Like Fighting Off a Hungry Tiger With Two Sticks.

As funding falters, shelters and soup kitchens across the nation are reporting as much as a 50% increase in applications for their services since 2007. Demand is sharply up at soup kitchens, and people are seeking emergency shelter and sadly, more are being turned away.

In a report published in December, 330 school districts identified the same number or more homeless students in the first few months of the school year than they identified in the entire previous year.

Joel Berg, calculated, in his book, All You Can Eat: How Hungry is America what would happen if we doubled the charitable food donations in America - 200% . The number of hungry Americans would decrease from 36 million to 32 million. In addition, Berg says a 10% increase is much more realistic and even that is considered too high.

In other words, relying on the private sector, charitable funds, foundations, or institutions to fight off America's growing "hunger" is like...well, it's like fighting off a hungry tiger with two sticks.