The economic climate in New York City has become inhospitable for many adults, and it is with this in mind, that this year's WHY-Infinity Trimulcast will spotlight grassroots organizations that work daily on behalf of New York's most vulnerable population, its poor. These are the people who often must choose between food and rent. K-Rock 92.3, WNEW 102.7 and WFAN will air the public service show Sunday, Nov. 23, 6 -8 a.m.

Host Bob Salter will be joined by WHY International program coordinator Peter Mann as well as WHY program director Noreen Springstead and WHY executive director Bill Ayres for the live broadcast. Also joining the discussion are the following grassroots organizations: Just Food, Coalition for the Homeless, City Harvest, and New York City Coalition Against Hunger.

Aerosmith has been enlisted in WHY's Artists Against Hunger & Poverty Program (AAHP). With WHY's help, the band will aid community-based hunger organizations during its upcoming concert dates. AAHP has raised more than $6.5 million in concert-related donations for more than 500 grassroots, hunger and poverty organizations in the US.

"In a country as rich as ours, the fact that there are so many people living in poverty and children are going hungry every day tells me that our spiritual bank account is way too low," said Steven Tyler. "It's just unacceptable."

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, 33 million people -- including 13 million children -- live in households that experience hunger or the risk of hunger, representing one in ten households in the United States. Concert-goers are being asked to bring two cans of food to shows where drop boxes will be established to receive donations. The program kicked off last night at Aerosmith's concert at Washington D.C.'s MCI Center with The Capitol Area Community Food Bank.

Adds Tyler, "Through the years, our fans have always been willing to help make a difference, so we're asking them again to do what we always do when we are on the road in the holiday season, help us feed those people in need and our spiritual bank account all at the same time."

"Anything you can do is greatly appreciated," said Joe Perry. "We live in a great country where nobody should go to bed hungry."

Aerosmith's co-headlining tour with Kiss runs through December, and is produced and promoted by Clear Channel Entertainment.

The Canales home begins to wake at 4 a.m. The brothers, David and Arturo, run a combi business, a sort of local bus or taxi that costs 3 pesos, about 30 cents a person. Each family here has a one- or two-room section of the house, with one bed for the parents and one bed for the 3 or 4 children. The floors are concrete, and the doors between rooms are cloth sheets.

The women wake up shortly after David and Arturo to wash the family's clothes and dishes and get breakfast prepared for their children, who all go to school. The Canales women who work in Mexico City, take a bus at 4:30 a.m. to get to their jobs, and the other women set up their tiendas, their stores, selling candies or fried fish, right outside their windows or on the street corners. Every day, I would go for a ride in one of the combis, from its first stop nearby, to the last stop at the subway station, sitting up front with David or Arturo while young mothers, kids and teenagers boarded the combi.

At the end of our route one day, David stopped by the address of someone who wanted to work for him. The man stepped out of his garage like home, with copies of his identity papers, his address written in blue, and the names of his wife and children. His wife stood by him, holding their baby, while David examined the papers. It all looked o.k.; the man would start tomorrow. When we drove away, I saw him holding his wife, and smiling at their baby. He had a job.

One night, out in the street, where all the combis were parked for the night and the Canales family and other drivers were playing music from their combis, a young member of the extended family came over to visit. He had returned the day before to Mexico, having spent four years in Nevada, doing construction jobs and sending money home to his family. He had left Mexico when he was 16, and his father and brother were still in Nevada.

Now that he was back in Mexico, seeing his mother and other family members for the first time in four years, there was little for the young man to do. He did not have a high school degree, and could not find a construction job that would pay well here. But he told me that night that he was Mexican, and proud of it. The women sold candies and sodas, and the music played, and the proud young man, walked from corner to corner. Arturo's wife handed me a plate of tortillas, I said gracias, and she responded, gracias a Dios, as she cooked more fish to sell outside, cleaned the floor, and pounded dough for the tortillas that the family would eat tomorrow.

Four states and a coalition of conservation, public health, and farmworker groups are suing the Environmental Protection Agency for failing to protect children from unsafe levels of pesticide residue found in food, according to a report in Environmental News Network (ENN).

One of the suits was brought by the attorneys general of New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. The other case was brought by an 11-member group that includes the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Pesticide Action Network North America, the Breast Cancer Fund, and the Physicians for Social Responsibility. Both cases focus on a group of high-risk pesticides used on fruits, vegetables, and nuts commonly eaten by children, reported ENN.

