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JEFFERSON CITY -- Nearly 500 people from across the state were in Jefferson City on Tuesday for the Missouri Poverty Summit.
Representatives of various organizations put their minds together for a fight against poverty.
Several speakers told stories of the severity of poverty in our state.
Summit participants broke up into focus groups to come up with ideas to reduce poverty.
Event organizers say nearly 800,000 Missourians live in poverty.
About one out of four of them are children.
“This trend isn’t changing, these numbers continue to grow," said United Way of Central Missouri President Linda McAnany. "The time is now to say, 'We have to do something to stop this growth. We have to help these folks.'”
Missouri Poverty Summit organizers wrote a resolution that asks Governor Jay Nixon to establish a poverty task force.
According to state government statistics, one out of every eight Missourians lives in poverty.
