The answer may surprise you.
For more than 150,000 people living in poverty in the Ozarks, empty cupboards are a harsh reality. Of the 150,000 hungry people, 50,000 are children who go to bed hungry! Thousands more have disabilities or low-paying jobs, and a number are seniors who must choose between buying food and paying for medications. These Ozarks residents are often forced to rely on emergency food assistance from food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters to survive.

Children
Welcome to their world: The only meals you get are at school, and you dread the weekends because you know you will be hungry. Your parents are at work in the evenings, so you go home alone to an empty house and an empty kitchen.
• 300 children are served by homeless shelters nightly in Springfield and Greene County.
• 40% of people receiving food from Ozarks Food Harvest are under 18.
• 65% of schools in The Food Bank’s service area have more than 50% free and reduced meal participation.
• Even periodic hunger can lead to growth retardation, weak immunity, obesity, limited cognitive development and emotional problems.
• One in four people in a soup kitchen line is a child.
• In Missouri, 1 in 3 children (34%) live in families without full-time, year-round employment.
• About half of food stamp participants are children.
• Child poverty rates are higher in rural areas (15% versus 10% in metro areas).
• Households with children receive about 75 percent of all food stamp benefits.
• 13 million (17.8%) children in the U.S. live in poverty.
• In Missouri, 18% of children live in poverty.

Working Poor
Welcome to their world: You work every day, but it’s been a month since you’ve had money for groceries. You spent your paycheck at the doctor because you don’t have insurance. Then your only car needed repaired. With no way to buy food, you’ve been taking your lunch breaks at the local soup kitchen, and your children’s only meals are at school.
• Nearly 70% of people standing in Ozarks pantry lines report going without meals in order to pay other bills.
• More than 40% of people surveyed in food pantry lines were employed.
• 60% of people served by food pantries have their high school diplomas .
• 43 million Americans are living in low-income working families with children.
• 65% of food bank clients nationwide reported incomes of less than $10,000 per year.
• The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that the number of Americans who don’t know where their next meal will come from—categorized as “food insecure” jumped from 31 million in 1999 to 35 million in 2006.

Seniors
Welcome to their world: You’ve been forced to retire, and you can’t find more work. You’re embarrassed that your retirement and social security isn't enough to pay for your prescriptions and groceries.
• More than 10% of people served by Ozarks Food Harvest are seniors.
• Supplemental security income (SSI) payments are income-based benefits available to seniors, and in 2005, the SSI benefit for an individual who lives alone and has no other income is $579 a month (or 73% of the poverty line) .
• Each day 2 million seniors in the U.S. have to choose between buying food or buying medicine.
• Because of fixed and low incomes—9.8 % of the elderly in the U.S. live below the poverty line.
• 1 million seniors in America skipped a meal today because there was no food in the house.
• 17% of households participating in the food stamp program include an elderly person.
• Ten percent of those 65 and over in Missouri live in poverty (Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services’ Senior Report, 2008), and 20% of Missouri’s population is expected to be 65 and older by 2020.

Causes of Hunger
Factors such as the economy, including limited employment opportunities and low wages; unexpected hardships such as medical expenses; as well as factors such as disabilities, pride, underemployment, or even generational poverty can lead to hunger.

• “The region’s average wage rate and per capita income level continue to fall below comparison cities,” according to Community Focus 2007: A report for Springfield and Greene County. This information suggests that while cost of living in Springfield and surrounding communities is low, wages are even lower.
• In Springfield, MO, the largest and most economically diverse city in the Ozarks, housing costs rose 5.1% from 2004 to 2005. While housing in Springfield is still 18.8% below the national average, one third of Springfield households paid more than 30% of income for housing in 05. Also, inflation jumped 6.7% since 2001 and housing rose 5.1%, but the median salary in Springfield increased only 4.1% in that period.
• Seniors or working families are oftentimes too proud to accept help.
• Because of the continually rising costs of medical care, those in poverty often postpone necessary health care until their condition escalates to a serious level: “Nearly half of all emergency room visits are publicly funded, and almost 20% are uninsured,” according to the Community Focus 2007: A Report for Springfield and Greene County. This indicates how difficult hardships such as illness can be for individuals living in poverty.
• More unique factors that contribute to hunger in the Ozarks include tourist based communities such as Branson that offer mostly low-paying service-industry jobs and rural communities that offer very few job opportunities.

Generational vs. Situational Poverty
Generational poverty is very different from situational or hardship and economy influenced poverty. Dr. Ruby Payne, author of A Framework for Understanding Poverty points out that the framework of poverty is based on patterns of human behavior.

According to Generational vs. Situational Poverty and the Hidden Rules, a fact sheet based on Payne’s research by Kerri McCormick, “there are generally five reasons for poverty:”
1. Educational attainment of adult
2. The structure of the family
3. Immigration
4. Language issues
5. Addiction issues of adults

While the above reasons have an affect on all people living in poverty, people who have two or more generations of poverty tend to exhibit certain behavioral patterns. Over time, poverty can affect a unique culture. An example of the effects is an individual who has less education than someone living in situational poverty, but they have better coping skills. Just as a very rich person knows the best restaurant in every city, a generationally poor person knows the best thrift stores or what to look for in buying a used car.

Situational poverty is the result of a change in circumstances such as the loss of a job, divorce, spousal death or health factors. An individual living in situational poverty, will retain the values and behaviors from their original class. These individuals also often have connections and resources for assistance and a higher education level. The greatest advantages are that these individuals know and understand the hidden rules of the middle class.

What are Hidden Rules?
Hidden rules are behavior dictators that people learn from family, friends and society. Hidden rules are the culture of a socioeconomic class. This culture dictates decisions, behavior and actions. Below are some examples of hidden rules:

What’s important about food: quantity vs. quality
Wealthy – The aesthetic presentation or how it looks
Middle Class – The quality or taste
Generational Poverty – The quantity or having enough

How conflicts are resolved
Wealthy – Done through social exclusion and legal action
Middle Class – Verbal discussion
Generational Poverty – Physical

Aspects of time that are important
Wealthy – Traditions and history
Middle Class – The future, planning and preparing
Generational Poverty – The present moment and meeting immediate needs

What is most important
Wealthy – One-of-a-kind objects or legacies
Middle Class – Material items such as cars, electronic gadgets, clothes
Generational Poverty – People and relationships