Blog for America has a great piece called Hunger is a cure about the fact that 1 in 10 American households experience hunger or the risk of hunger and that more than 9 million children are the recipients of food aid in various forms:
Once again, Americans have lost their focus, and are being distracted by the unfortunate case of one individual, Terri Schiavo. On Monday, March 21, 2005 at 1:11am the President signed a bill in his personal residence, which would allow a federal court to intervene in hopes of replacing her feeding tube. How ironic the president's action was, when there are millions of Americans, including children, who go to bed starving every single night.
It reminds me of a situation in Norway in the early 80's when an aid organization started collecting money for food for USA's starving children, and the US Embassy delivered a formal protest claiming the US could take care of it's own.
So why isn't it happening?
Developed countries (the US is by no means alone in this) still have a far way to go in eradicating poverty and providing proper safety nets.