With the recession impacting “hard working” middle class citizens, food insecurity has become an issue with increased support in the county; The American people supported the expansion of safety net programs because it was middle-class Americans who lost their homes and hard-earned retirement savings. As Cousins' (2013) argues that the Great Depression "sparked an awareness among some politicians and the general population that poverty is part of an economic cycle," this awareness occurred as middle-class Americans saw their wealth real estate and retirement savings collapse due to actions completely unrelated to them