Poverty is a real problem not only in third world countries, but also here in the United States. Interviews were conducted with 74 families with school-age children, including 44 families living at 150% or less of the federal poverty level and 30 families living above 150% poverty (Heymann 5). More than 14 million American children lived in poverty in 1997 (Sherman and Sandfort 555). It's often easy for people to hide certain aspects of their lives. However, poverty is not one of them. When a person is poor, it is humiliating for themselves and their family and is very difficult to overcome. Although poverty is not always a choice, it is a preventable problem in today's society that can be solved. If people were able to recognize that this is a problem that affects people all over the world and were willing to do something about it, the percentage of people affected by poverty would drop to almost nothing. Thousands of books and essays on poverty, its causes and possible consequences. patches have been written so others can gain an understanding and pocket a bit of knowledge so this can be fixed soon. There are millions of organizations around the world today begging for money, clothes and food so they can send them overseas to help a poor child in Uganda or Haiti. Helping out on a national scale is always a good thing to be a part of; However, there are many things that can be done in one's community, which is always a good place to start. As a group, we have all spent time with children in our community who do not come from the most financially well-off families. Like most small communities, Anderson suffered a severe economic blow when money was lost and our entire nation deteriorated. Many people lost their jobs or were laid off ... middle of paper ... and lived in poverty in 1997 - more than in any year since 1966 to 1990” (Sherman and Sandfort ). This article focuses on the importance of ending poverty at all levels. Achieving this would require the cooperation of people at all levels of the system. Government policies should be developed or strengthened to represent the people and give back to them what they constantly take from them. Each state can take similar steps to assure people in their own area that they will be well taken care of. However, it is at the last level that the average person can start to get involved: their own community. Each community involves a number of people responsible for studying and documenting data regarding poverty, which provides assistance to different community leaders and will allow community leaders to reach more people affected by poverty..