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Kelsey Kauflin

Professor Dean Leonard

English 1201-511

8 September 2019

Research Proposal: Hunger and Poverty

I stood in disbelief after the woman blatantly ignored the rule I had told her: you can only

take one bowl now and come back for seconds later. She declared that she was going to take two

bowls anyway, as if she deserved more than everybody else there. This incident occurred at the

House of Bread, a non-profit soup kitchen that serves hot meals to those in need seven days a

week. The House of Bread is a wonderful organization, and volunteering there felt so much

different than places I had previously volunteered. It opened my eyes to a world of people who

are less fortunate than I am, and I felt as if I really was helping these people get through their

day. After this volunteering experience, I feel that I would like to learn more about hunger and

poverty in America.

The topic makes me feel sad and helpless because it seems as if there is no way to

completely do away with the problem. Since this is such a large scale issue, I feel that there are

not enough programs in the country to try to diminish hunger and poverty. I think that hunger is

a feeling that everybody has experienced in life, but some much worse than others. There are so

many different types of “hunger”, from simply missing a meal to not having a real meal in

weeks, and this could be a reason why large-scale hunger has not been solved. I believe that

people all over America and the world are experiencing hunger and/or poverty. Additionally, I

believe that a number of people try their hardest to get out of a state of poverty, while others may

have given up. In regards to hunger and poverty, I know that certain parts of America are worse
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than others. Also, I know that children are a main group of people that suffer from hunger and

poverty.

Although this topic interests me a great deal, there are still many things that I do not

know about the topic. Throughout my research, I would like to learn more about the statistics

associated with poverty. For example, I would like to learn how many people in poverty are

children, and where hunger and poverty occurs most frequently in America. Additionally, I am

hoping to learn about the similarities and differences of hunger versus poverty. I hope to be able

to find these answers through articles and websites online. The internet offers a great deal of

information, and I hope to find scholarly research about my topic online. One research question

that would fit my topic is “what is the correlation between hunger and poverty in America?”

Another question that I have formed is “how do hunger and poverty affect the economy in the

United States?”