Capital Region Study on Poverty + North Albany Academy Homecoming

As I read the Capital Region Study on Poverty I noticed the poverty rates in Albany. I think it's awful that the percent of children living in poverty is double the overall poverty rate, bring it to nearly 50%. I have grown up in a suburb just outside of Albany and I never realized just how many people were living in poverty in Albany County. Another fact that I found disturbing was that a mom makes $27432 less a year than the Economic Policy Institute says is the minimum a mom with 2 children living in Albany county could survive on. The fact that I have lived so close to this without every realizing the seriousness of the situation bothers me.
Just like everyone else I was not looking forward to getting up Saturday morning and once we got there it seemed like they might not even need our help. Once the parade had ended it was clear that we were in fact needed and we all found jobs to do. I handed out the Oreos (it's suprising how many kids don't like oreos!) and was happy to interact with the kids as well as talking to some of the parents as they passed through the line. Overall I think our first group volunteer day went really well and it turned out to be pretty fun.