Causes Of Food Insecurity

Food Insecurity and food accessibility are major problems not only in rural areas but also low-income urban areas throughout the United States. The term “food desert” or an area with limited or no access to healthy, affordable and nutritious food was coined during a U.K. Study into food accessibility for those in the lowest income neighborhoods which contained no major grocery store and had the lowest rate of car ownership. This problem has come across the pond and we've seen many major grocery retailers flee from cities and move to the more profitable suburbs, what's worse is as grocery stores consolidate they leave many neighborhoods under served by convenience stores or fast food outlets. The prevalence of more processed, unhealthy

This report will explore the impacts, causes and solutions of food insecurity and other contextual factors relating to Chad’s economic and financial crisis.

Food deserts are one of the main causes of obesity in lower income areas, and while initiatives are being created to solve this problem, more than just a few initiatives are needed to change the obesity issue.

According to Wall Street Journal, “More than 33% of adults who earn less than $15,000 per year were obese, compared with 24.6% of those who earn at least $50,000 per year.” (Izzo 2011) Processed foods such as cheeseburger or French fries tend to be cheaper than buying healthier ingredients and making home cooked food. When people have lower incomes, they do suffer from food insecurity, which is an important connection between poverty and obesity. Two reasons can contribute to obesity: parents are working and are no longer at home with their children and therefore not able to cook balanced meals; and foods with high fat are cheaper than healthy foods.

Obesity rates in the US are rising due to food insecurity. One in six people in the U.S. are food insecure, while two-thirds of adults and one-third Americans are overweight or obese.14 Studies have found that wealthy districts have three times as many supermarkets compared to the poor.15 Kevin Conocannon of the USDA noted in an interview that people in poorer areas sometimes have narrower variety of food options.16 SNAP recipients face barriers to achieving nutritious diets due to lack of availability in their neighborhood. Healthy food often comes with higher costs, so most people with lower income result to eating foods with lower cost and higher calories. According to a 2009 report by the USDA, as many as 23.5 million Americans live more than one mile from a supermarket with limited access to a vehicle.17 Food Deserts are particularly prevalent in low-income communities.18

The issues of obesity and food deserts are important, and many people have questions about these topics. What makes this important though? To dig even deeper, what are the significant factors of both topics? The answer to the most pressing subject of modern times will now be determined.

A food desert is an area with low income that is mostly filled with unhealthy foods that can be found in fast food restaurants and local convenience stores. Since the area is already penurious or poverty stricken it causes healthy foods with the nutrients that the human body needs to be unavailable. People tend buy the foods that they can afford, which is usually the lower priced unhealthy foods. The foods they eat can be the source of being overweight which can lead to obesity or other health related diseases. It is stated in “Food deserts, Hunger, and Obesity” by Asha Brundage--Moore that in low income states they are not much grocery stores. This is what causes more of a correlation between poverty and obesity, the location plays a major role in the two. Food deserts can associate obesity with poverty due to the location’s

Obesity-related conditions and health disparities are attributed to food deserts among underserved communities. This is largely due to a lack of grocery stores, farmers’ markets, and healthy food providers. The term ‘food desert’ was not used when I was growing up, but it applied to my neighbor as well. There are some similarities between myself and Erika Nicole Kendall in “No Myths Here: Food Stamps, Food Deserts, and Food Scarcity.” The first similarity we share is our grandmothers making sure we didn’t go hungry, but during the week we rarely saw a vegetable on our plates.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC; 2012) state that 59% of adult Nevadans are overweight and 22.4% of them are obese. These numbers also translate to our adolescent and children as their obesity rates are calculated at 11% and 13.6% respectively (CDC, 2012). Another indicator of the issue is purely spatial. When visiting these neighborhoods in the north and east side of Las Vegas, one easily becomes overwhelmed by the number of liquor stores, corner marts, and fast food establishments present. If adequate access to healthy food is not generated for the people who live in food deserts then we will continue to see a rise in obesity and its related diseases. Walker, Keane, and Burke (2010) stated in a literature review of food deserts that people chose food options that are in their immediate area. The rise in obesity is especially troublesome as our nation is at constant battle with soaring health care costs. All of the diseases associated with it are expensive and chronic in nature. It will continue to drain us financially in both healthcare cost and loss of human

