One in ten people in America are using food stamps, because they don't have enough money to pay for food for their families. This number has jumped up 17 percent from this time last year. With the money that we are spending in the war in Afghanistan we could be helping these starving people right here in America. 30,000 more troops are going to be sent to Afghanistan costing the U.S $30 billion a year. With 30 billion dollars you could start about 7,500 food pantries across the U.S.

Today in America we have sent over 243 billion dollars to Afghanistan since 2001. Every month that we spend overseas, we spend 3.6 billion dollars. The plan to send 30,000 more troops over there may work, but is it the right thing to do? Is it the right way to spend our money? Well many people would say yes, but I am saying no, and this is why. We could use the money that is getting spent overseas here in America with a lot of benefit. There are many benefits to ending the war, like not having people dying, and not having to keep sending money overseas.

One important thing that the money could be going to is food banks. There is a food pantry in Alfred ME, called the York County Shelter Program Inc. and they have served 41,741 people already just in the year of 2009. They have sent out 13,442 food boxes so far this year. There are 34 million Americans using food stamps as of Aug. 7th ,2009. The number of people using food stamps is almost a record breaking high, and is predicted to break records by the end of the month.

They need all the money that they can get because they are a non-profit organization. They are on a very low budget for the amount of people that they serve. Their 2009-10 budget is only about $4,000,000 dollars per year.

Another good place we could spend money is homeless shelters. There is a homeless shelter in Alfred and many other towns around this area have a homeless shelter that is also run by York County Shelter Program Inc.. The York County Shelter Programs Inc. has 440 known residents so far in 2009, which is up 35 more people than last year, according to the data collected by deputy director C. Wesley Phinne, Jr. A homeless shelter in Boston cost about $40.30 a day to house one person. With the money that is getting spent by sending more troops to Afghanistan, we could house about 744,786,494 people.

Some people would ask, do the people of Afghanistan want us to leave? What will happen to them if we do leave? Well according to the people of Afghanistan 44 percent of people say “yes”. They want a decrease in the amount of troops in Afghanistan, but not too fast. Only 18 percent of people in Afghanistan want an increase in troops for protection. 77% of people want an end to the air strikes that have killed thousands of their people.

If we were to end the war now, there would be peace in the future, but if we don't, what does that mean for the present? The present would not have a positive affect. We would be lossing a lot of money that we didn't have to.