Essay On Hunger In America

Now, let’s talk about hunger. It is something that is often taken for granted when we look at other major world issues. We listen to our politicians argue and discuss issues like immigration, debt, corruption, and numerous others, but when was the last time you heard someone thoroughly address hunger?

Hunger in America can be hard to recognize. With how the economy is now, the effects of hunger are more severe. Many Americans are relying on food stamps and private organizations to help with this crisis. Millions in this nation are currently suffering from hunger in America. Half of that being from job loss. More than 12,000,000 children suffer from food insecure hunger because of limited or uncertain access to nutritious food. About 900,000 are hungry in the three- country Detroit metropolitan area alone. The hardest hits are the elderly, the unemployed, immigrants, and the mentally and physically impaired.

After reading the extensive “The New Face of Hunger” (Tracie McMillan), my eyes became more open to the overall issue of hunger, faced by many people today. In a few words, I was absolutely shocked by the true meaning and examples provided of what exactly food insecurity is. Honestly speaking, when I hear the word “hunger” I think of a human who has no food, living on the streets. “The New Face of hunger” brought to my attention that food insecurity is much more than simply having no food. In fact, “In 2006 the U.S. government replaced “hunger” with the term “food insecure” to describe any household where, sometime during the previous year, people didn’t have enough food to eat” (The New Face of Hunger). Not only was I able to see the harsh

The world we live in today is growing at an extremely fast pace. It seems to be that everyday there are more buildings being built, more concrete being poured, and more free land being destroyed. The cause of these events is the worlds’ population rate. Every day our population reaches an all-time high, every day we gain more mouths to feed, and every day we are losing ways to feed these mouths. Food insecurity has risen significantly along with the rise of our population. We must find ways to lower the food insecurity rate by finding new farming practices, making the public more aware of this issue, and doing more ourselves to make sure that we make a change to this problem.

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

Does anyone ever think about the effect going hungry has on a person’s overall health? Yes, they may not be obese as the rest of the country, but there are other health effects that directly affect a person when it comes to being food insecure. Food insecurity is defined as the state of being without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food. Hunger in the United States affects so many people, more than one realizes for a country that is so well established. Huger affects children, seniors, different cultures, people that live in the rural areas of the country, and even the working class Americans in your surrounding communities, essentially your neighbors! Our government has established a few programs to help curb this health issue for our public and some have shown to be very effective. You may not think of having food stamps would help someone with their health issues such as getting better sleep, or depression. But if one person’s life was saved by having a reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food source I would say this is a bigger issue in our country than we think it is.

Hunger throughout America is something that 12 million Americans are battling with everyday. That’s one in every six people (dosomething.org) In Texas alone, 4,320,050 people are tackling hunger and of those 4,320,050 people, 1,713,430 are children- or one in four children throughout Texas (Feeding America). Throughout North Texas, “the number of people living in poverty is 631,261” (Glean Texas). Since hunger is tied to poverty, it is assumed that those living in poverty in North Texas are also living with hunger insecurities. To brighten things up a bit, Flower Mound, is considered to be a more wealthier town in North Texas. Ranked by the American City Business, Flower Mound is “number 21 on a list of the top 50 cities in the Southern

The second part of Megan Carney (2015) focused on the various different food assistance programs and solutions for food insecurity. Across the country there are countless of organizations and programs that aim at assisting and improving food insecurity among marginalized communities. The truth of the matter is, that there are structural issues in the government that prevent individuals from making enough to support themselves and their families. It is hard to comprehend how the United States disagrees in recognizing food and its access to food as an inalienable human rights (Carney 2015). No one should be denied access to nutritious food.

Although the United States government spends $176 billion on hunger programs every year, there are currently more than 46 million Americans going hungry every day. In the U.S. every county, state, or congressional district experiences some form of malnutrition and hunger. Right now there is a rapid increase in the number of hungry Americans and the issue is quickly becoming problematic. Today one in six Americans participate in one or more of the fifteen nutrition assistance programs funded by the government and provided by the USDA. Recently more people have begun to question what hunger really is, what all the programs actually do, and what their results are.

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.

For such a long time, hunger still remains a complicated issue in America. Unlike other countries, hunger in America is not just getting enough food, but rather getting the right food and making the right choices. This project is a perfect example of how difficult it is to create a balance and nutritional meal on a tight budget. For starter, individuals who are under this program might have to sacrifice for some of the less nutritional food if they want to stay under the budget, which might results in some long term effects on the individual’s health. Instead of being able to purchase fresh fruits and leaner cuts of meat every day, I was forced to purchase cheap products that are nowhere close to today’s nutritional standards. Now, it wouldn’t

both argue that food issues should be addressed by public policy. To combat hunger, malnutrition, and growth deficiencies in children, Frank argues that public policy relating to food has to be changed. Poor families should be supplemented with federal grants such as WIC vouchers to care for their young ones. Robertson et al. take a slightly different approach in their article “Food is a Political Issue” by not only holding the government accountable for reducing issues associated with food, but also the food producers and suppliers. Who should decrease the health disparities and care for the disadvantaged members of society? Robertson et al. advocate that although health disparities caused by food have to be primarily tackled through government policies, the health disparities are everyone’s problem and have to be addressed by everyone— from government officials, to religious groups, to the farmers and food suppliers

America, known for its economic success, livestocks, and some of the world’s most fortunate people, still leaves us pondering with one question: who does such a vast amount of our population go hungry? Exploring hunger in parts of the United States, it all comes back to the same statistics: one-sixth of American’s don’t have enough to eat. In 2006 the U.S. government replaced “hunger” with the term “food insecure” to describe any household where, sometime during the previous year, people didn’t have enough food to eat. By whatever name, the number of people going hungry has grown dramatically in the U.S., increasing to 48 million by 2012. This is a fivefold jump since the late 1960s, including an increase of 57 percent since the late 1990s.

Food insecurity is defined as being “uncertain of having, or unable to acquire, enough food” (Coleman-Jensen). Over twelve percent of Americans nationwide experience “food-insecurity” (Coleman-Jensen) and this problem compounds at the collegiate level. Half of all community college students are food insecure while forty-seven percent of four-year college students are food insecure (Dubick, pg. 17). These students are the future of the country. When their education suffers today, the country suffers tomorrow. Two articles which help us understand the significance of hunger on college campuses are “Student Food Insecurity: The skeleton in the university closet” by Roger Hughes et al and “Food Pantries Address a Growing Hunger Problem at Colleges” by Stephaine Saul. Both “Student Food Insecurity . . .” and “Food Pantries. . .” examine the reasons of food insecurity on college campuses, while coming to similar conclusions, however “Food Pantries . . .” takes a local approach to possible solutions to food insecurity while “Student Food Insecurity . . .” takes a global approach to the solutions.

The human right to food has its contemporary origin within the U.N. Universal Human Rights framework. Ensuring the right to adequate food and consequently the right to be free form hunger is specifically enshrined in a number of Human Rights instruments. It is obvious that without adequate food people cannot lead a health, active lives. They are not employable. They cannot take care of their children and thus