Staff writer Doron Taussig pitched his hunger story weeks before Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast and we watched a city grapple with the nightmare of not being able to feed its residents.

What happened in New Orleans was a grim reminder of how quickly someone's life can change when the basic necessities (food, water, shelter) are stripped away. But it doesn't take a natural disaster. As Doron's story demonstrates, all it takes is a complex system that fails its people, even under the best of circumstances.

Philadelphia has such a faulty system.

"I happened upon a New York Times magazine article about why famine persists," says Doron. The surprising thing: It's not about a lack of food. "Famine persists because of food distribution problems, and I figured that hunger persisted in Philadelphia for the same reason — but I wanted to know what those problems were."

To find out, Doron visited every food cupboard he could and talked to the people in lines and behind the counter. "It took me weeks to understand all the ins and outs of it," Doron explains. "That's when the problem revealed itself. The system was incredibly complex."

Think about this. Doron had weeks to study this system and was still mystified. Imagine if you have to figure it out on the fly. With nothing in your fridge. And hungry kids to feed.

The complexity is only one problem. There's also the stigma attached to food relief programs, which is why volunteers are out there, urging people to sign up for the food stamps they're entitled to.

Nobody jokes about the food going to Gulf Coast residents — not even the assclowns who cracked 9/11 jokes are touching this one — yet, some have no problem making fun of people who need food stamps. When I was in grade school, "welfare cheese" jokes were second only to jokes about one's mother.

I've never told anybody this, but for a time, when my father was unemployed (or underemployed), we were on food stamps, too. I hated going to the corner store and buying milk and bread with those slips of paper covered in brown ink, issued in little booklets. (Today, thankfully, benefits are issued as debit-style cards.) I hated the idea that someone would see me. I thought it was shameful that we needed help to buy food.

As an adult, I know that's bullshit.

One line from Doron's story has been stuck in my brain for days now: the idea that food is not supposed to be charity, a gift from the rich to the poor, but a "basic human right."

We shouldn't want to help the hungry so we can feel better about ourselves.

We should do it because the other option is unthinkable.