compassion . . . an unforgettable exploration of public policy, its failures and its victims" by the most respected senators, members of Congress, journalists and hunger advocates in the country, Growing Up Empty is a study of a hidden epidemic that still remains largely unacknowledged at the highest political levels. A call to action that will reenergize the national debate on the federal government's priorities, Growing Up Empty is advocacy journalism at its best." "In 1981, President Reagan incongruously announced to the world that there were no hungry souls in the richest nation in the world, that poverty had been virtually wiped out. But Schwartz-Nobel had found a different story in America's communities, and she laid bare the horrifying truth about hunger in the United States in her landmark work on hunger, Starving in the Shadow of Plenty. That book caused Americans to reexamine their priorities." "Twenty years later, Schwartz-Nobel returned to see how things had improved - and discovered that it was all the same. As she tracked this hidden political and emotional battle, she was shocked to find that hunger is deeper and wider than she could have imagined, that it has reached epic proportions. It is running rampant through urban, rural and suburban communities, affecting blacks, whites, Asians, Christians, Jews and nonbelievers alike. And it is getting worse. The stories of the people she encountered are the core of Growing Up Empty. With a combination of skillful investigative reporting and a novelist's sympathetic and humanistic eye for detail, Loretta Schwartz-Nobel portrays an unforgettable reality of human suffering that need not exist." Among the people we come to know in these pages are the new breed of homeless born of the "Welfare to Work" program - working poor who have jobs but do not make enough to support their families; immigrants who work under horrifying conditions

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Schwartz-Nobel, winner of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Award, follows up her groundbreaking 1981 expos , Starving in the Shadow of Plenty, with a new report, aiming to tell additional stories of America's hungry children-reportedly more than 12 million in number-because "[n]umbers are for the mind and stories are for the heart." Traveling coast to coast, she reaches into the hearts, minds and hopes of the disenfranchised, in particular single mothers and their children. She uncovers hunger in rural, urban and suburban neighborhoods, among the working poor and immigrants, even within the military and the middle class. The increase of hunger in America she documents as a direct result of Reagan's federal aid cutbacks in the 1980s as well as the 1996 welfare to work laws, which changed welfare and food stamp policies. These changes, coupled with high rents, income disparity and politicians rendering the problem invisible through political rhetoric, have, according to Schwartz-Nobel, exacerbated the hunger crisis. With equal parts outrage and compassion, she emphasizes the effects of hunger on the health of the entire nation and calls for awareness, action and above all a change of political heart. "This silent American epidemic is caused by people, by acts of man, not acts of God or nature." Shocking, informative and often devastating, this is a vital report on the politics of hunger and the silent Americans who are its victims. Agent, Ellen Levine. (Nov. 12) Forecast: Readers who appreciated Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed are a target audience for this account of the have-nots in America. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Schwartz-Nobel's first book, Starving in the Shadow of Plenty, was an award-winning account of the extent to which extreme hunger was rampant in Philadelphia in the early Eighties. This work revisits and expands on that topic, looking at the underlying factors relating to the surge in homeless and hungry families in America since then. She pays special attention to the impact of government programs, especially the Welfare to Work Act of 1996, which dismissed the sources and conditions of poverty in the rush to reduce the numbers receiving welfare support, a theme also highlighted in Lost Ground: Welfare Reform, Poverty and Beyond, edited by Randy Albelda and Ann Withorn (South End, 2002). Along with wrenching stories of struggling, malnourished, primarily single-parent families throughout our country, Schwartz-Nobel traces the involvement of food relief networks, private and public services, and other organizations that serve admirably but are still only palliatives. She strongly argues for a responsible political will to support programs utilizing resources, existing know-how, and technologies to deal constructively with the burgeoning number of shelter- and food-insecure households (working and middle class) in America. Recommended for academic, professional, and public attention.-Suzanne W. Wood, SUNY Coll. of Technology, Alfred Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews