The Changing Face of Hunger

Abstract

Even more controversial than government intervention in agricultural markets was the other side of the Farm Bill equation: public food distribution and financial assistance for the needy. Until 1932, that responsibility lay solely at the feet of l cal communities and charities. Critics of food assistance programs believed that hunger relief would lead the country ir competition drove food prices to record lows and as displaced farmers and sharecroppers waged protests and joined the staggering unemployment lines during the Great Depression, no resolution appeared to the paradox of want in the midst of overabundance.