I read stories like this, and I get so angry that the Catholic church seems to draw no connection between this ever-worsening state of affairs and the Republican administration. Insisting on a “right to life” without a true support system in place for families is nothing but empty words. For instance, imagine how anti-abortion groups would react if this mother tried to have an abortion because she knew her son would be disabled - and contrast it with the indifference to funding aid institutions once he’s already here.

But I digress. This is happening everywhere. Please do what you can to help your local food bank, and not just at Thanksgiving:

Denise Arnold lost her job in July.

Her family helped her as long as it could, but this week, the Roselawn woman found herself at the Society of St. Vincent de Paul’s food pantry, walking aisle by aisle with volunteer Bob Barry to pick up enough canned vegetables, pasta, bread and cereal to get her through the next few weeks.

She’s looking for another job. She’s applied for food stamps and other help, but that’s been slow in coming.

Since she lost her job, Arnold has fallen behind on her rent, and she worries she and her disabled son might end up homeless.

“It’s really been rough,” she said. “I’ve been so scared.”

At St. Vincent de Paul, the FreestoreFoodbank, Northern Kentucky’s Brighton Center and other agencies, workers are hearing more stories like Arnold’s.

Demand for help is up so much that FreestoreFoodbank and St. Vincent de Paul cut back the amount of food they send home with people so they can stretch their supplies.

“Right now, we’re giving clients three or four days’ worth of food, where before we gave them six or seven days’ worth,” said Liz Carter, executive director of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Greater Cincinnati. “It’s horrible.”

From June through September, 6,604 people went to St. Vincent de Paul’s West End food pantry for help - an 18 percent increase from the same period in 2006, Carter said.