Key quote:

"Some of these pesticides are so toxic that a teaspoon can cause acute poisoning in people, resulting in seizures and coma," the NRDC suit said. "One is so potent that the EPA says to protect against acute toxicity, a toddler should not be exposed to an amount weighing less than a single grain of salt per day. Lower doses over time may cause neurological damage, learning disabilities, behavioral problems, and cancer."

"You know the land's getting poorer. You know what cotton does to the land: robs it, sucks all the blood out of it.... If they could only rotate the crops they might pump blood back into the land." -- John Steinbeck in To God Unknown

It's been almost 70 years since John Steinbeck began chronicling the natural beauty of California and the grit of the state's rural poverty. In California recently, I saw not much has changed since: the sun still shines brightly over Salinas Valley; the ocean tries, yet, to reclaim the sand lost so long ago, now caked up into the mountains; agriculture remains the lifeblood of the state's economy; and the discount work of migrant farmworkers is still the openly reviled -- secretly encouraged -- engine of California agribusiness.

As Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger settles into office, he will find that he is not just overseeing one state but two. California is a state of great wealth and great poverty. For instance, on a recent trip to San Francisco, I enjoyed the freshest seafood in the Fisherman's Wharf area but also encountered many homeless on the streets there. In Salinas, I was engaged by The Farm -- an agricultural education center, demonstration farm, produce stand and recreation destination, designed to tell the story of contemporary farming amidst the majestic surroundings of California's Central Coast. Yet, I was reminded of the plight of California's migrant farmers, who aren't paid living wages like they are at The Farm. A 1997 National Agricultural Workers Survey reported that 75% of farmworkers earned under $10,000 annually and that three out of five farmworker families lived in poverty by US standards.

According to reports by Children Now, one in three low-income parents in California say they consistently have difficulty providing food for their children. Often, they live in some of the state's wealthiest counties. For example, 41 percent of low-income parents in Marin County, which has a median income of $67,785, report that their children sometimes go hungry.

During his campaign, Schwarzenegger promised not to do harm to the state's disadvantaged, vowing no new budget cuts affecting them and no new taxes. By placing so much spending off-limits to cuts, said The Los Angeles Times, Schwarzenegger must rely heavily on deficit borrowing or look to health and human services programs -- less than a third of state spending -- for the bulk of any cuts he proposes. But in several major social programs, like welfare, California is providing the minimum needed to secure matching federal dollars and deep cuts would doom federal assistance, worsening the state's fiscal mess, reported the newspaper.

Long-term solutions to hunger and poverty are what's needed in order for California to make a true recovery. When its citizens are making a living wage and can be an active part of the state's economy, California will be better off. When impoverished Californians are given job training, their new employment elevates the state's production levels. When children are fed well, they can learn better, and that is a vital component to any state's well-being. If Schwarzenegger invests in these long-term solutions, Calfornia can become what Steinbeck dreamed for it, instead of a sprawling mess of human suffering and environmental waste. "We in the United States have done so much to destroy our own resources, our timber, our land, our fishes, that we should be taken as a horrible example and our methods avoided by any government and people enlightened enough to envision a continuing economy ... our country will not soon lose the scars of our grasping stupidity," he warned.

The Bracelet of Life is a replica of a real tool that Doctors Without Borders uses in countries stricken by famine. Doctors and nurses use colorful strips of paper called Middle Upper Arm Circumferences (MUAC) to tell if a child five years old or younger is malnourished.

The campaign began in 1998 to bring attention to the devastating famine in Sudan, brought on by years of war and drought. Children walked with their families for days to reach feeding centers, where Doctors Without Borders volunteers provided round-the-clock nutritional support. Sudan is one of many regions in the world where children are malnourished. In fact, malnutrition is the number one disease affecting children worldwide, and is associated with over 6 million child deaths each year, according to Doctors Without Borders.

WHY's Artists Against Hunger & Poverty is hosting a concert at the Jersey shore's Stone Pony (913 Ocean Ave., Asbury Park) on Saturday at 7pm. For only $20, ticket holders can enjoy local luminaries like Joe D'Urso, Boccigalupe & The Bad Boys, Danny White Band, Jason Shain, Bobby Strange, Rob Dye, One-Eyed Jack, and Melissa Chill. Concert-goers are also encouraged to bring canned food for the Monmouth County Food Bank.

Artists Against Hunger & Poverty (AAHP) is WHY's program that enlists performing artists to help raise funds and awareness for the most innovative and effective community-based organizations working to combat hunger and poverty. WHY offers artists, record labels, managers, agents and fan clubs an opportunity to take a stand by using their voices and resources effectively - while doing what they already do so well. To join AAHP or organize an event, contact Artists@worldhungeryear.org