Hunger And Poverty

Governments first committed to establish an international framework, and create a more equal world in 1948 when the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. More than 65 years later, people still remain a distant hope and vague aspiration to achieve these basic entitlements for all the world. Despite rapid advancements in standards of living

A woman lays down for sleep. The thought that keeps her awake is “How will I eat tomorrow? How will I eat tomorrow?” This is not just fiction. It is the experience of millions of people every day. According to Oxford Dictionary, world hunger is “The related technical term (in this case operationalized in medicine) is either malnutrition, or, if malnutrition is taken to refer to both under nutrition and over nutrition (obesity, overweight) as it increasingly is, under nutrition. Both malnutrition and under nutrition refer to the effects on people of not having enough food.” World hunger is an issue that has been pondered for many years. It is important for a person who does not already understand this issue to wrap their brain around how some people go days without food. This is something that I feel really passionate about because its something many people all around the world go through everyday.

The poverty rate in the United States of America is 13.5 percent (University of California, 2017). While on a steady decline, the poverty in America affects people of every race, age, and/or gender. Elementary students and their families are faced with constant hardships from the school, peers and community members. School readiness reflects a child’s ability to succeed both academically and socially in a school environment. It is well documented that poverty decreases a child’s readiness for school through aspects of health, home life, schooling and neighbourhoods. Six poverty-related factors are known to impact child development in general and school readiness in particular. They are the incidence of poverty, the depth of poverty, the duration of poverty, age of poverty, community characteristics and the impact poverty has on the child’s social network.

Poverty affects nearly half of the worlds population, which is more than four billion people. It takes a lot of perseverance to live in a life of poverty because people don't have much to survive on and they can't give up. Once they give up, their life will not get better and they will have nothing to hold on to. Many people in the world are living in a life of poverty and know what it is like to have nearly nothing. Many authors including Frank McCourt and Ann Petry, use this to develop their stories and attract readers by giving them something to relate to. Two excerpts from "Angela's Ashes" and "The Street" written by Frank McCourt and Ann Petry provide two insights of life in poverty and how it requires perseverance through their characters, events, and setting.

Poverty has a profound impact on the cognitive needs of individuals in family dynamics this includes both parent and children. Some researchers indicate minority races have more cognitive stressors than other races that live in the same cities (Finegood, Raver, DeJoseph, & Blair 2017)

Throughout the research report, students studied the level of satisfaction with life for high school students and analyzed if food is important in overall happiness. The purpose is determine if there is a correlation between eating habits and a person’s level of happiness. Over 900 high school students were surveyed for this study. 538 females participated and 364 males took the happiness survey. Over half of the people surveyed were categorized as happy. The happiest people eat healthier foods, and more meals throughout the day regardless of where they eat.

Poverty, a word that is well known throughout a majority of the world’s societies. Although the word is common terminology, it is often overlooked because of its overall harsh reality. Poverty can be defined as anyone who lives paycheck to paycheck. Or in more extreme cases, poverty may be one who lives on the streets with little to nothing to their name. Kathryn J. Edin and H. Luke Shaeffer’s novel, “$2.00 A Day, Living on Almost Nothing in America” acknowledges the hardship facing many American’s and why poverty has become so severe.

Many Americans have debated the connection shared between poverty and welfare for years; for the most part, there are two opposing sides to this debate. On one side of the argument, people who lean more to the right in terms of political thinking seem to believe that government assistance will provide a certain comfort for impoverished families, a safety net which can potentially promote laziness and a lack of motivation to rise above the poverty line. On the other hand, people who lean more to the political left have claimed that providing comfort and sustainability to families in need is the whole purpose behind having welfare programs in the first place, and lifting some of the burden from the shoulders of impoverished individuals will not necessarily promote laziness. While the effects of welfare on poverty remain a contentious topic, evidence from both sides of the debate can be scrutinized to better gain an understanding of what the truth may really look like.

The correlation between poverty and mental illness has been shown through numerous studies dating back to the 1930s, but the nature of the relationship is complex and not fully understood (Kuruvilla & Jacob, 2007). The mentally ill are at an increased risk of becoming and staying poor; conversely, the impoverished are at a greater risk of becoming mentally ill. In fact, the poor are twice as likely to have a common mental disorder (WHO, n.d.). This paper will consider the effects of poverty on the development of emotional problems and how the mentally ill can slide into poverty. Lastly, the paper will discuss the policy issues and societal trends that effect mental illness and poverty.

