Janet Poppendieck

In the following viewpoint, Janet Poppendieck maintains that the growth of reliance on private charity to provide basic services for the poor has eroded support for a more extensive government welfare system. Instead of preventing poverty by providing an adequate safety net, the proliferation of private charities has enabled the government to shed its responsibility for the poor. In Poppendieck’s opinion, private charity is not an adequate substitute for the food, shelter, and income the government once provided to the poor as entitlements. The author is the director of the Hunter College Center for the Study of Family Policy in New York City.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. What events in the early 1980s brought about a dramatic expansion of private charitable food programs, according to the author?
2. In Poppendieck's...