Oklahoma Watch (https://oklahomawatch.org/tag/poverty-2/)
Oklahoma City and Tulsa, and even rural communities, struggle with areas plagued by economic blight. The telltale signs are abandoned homes, schools and other buildings – the hollowing out of cherished neighborhoods.
When school’s out, in summer or afternoon, many parents face a struggle. Research shows that children without access to summer and after-school learning programs can suffer academically, but finding good, affordable ones is an arduous task. Oklahoma provides no state funding, and a federal program could be eliminated.
Hunger in Oklahoma was the focus of an “Oklahoma Watch-Out” public forum, featuring Hunger Free Oklahoma Executive Director Chris Bernard; Katie Fitzgerald, CEO of the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma, and Leon Hill, Oklahoma City Public Schools executive director of operations services.
President Lyndon Johnson’s call for a war on poverty in 1964 led to a cascade of federal programs aimed at eradicating chronic poverty. Today, while poverty in the U.S. and Oklahoma is less severe, it persists to a troubling degree.