[captioning made possible by kcet public television] tavis: good evening. i am tavis smiley. we bring you night two of our look at poverty adn the poverty tour across america, including the kids who live at or below the poverty line, and i will be joined by vicki escarra . we thank you for joining us on night two of the poverty tour. >> every community has a martin luther king boulevard. one last place to gether with your community.

>> nationwide insurance supports tavis smiley, and works to improve financial literacy one question at a time. >> brought to you by the aarp foundation. ♪ >> the w.k. kellogg foundation, improving the lives of vulnerable children. learn more at wkkf.org. ♪ >> helping to build a better future for america's kids and

families. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. ♪ tavis: in our second part of the poverty tour, we look at the inw pour,or," who used to be the middle class. >> the blues are a personal catastrophe expressed lyrically. >> the white literary blues. >> i teach them in my class. >> the tennessee williams

festival. >> me and my wife -- all of us. trying to get here. you have to keep our home. >> the new pouor are the form er middle class. >> i had a job, a family, what people are supposed to have. i have nothing. >> hatred or revenge, at the blues fest, it is about the love. >> there are more -- >> i worked with a nonprofit for 18 years. my car was reposessed and my home -- >> we are in a class war now. >> you must come to terms with the reality. you cannot not know.

>> the largest econiminomic institutions came to the government for a bailout. wallstreet socialized its failure on main street. the poverty was unseen in generations. not just of ghettos and barios rios, but suburbs. 1/3rd of the middle class has fallen into poverty. >> cornell west. what a blessing to be at the heart of the blues. a blues man, the blues ain't nothing but an autobiographical catastrophe expressed lyrically. everybody has some catastrophe.

what is your response? love and justice, or hatred and revnege? enge? at blues fest, it is about the love. >> freedom house. we talked about poverty. i had a job and family, what a person is supposed to have. i am down to nothing now. i have reached almost 30 years. i worked at a major store that had to close 140 stores. i worked with people who had been with the company. a year or two left for whatever pension. the things that they had worked hard and have in their retirement and they lost all of that.

because of losing the home, i had to make certain that she was cared for. we split up and have been separated for nine months now. >> sometimes, you just feel the love. you never, ever, -- >> millions of americans are finding themselves in poverty. more children of all races and creeds from 2008-2009 joined the ranks of the poor than in any other point in time in the history of this country. a country is not a great nation

unless it takes care of its babies. >> in detroit, it is 31%. depression. >> educated myself, educated my children. i am not unique. >> i have been laid off, had my car repossessed. >> explain to me -- thmy salary. i can bring a lot to the situation. where i am not ready -- >> she is the face of poverty. she is.

i have been saying, the new poor in this country are the former middle class. >> poverty like we've never seen before. there is so much corporate greed that something has to be done. >> we are in a class war right now. it is our -- right in here. >> there was a white woman on the sidewalk. she was waiting for the bus to pull up to read us the riot act. >> you have chosen columbus, mississippi.

>> she didn't like we'd bring up in this poverty tour bus. "you are stygmatizing our town." -- stigmatyzing our town." >> got to do everything just to keep our homes. >> you lost your jobs in the same month. >> trying to keep our houses -- >> i did the multiple. >> i have my license and can do just about anything. you make two dollars too much.

life insurance, gone. they cut the cable off. the gas is gone. we have each other, and we have god and we jus tkeet keep going. >> we serve everybody who needs to be served. in 2012, our budget will be $800,000. that is limited. >> not even half. less than half. >> those are the cuts. we have very limited service in 2012. when we deal with a big issue, it makes things worse. it seems the government has forgotten about the people and we need to put the emphasis on the people. >> columbus, mississippi, the

birthplace of the great miracle playwrite. his theme is those who escape from reality. the engagement with memory requires poverty. the blues out of mississippi is an engagement with and poverty, and is resillient against it. this is a love tour that fights back. tavis: my friend, cornell west, who took the poverty tour. thanks to the media mobilizing project, who put together these pieces. one reason we work with them is their mission to hire and train people from these

backgrounds. tonight and again, all this week. i am joined by vicki b. escarra, from "feeding america." an honor to have you here. >> thank you, good to be here. tavis: september was the month when these census numbers came out. it puts the number at $50 million in poverty. this is hunger awareness month. >> the link between poverty and hunger is like other things linked to poverty. 50 million people in our country live in hunger. 16 million children. the link is there.