A handful of people in America suffer from poverty and the stress that comes with it, throughout their everyday lives. Most of us know what the word poverty means. Poverty means poor, where you are unable to buy the necessities to survive in today's society. There is multiple reasons how a person can fall into poverty, such as a lost job, an unexpected illness, death to a family member that provided the income, or simply being born into the poverty lifestyle and not sure how to come out of it. Many are affected by poverty and live in lifestyles most of us don’t know about.

Poverty is a widespread social issue known throughout the world. It is defined by its three different types: biological, relative, and official. The first of the three, also known as absolute poverty, refers to a person’s inability to have his or her biological needs such as food and shelter. The second type compares living standards to conclude “that some are better or worse off than others.” The third refers to the income level at which a person can receive welfare. Unfortunately, the United States is known to have one the highest rates in the world due to social inequalities. Poverty rates are known to be related to a person’s social location. A person living in a more southern state in more likely to experience it than someone in the north. Moreover, minorities are two to three times more likely to suffer from its affects. Likewise, children and the elderly, along with a rising number of women, are more affected than others. Furthermore, these groups are more likely to live in lower standard houses, have poorer educations, have less job opportunities, and are less likely to receive justice for crimes. They are forced to stay in these situations in which they have to pay for housing they can barely afford, while they send their kids to schools that are unable to provide adequate education due to the communities’ low property rates. This can especially be seen in the PBS documentary Poverty, Politics, and Profit: The Housing Project.

There are many social problems that affect the community of Census Tract (CT) 79, the most rampant being poverty. In 2015 it was reported 56.6% of children and 36.6% of adults residing in the community lived below the poverty line (U.S Census Bureau, 2015). While in Tulsa County the percentages are significantly less with 23.5% of children and 13.1% of adults living below the poverty line (U.S Census Bureau, 2015). One-way poverty affects this population, and many other low-income communities, is through the school system. While half of all people from high-income families have a bachelor’s degree by age 25, just 1 in 10 people from low-income families do (U.S Congress, 2014).

Poor people tend to behave in ways such that the conditions of poverty are reinforced. Numerous studies have studied the effects of poverty, and they show that the poor are more likely to commit crimes, use more alcohol and drugs, borrow more money, save less money, and smoke more (Liska & Chamlin, 1984; Lynch et al, 1997). Furthermore, prior research has established that scarcity of money or time can lead people to make poor decisions (Mani et al, 2013; Shah et al, 2013).

In my community, I was not fully aware of the impact of poverty on people in differing neighborhoods. I found that people living a few blocks from my own neighborhood were living in low-income housing, which identified the problem of class divisions between people. More so, the capitalist system of economics tends to provide greater wealth for a few people at the expense of a majority of people. In this way, I began to understand the impact of poverty by observing low income that lived in the ghetto. This direct observation defined the “mechanisms involved between poverty and the community” that define the disparaging effects of poverty on these people (Cattell 45). I was shocked to see children running around the streets with holes in their shoes. More so, I witnessed people begging on the street. These are the “mechanisms” of capitalistic society that tends to shift wealth to the upper and middle classes, but neglects to care for the majority of people living in the lower classes. Certainly, this defines the problem of class divisions, but it also reflects a system that is bereft of taking care of the poor. My own awareness came by actually visiting one of these low-income neighborhoods, which shifted me out of the mental isolation of my own middle class background. In this manner, I had always heard of the “ghetto”, but I am now fully aware of the impact of this type of community in relation to other classes.

The rise in food prices has made it difficult for the average Joe to survive with their weekly income. Do you know what I can’t believe? Coca Cola is cheaper than milk! MILK! Milk is calcium which we need to grow big and strong as the television ads tell me. Firstly, foods prices are ridiculous, secondly, electricity bills are too expensive. But the most important part of poverty is, the number of homeless people living on the street is dramatically increasing each year! Personally, I think these are main factors why we should fix poverty in New Zealand.