Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Poverty: Not Just an Urban Problem

Aired May 04, 2001 - 09:03   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
STEPHEN FRAZIER, CNN ANCHOR: In fact, people are out of work all across America, and the poverty problem is spreading far beyond city limits, such as Newark's.

As CNN Boston bureau chief Bill Delaney reports now, a significant portion of the nation's poor is living in the suburbs.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL DELANEY, CNN BOSTON BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): Most of us know that poverty breeds on the country's raw inner-city streets. Maybe more surprising: how much poverty breeds, too, amid scenes like this. One-third of the country's poor, more than 10 million people, now live in suburbia.

(on-camera): Poverty may be hard to see in a nice, New England- ey suburban town like this one, but it's here. The Greater Boston Food Bank reports distributing 50 percent more of its food last year to suburbs. And tucked away discretely, just down the street here in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, is an emergency food pantry.

SANDY DONOVAN, FOOD PANTRY ADMINISTRATOR: These are some Easter baskets that were donated by...

DELANEY (voice-over): Sandy Donovan runs the pantry -- helping feed, week after week, at least 150 families.

DONOVAN: I've had people in this line with doctors degrees, masters degrees. At least 80 percent, probably even higher than that, of the families that come to this pantry -- there is at least one member of that family working and, in many cases, two members of the family working.

DELANEY: Donovan knows firsthand suburban life's vulnerability to a suddenly soaring rent and unexpected medical costs. She lived in this house until her husband was laid off back in the 1980s.

These days she senses a similarly troubled economy.

DONOVAN: I hear more of it now. I hear them not getting the overtime that they were getting before. And what I see is people that maybe came at one time, stayed away for awhile, are now coming back again. Life is not as prosperous for them as it was before. From my own experience, there isn't anything more painful to have to say to your children -- I get very emotional about this, "There isn't any food."

DELANEY: Poverty experts say it's simply among us, more than most of us realize, in unexpected places, among more than 15 million families that work.

Dr. Larry Brown says, in the course of any given year as much as 1/3 of the U.S. population will experience at least temporary poverty.

DR. LARRY BROWN, CENTER ON HUNGER AND POVERTY: We've built a successful middle class over decades. But we've forgotten a lot of people in our country.

DELANEY: People like Sandy Donovan are determined to keep them in mind.

Bill Delaney, CNN, Chelmsford, Massachusetts.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com