we were stunned by the numbers and were a bit pleased because it looks like the food and security numbers hold their own. the work we are doing is helping to feed 50 million people. >> holding their own. how long can they hold on. what kind of increased demand have you been getting? >> in the last three years, hunger increased by 50% and it increased more than 50% with kids. out of that number, people who never visited a food bank come to our network at 30%. it is hard to wrap your head around 50 million people. but the stories about the people resonate with me and others in

this work. as we go through america, we see these families and hear about them struggling to get by. it is stunning it is happening here. are women and: why children falling fastest into this group of poor americans. >> we know women are likely to lose their jobs first as you look at those who are working and are out of work now. women are living with children and are affected. people of color are affected more greatly than those who are not. >> why is that the case? i ask because some folks don't get that or don't want to

recognize that, that the poor are to blame for being in that situation. there is a racial disparity component to this? >> people living in poverty before this recession have been in poverty for some time. what we see is that as the layoffs happen and unemployment rises, it is affecting women and people of color at a higher rate. already into are and about to get more deeply into this election season. obama and mr. romney and mr. perry and whoever it may be, there will be a signifigant part of their operation dedicated to

getting the woman vote. nobody gets elected without the woman vote in america. if this is so important, why do we allow this to happen to women and hetheir babies? >> it is criminal we allow women and children to go without enough to eat. every county in the u.s. is impacted. we know women always go without eating before they allow their children to go without eating. i remember a story -- i was in vegas, which was impacted by the recession. i was in the principal's office. the school had children who qualified for free lunch at 92%.

max had his head down, typical of kids who live in poverty. the principal asked him -- he had a box. she walked out and came back later and said, max brought his toys to school so he can sell his toys because his mother lost her job. he recognized that she wasn't eating. so my question to people in our country is, "should 8 year olds worry about selling their toys so their families will have food?" i don't think so. tavis: asking this question -- since children don't have a voice, there is the children's defense fund.

since kids don't have the kind of voice of persons over 18 who can vote. who is on the front lines of the fight? >> it has to be all of us. we have to make it known to our elected officials. we have been in our network, calling on the gang of committe. calling on the president. this is unacceptable. that we allow 15-18% of the citizens to live in poverty. they don't have good education. they don't have good food to eat. it is around the same group of people. >> what kind of response are you getting? >> it is mixed.

some people are really in our camp, fighting hard for us. the majority are not concerned about it. we need to get the majority of people in congress concerned about this issue. tavis: these 12 members of congress who have t o figure out the deficit reduction, whahow scared are you of what may happen to children and babies? >> i am concerned. there is an idea that we just nutrition nutriciosion programs. food stamps provide $350 a

month. a 1% cut cuts $75 out of the monthly budget. how does a family of four with $25,000 get by on $275 a month in food? they don't. this is why we see this at a rate we've never seen, in the 25 years we've done what we've done. really concerned. sounds easy. just take 1%. tavis: how does feeding america define food and security? >> families don't know wheere re the next meal will come from. there are definitions leading to people being hungry.

>tavis: you suggested earlier, i didn't want to stop your flow. you say we are a country of plenty. does that evidence hold up? do we have enough food and can we feed the people who are hungry. >> there is enough food to feed the majority of the world. do we have the political will and the values this country was built on, that we will take care of those who are lesser than all of us and make sure they are cared for. tavis: what happens to children who don't get enough to eat over time? kids,ave seen thsese

tavis. like all of us, wthey don't pay attention. they are jumping up and down. we had the backpack program. she knew they were going home on the weekends without enough to eat. children who go a short period of time without food don't develop cognitively, but emotionally, spiritually. psychologically, they feel they are not as good as other kids. you see them. they hang their heads like they don't fit in. the distress they go through is something they will live with. >> he went by a facility in

detroit this summer. tons of kids. they were screaming and yelling, we had a great time. we hung out with them a while. in one facility you support, what kind of network did you have to have to provide the food service you provide across the country? >> it is a fabulous network. 202 food banks across the country. 62,000 pantries. we have 100,000 programs. we are feeding 37 million. we distributed 3.1 billion pounds of food. 75% of the network is involved in attaching families to remote

programs. tavis: thank you for doing what you're doing and supporting the poverty tour. this is not just a naturaional disgrace but an emergency, and ought to be unacceptable. tomorrow, part three of our series, with kathleen faulk sebelius. >> for more information on today's show, go to tavis smiley @ pbs.org. >> join us for the health and human services secretary, kathleen sebelius.

>> every community has mlk boulevard. it is a place to gather with your community to make every day better. >> nationwide insurance supports tavis smiley as we work to improve financial literacy. >> brought to you by the aarp foundation. ♪ >> wk kellogg foundation, improving the lives of vulnerable children. learn more at wkkf.org. ♪

>> and by contributions to your viewersation from like you. thank you. ♪ ♪ >> be