Loretta Schwartz-Nobel

Who is Loretta Schwartz-Nobel?

Loretta Schwartz-Nobel is an American journalist and writer currently living in Pennsylvania. She is known primarily for her advocacy of the disadvantaged families of America.

Schwartz-Nobel achieved national acclaim for her article in the Christmas 1974 issue of Philadelphia magazine, in which she brought attention to the hardships of the poor and destitute living in the otherwise typical American city of Philadelphia. The article proved worthy of the 1975 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award "for outstanding coverage of the problems of the disadvantaged."

For the next seven years, Schwartz-Nobel traveled the nation, doing similar research in several other cities, including Boston, Washington, and Chicago, and writing articles for local newspapers and magazines in each city. In 1981, she combined her experiences to form her first novel, Starving in the Shadow of Plenty, in which she outlined the alarmingly destitute living conditions of America's poor families, focusing especially on the difficulty of obtaining food and the ineffectuality of government welfare programs. Her book, as well as a number of economic factors, contributed to a distinct period of awareness of domestic poverty in the United States. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, for example, concluded that "Hunger is increasing at a frenetic pace and the emergency of food available for distribution is quickly depleted."