Sure, there's people who have a hard time stretching the food budget. My parents did. My dad actually went out and shot food for our table in season.

7. LOS ANGELES COUNTY SURVEY FINDS MORE THAN ONE QUARTER MILLION FOOD INSECURE RESIDENTS

(County of Los Angeles Department of Health Services, March 2004)

In its largest study ever on food insecurity, the Los Angeles Health Department estimated that 260,000 county residents suffered food insecurity, and an estimated 141,000 experienced hunger in 2002-2003. Income and race breakdowns showed that food insecurity is striking not just the poor, but also middle-class families, the employed, and college-educated. The growing income gap between and rich and poor in the county does not bode well for slowing hunger rates in the future. The report also found a growing trend of obesity among the food insecure. There is a "paradox" among poor people who buy fast food dense in calories and fats in order to make food dollars stretch. They also lack access to quality produce, fresh foods, and opportunities to exercise, according to Dr. Paul Simon of the Health Department.

I am fascinated by the distance people will go to to explain why the hungry in America are getting too fat. The report cited in this example states that fast food is cheaper than homemade, which I can tell you from experience, is not true. In any case, a McDonald's salad is as easy to come by as a Big Mac. Another report on the list complains that food donors are donating fattening foods. Another source claims that advertising drives the poor to bad food.

I wish I could find the actual questions asked.

Okay, I'm playing devil's advocate a bit here. I know that low-income people have it rough. I also know that there are gigantic bureaucracies in California that survive on the fact that the poor are always with us. Prosperity puts them out of a job. I dare say poverty in the year 2004 is not what someone in the Great Depression would have called poverty.