Before, growing up in South Vietnam, we didn’t have much. All of my siblings and parents had to work for all of us to survive like we were living paychecks to paychecks. Assorted meats were extremely expensive, especially beef; we would only eat beef once a year, especially when we resided in Saigon. Sometimes, my siblings and I just pretended a load of stale bread was meat.

Now, living in America, I imagine tofu is meat. Yes, lot of people might eat tofu because they are a vegetarian, but there are people like me, eating tofu for survival although I love vegetables. Many Vietnamese immigrants still believed that living in America is luckier than living in Vietnam. They fail to recognize poverty is also here in America, where one hour of your wages could not buy one pound of a Rib Eye steak. Poverty is real and it presents in many these circumstances: women-headed families, racial and ethnic minorities, unemployed adults, or adults with a disability. Do click the link below to further your understanding.

http://www.nclej.org/poverty-in-the-us.php

http://feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/hunger-facts/hunger-and-poverty-statistics.aspx

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/28/poverty-unemployment-rates_n_3666594.html

This is a poem by Segun Rasaki

The entity that is dreaded by all but ever present everywhere, a non-respecter of age,

Poverty does not have regard for race, nor nationality, as it is present in every part of the globe,

Poverty breeds diseases, it has siblings like misery, ignorance, illiteracy, dejection, rejection, degradation, agony,

Poverty means the difference between haves and have-nots, the rich and the poor, the upper and the lower class,

Poverty is a quick destroyer of human as it makes people ‘sell' lots of things including conscience, and destroys self-esteem,

Please click on the link to read further

poem

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