Poverty in the United States has steadily increased in past years, and amid food bank shortages and an increasing number of students receiving aid, the Baton Rouge and University communities are not exempt.
The U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent poverty statistics identified 15 percent of the American population as impoverished, the highest since 1993. Poverty has increased 2.6 percent since 2007, when the recent U.S. recession began, according to the report.
Though the Louisiana Workforce Commission’s data shows that unemployment in Baton Rouge has decreased over the summer months from 7.8 percent unemployed in June to 7.2 percent in August, the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank experienced an extreme shortage of supplies in late August.
At that time, Mayor-President Kip Holden pleaded with Baton Rouge citizens to help those in need during a time of “extreme