Poverty is an issue that can be discussed at great lengths, but the real challenge is finding effective ways to reduce or eradicate poverty. It is important to spend quality time developing approaches to the issue of poverty and how to alleviate it. Individuals living in poverty lead a life of limited opportunities and one of these limited opportunities is access to good quality healthy food. The American Nutrition Association considers this lack of access as a Food Desert defined as, “parts of the country vapid of fresh fruit, vegetables, and other healthful whole foods, usually found in impoverished areas” ("USDA Defines Food Deserts | American Nutrition Association," n.d.). One way in which American’s can work towards a future with less poverty and eventually one with little to no poverty would be to eliminate the existence of Food Deserts.

In its study, Examining the Impact of Food Deserts on Public Health in Chicago, the Mari Gallagher Research and Consulting Group found that, “communities that have no or distant grocery stores, or have an imbalance of healthy food options, will likely have increased premature death and chronic health conditions ” Currently the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA's) Economic Research Service approximations that 23.5 million people live in food deserts. Essentially, lack of access to affordable and healthy food options inevitably impacts the overall health of the whole family. The healthcare system suffers financially as a result of chronic health diseases which are influenced by lifestyle choices. A study conducted by Koplan and Fleming in 2000 revealed that obesity alone is estimated to cost the United States health care system $100 billion per

So there is a trend, but why are those with low incomes more susceptible to obesity? There are many factors. Low income areas lack in resources that produce healthy options. Residents are limited to convenience stores that have limited selection of healthy, affordable foods. Lack of transportation limits low income families because they cannot drive to the grocery store very often. In the occasional trips that they do make, they have to buy foods that will keep for a long time, until they are able to shop again. Preservatives in food generally make for unhealthy meals. “Households with limited resources to buy enough food often try to stretch their food budgets by purchasing cheap, energy-dense foods that are filling – that is, they try to maximize their calories per dollar in order to stave off hunger (frac.org, 2014).” For those who have no transportation, they may not even have the opportunity to travel to the social services office to sign up for food assistance.

“Food Desert” refers to an area in a rural or even urban region with little or no access to big grocery stores that provides affordable and fresh food for people to have a healthy diet. These areas are mostly composed of low-income households who are often Hispanics and African-Americans (Ploeg and Breneman et al). They are often “trapped” in a geographical location where only small convenient stores, which do not have sufficient supply of all common, fresh and healthy food, are available. Currently, there are 13.6 Million Americans who have difficulties in accessing to super markets and large grocery stores. People living in such areas with limited access to grocery stores spend 19.5 minutes more to travel, comparing to the people living in non-food-desert areas (Ploeg and Breneman et al).

There are many families in the Downriver area that are getting enough to eat. Imagine your students/families coming home from school and having nothing to eat. The refrigerator is empty and the cupboards are bare. For many, that's the harsh reality!

Food has a diversity in the way it benefits the human society. As we feed ourselves as a part to our diet to keep us alive of course. Yet food insecurity is a criteria within food itself.  A conflict revolving around the society that tends to not be clearly shown. The article “Hunger on campus, The challenge of food insecurity for college students” by and “The Atlantic, The hidden hunger behind college campuses” by Laura Mckenna both show food insecurity as a conflict on college campuses. Nowadays college students come along this problem of “food insecurity”. As society assumes a college student may have a job, balanced life along with school. Yet the assumption of students receiving financial aid does not indicate them having the money for everyday meals. It is relevant to any college student knowing how food insecurity is visible in college campuses. As well there may be plenty of solutions of getting rid of food insecurity. A clear definition of food insecurity is “food insecurity the lack of reliable access to sufficient quantities of affordable, nutritious food” (Hunger on campus). This articles show the visibility of what “ food insecurity” is intended of. Students remain within their struggles due to money shortage leading to lack of food supply. As this is a probable cause for most students colleges should implement students extra financial help towards food. It is clear that schools do not raise above their own standards to give students the best experiences in