Food Insecurity Essay

Food insecurity is a major issue in Canada, affecting millions people across the country especially minorities. In 2012, four million Canadians experienced some form of food insecurity (Tarasuk, Mitchell, & Dachner, 2014). This paper aims to focus on how food insecurity affects women and children, and the costs associated with it. The results of food insecurity can be serious mental, and physical health problems for women and children. It shall demonstrate the need for government intervention, job security, prices of food, and public policies to protect low income families. This topic was chosen as it is an issue which often gets overlooked by many middle and upper class Canadians. Often times when people think of starvation, they picture children in Sub-Saharan Africa. The reality is that women and children in Canadian communities are affected by food insecurity daily. Action needs to be taken immediately in order for food insecurity to be fully eradicated, and justice to be achieved.

Listening to conversations about food on campus, I found that there was a common theme last year: it was difficult to find healthy food on campus.

While most people know that eating well is important to staying healthy and for prolonging life, poverty makes it difficult to access good nutritious food. Easy access to abundant food is not

Food insecurity is defined as “the lack of access to enough food to ensure adequate nutrition.”1 The Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service (ERS) reported that 14.6% of US households were food insecure during at least some portion of 2008 (up 11.1% from 2007), the highest levels recorded since monitoring began in 1995.2 Food insecurity is a concern of under consumption and obesity is a disease of over consumption, yet both outcomes may coexist, seemingly incongruously, within the same household.2 The most popular explanation is that low-cost, energy-dense foods linked to obesity are favored by financially constrained households, who are the most likely to be food insecure.2 Another theory, focusing on environmental context net of individual circumstance, argues that obesity and insecurity are both symptoms of malnutrition, occurring in neighborhoods where nutritious foods are unavailable or unaffordable.2 A separate literature researches environmental roles in poor nutritional outcomes, recent studies link obesity as well as atherosclerosis and diabetes to the food environment, the local context of available food items.2 The theory is that local inaccessibility to healthy foods influences diet composition, a claim supported by evidence.2 Especially in poorer neighborhoods, food options are often limited to fast food restaurants, convenience stores, or grocery stores more poorly stocked both in

Did you know in 2014, 48.1 million households in the United States were food insecure? (Feeding America, 2016) Additionally, household with children reported higher rates of food insecurity compared to households without children. According to new research, a great proportion of college students are suffering from food insecurity (Hughes et al., 2011; Patton-Lopez et al., 2014). According to the United States Department of Agriculture, food insecurity is defined by “the state of being without reliable access to sufficient quantity of affordable nutritious food” (2015). Since 2006, the USDA introduced new terms to categorize food insecurity ranges. Marginal food security is described as “anxiety over food sufficiency or shortage of food in the house. Little or no change in diet” (Gaines et al., n.d.). Low food security “reduced quality, variety, or desirability of diet without reduced food intake. Very low food security “disrupted eating patterns and reduced food intake.”

Food insecurity is a determent to health that has become more prevalent in low-income areas of the country. Food security is an important aspect of public health in which greater evidence is showing that food insecurity as a direct link to poor health. Food insecurity can be define as “the inability to acquire or consume and adequate diet quality or sufficient quantity of

People are without food worldwide. When we think of malnutrition and food insecurity we think about poverty stricken nations. The United States of America is not really discussed when it comes to food scarcity, but in reality this problem is prevalent in America and affects more than just homeless people. Some of the people that you least expect have to live without the adequate amount of food for survival. Scarcity of food is ignored by even the government and is embarrassing to those who have to live this struggle. The documentary A Place at the Table presents the food struggle in the U.S. with families who are suffering from a lack of food. This deficiency can cause serious health complications and can affect all aspects of life.

Food insecurity affects more than 48 million Americans every year (McMillan). Those who reside in food insecure homes can generally not afford healthy foods, therefore increasing the incidence of obesity and other resultant chronic disorders. According to The American Journal of Public Health, “Food insecurity has been shown to diminish dietary quality and affect nutritional intake and has been associated with chronic morbidity (e.g., type 2 diabetes, hypertension) and weight gain” (Nguyen, Shuval, Bertmann, & Yaroch, 2015, p. 1453). Those who live without adequate access to nutritional food, such as fresh fruits and vegetables, have higher rates of obesity not because of the amount of food they eat, but the poor nutritional value of affordable meals.

Food insecurities have a huge factor in a person’s health and well-being. It can act as a barrier to optimal levels of health. Food insecurities are present in the United States due to the unequal access that is present in the country. Whether there is a lack of healthy food that is accessible to that community or the healthy food that is available is not affordable. Many of the foods that are beneficial for people are not always the most affordable. It can turn into a vicious cycle of wanting to provide the healthiest food possible for the household, which can lead to spending more money, and can ultimately result in the inability to provide any type of healthy foods for the household. As a result, the existence of food insecurities leads

The United States has many different nutrition problems. There are people living in food deserts, people who don’t have money to buy food, people who don’t know what healthy foods look like, and many others. These issues should be of concern to everyone in the country. The nutrition and health of these people affects everyone. I think that two of the largest nutrition issues facing the country and obesity and malnutrition.

School lunches are often unsung heroes of many modern American households. Frequently overlooked and disregarded because of their stigma, school lunches are a key ingredient that may help make the world a better place. Unknowingly, great numbers of individuals in our communities deal with food insecurities every day of their lives. It baffles me that in an advanced society many people do not have the resources to provide food for themselves or their families. Until it affected me personally, I was unaware nor passionate about the struggles of food insecurity. My passion for solving food insecurity in my local community has led me to gain both experience and leadership through understanding and advocating for those around me.

Food insecurity is defined as “limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe food or limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable food in socially acceptable ways” (Burke, M.P, Martini, L.H., Cayir, E., Hartline-Grafton, H. L., Meade, R.L.,

Food security is one of the largest problems facing our world today. To be "food secure" a country must have enough

Some of these low food security problems are based on the fact a household responses to inadequate food supplies including reduced food intake and alterations in types of food served. Dietary variety decreases and consumption of energy dense foods increases. These energy dense foods, includes refined grains, added sugars, and added saturated/trans fats. These foods tend to be of poor nutritional quality but less expensive when it comes to calories than alternatives. These diet results in negatives mental behaviors and as well as the

One of most common problems in the world is food insecurity. It is not only happening in the third world countries, but it is also happening in the richest country in world, the USA. Food insecurity occurs when a family does not have enough food for all family members. The USDA confirms that 12.7 percent of U.S households are suffering from food insecurity. Food insecurity can be of two kinds: low food insecurity and very low food insecurity. In low insecurity households, family members just eat enough calories for their body, but their food is not nutritious. Low food insecurity makes up 7.4 percent of 12.7 of food insecurity households in the U.S, (USDA). The other type is very low food insecurity. The family members do not have enough food at specific times in the year because they lack money. This type makes up 4.9 percent out of 12.7 percent in the food insecurity, (USDA). Food insecurity most often happens in the households with children, especially households with children headed by a single man or a single woman. The USDA estimates that households with children headed by single woman have 31.6 percent chance of experiencing low food insecurity, and households with children headed by a single man have 21.7 percent chance for low food insecurity. The South has highest rate of food insecurity with 13.5 percent. The rate of food insecurity in the Northeast (10.8 percent) is lower than Midwest (12.2 percent). The rate of food insecurity according to states in the three