"In May, 13.9 million people were unemployed
— more than at any other time on record
Textiles. Manufacturing. Call centers. In North Carolina, their continual collapse
has led to a state unemployment rate of 9.7 percent as of April — the nation’s 10th worst.
That’s left 433,969 people without jobs...
The government considers a family of four to be impoverished if it makes less than $22,350.
Of the 2.2 million children who live in the state, 504,937 — roughly 22 percent
— live in poverty.
...there is 18,597 — the number of children statewide
who are homeless each year, with 1,717 in Guilford County.
[Layoffs]
January-December 2007: Cone Denim, 400 jobs.
February-March 2009: RF Micro Devices, 195 jobs.
August 2010: Thomas Built Buses, 219 jobs.
January-May 2011: American Express, 1,764 jobs.
Roughly 25 percent of area residents said they were too broke to feed themselves or their families.
...the Greensboro-High Point metro area ranked fourth and Winston-Salem third
in the number of people who said they couldn’t afford food.
Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina,
which serves 18 counties, including Guilford...served 130,000 people [in 2008].
So far this year, it’s been over 300,000.
The Winston-Salem-based operation even ran out of food once.
At Mary’s House, a Greensboro shelter for women and children,
staffers have heard something equally as heartbreaking:
former donors asking for assistance."
Mike Kernels
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