This is what a rising poverty rate looks like

 NPR has a podcast called Story of the Day, and Saturday’s story,
Midnight Shopping On The Brink Of Poverty, was both heartbreaking and terrifying. It was the story of hundreds of families who are part of a growing trend of midnight shoppers.

I’ve been to Wal-Mart in the middle of the night a time or two, usually shopping for someone’s birthday. I’ve seen people pushing overflowing carts, sometimes with young children half asleep, and I’ve wondered. I mean, I could see needing to run to the store with your child in the middle of the night for medicine, a missing ingredient, personal hygiene items… but why would anyone do their full blown grocery shopping in the middle of the night?

Bill Simon, the head of Wal-Mart’s U.S. operations, answered this question in a talk last week.

And if you really think about it, the only reason somebody gets out in the middle of the night and buys baby formula is that they need it, and they’ve been waiting for it. Otherwise, we are open 24 hours — come at 5 a.m., come at 7 a.m., come at 10 a.m. But if you are there at midnight, you are there for a reason.

The story featured Tracy & Martin Young, who were at Wal-Mart in the final hours of the last day of the month food shopping for their five children. They waited for the clock to strike midnight before going to the checkout, so that there will be funds on their EBT cards to pay for the two carts full of groceries.

Tracy says their children know when the end of the month is approaching, because what they like to eat is gone and the kitchen shelves have emptied.

I grew up in a welfare home after my parents divorced. Living in a small rural town, shopping locally wasn’t economical. The bulk of the shopping for the month was done in one trip to the nearest discount grocery store about thirty miles away. I remember that last week of the month well… a week where there was little food in the house and what there was wasn’t anything anyone liked to eat. A week where you went to bed a little hungry.

For any child to live this way, is heartbreaking.

So often when we hear people railing about those who receive public assistance, we have an image of a single welfare mom or the image of a slovenly dad who is willfully unemployed… sometimes we have the image of noble parents who are actively seeking work but just can’t get hired.

Tracy & Martin don’t fit any of those categories. Not only are they both employed, Martin works TWO jobs. And despite having three jobs between them, they still qualify for food stamps. Despite three jobs and government assistance, they are still struggling to make ends meet.

That, my friends, is terrifying.

via Midnight Shopping On The Brink Of Poverty & Child Hunger, As Seen At Wal-Mart : Planet Money : NPR

The full transcript of Bill Simon, President, CEO of Wal-Mart US speaking at Goldman Sachs Retail Conference: Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. at Goldman Sachs Retail Conference

Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2009

Cyndi has a PSA for (grand)Parents:

These little gems usually appear in my Facebook status, but I am blogging this one specifically so you can share it with others… I know  a couple of you have parents or other relatives who do stuff JUST LIKE THIS…

If you need to tell your adult child something important… say, that you have liver cancer and will be having surgery within the next three weeks… PLEASE don’t tell your her daddy that you tried to reach said child “several times” if you never left a voice mail.

Unlike the caller ID on your house phone, there is no “missed call” if the cell phone you are calling is off (while the grandchild who carries it because she uses public transit is in school) or in a dead zone (like the elevator at work or the depths of Super Wal-Mart) or the battery got worn down (because she took too many videos at volleyball practice, or pictures, or was using her phone as an MP3 player).

I’m just sayin’… leave a message.