At the beginning of December The Coaster printed an article titled, “Food Pantries Helping More Working Poor.” I thought this was an interesting article for a bunch of reasons – one of them being that the face of Monmouth County’s “needy” population is becoming younger. The article states:
The face of the area’s hungry is becoming younger and younger.
Local food pantries report there has been a change in clients – from the elderly – to families where at least one and usually two members work.
“In the beginning it was the elderly, but that has changed,” said Richard Brugger, director of the Bradley Food Pantry, now in its 26th year.
Brugger said for many of today’s working poor it is a “lose-lose” situation.
The article goes on to talk about how the food pantry gets their goods and how they operate. I have a small issue with one of the comments where they say that younger families are working at McDonald’s and only making $7 per hour with 3 or more mouths to feed at home. Hmmm… if you can’t afford to have a family, then don’t have one. Makes sense, right? I can understand the first or second child being unplanned, but three or more? Come on – take some control of your lives.
It is a shame, though, that so many of New Jersey’s younger population can no longer afford to live in this state. Monmouth University’s Polling Institute released a poll a few weeks back that showed that more than half of New Jerseyans want to move out of the state. I was talking with a friend of mine over the holiday season and we agreed that in order to live a productive lifestyle in a safe area of New Jersey you either have to be single making a great deal of money (more than the median income, which is about $64,000 today) or you need to be married and have a two income household. This does not bode well for New Jersey’s young single population nor does it bode well for young couples who are looking to start a family.
Of course, you could live quite well making less money if you moved in to one of the not-so-safe areas of the state. However, you risk not only your life (though it is unlikely you’d be killed) but you risk your possessions. Many of the “tough” areas of the state are such that when young couples move in, they are looked at suspiciously by what is usually an ingrained population. Granted, that goes away after a while but many of New Jersey’s younger folks don’t want to deal with that type of negativity.
Anyway, take a read of the article as it’s pretty good. And for those of you in the Monmouth County area who are looking for a good place to donate some nonperishable food items – you may want to contact the food pantry that is talked about in the article.
Joe,
I take exception with your perception of people’s incomes. How does one know what these people make? BTW, when I was 19 y.o. (23 years ago) I was making $7/hr, but I was busting my butt doing it.
As for living costs in this state, I agree with you on the cost of living here being expensive. I am continually doing cost comparisons with other states and NJ comes out close to the bottom.
As for living in a “dangerous” part of the state, I did. I bought a 2 family house in New Brunswick in 1986 (near Bloustein School, so you know the area) and was never broken into and never assaulted (cars were though). I was careful as was my wife. A young person is the ideal person to do this type of thing, not with kids though. BTW, the rental income is partly how I got through undergrad.
It would appear that you take exception with the perception of people’s incomes that the article talks about. I make no independent assumptions on what people’s incomes are. From the article:
“They work at McDonalds for $7 an hour,” he said. “But with three or four children they can’t make it – especially in this area.”
How do they know what they make? I have no idea – I assume that when these people are qualified for free food they have to state their incomes. Makes sense.
My bad.
It happens – Happy New Year!