Today in the United States there is epidemic poverty plaguing childhood for many of our nation's children. Census data for 2000 indicates that there were about 72 million people under the age of 18 living in the United States and more than 11.6 million of these children were living below the poverty line. That means that at least one out of every six children in this country was living in poverty. More alarming is the realization that 77% of these children living in poverty lived in families that had at least one working adult. These were not children from families that were lazy, unable to find work, unmotivated, or unable to work due to illness, drug use, or some other circumstances but rather children from families that were working and still not able to make enough money to support their families in a healthy way. These children are in a situation not of their own making. For many, this is not a condition that they are surviving for a brief period of time but rather a societal context in which they are challenged to grow up. Eighty percent of children who are poor one year are still poor the following year. This is not a problem that will just go away by itself.
