Low Income Families Dealing With Hunger As My Population Choice

Fortunately there are programs that assist families in crisis and can help to feed the children of the United States; however the number of hungry children is growing. Child hunger in the United States has been described as an increasingly complex problem and has been called the “silent epidemic.” (Goldstein, 2009)

Poverty is one of the main causes of child hunger. Most people that live in poverty can't afford to buy food. All the money they have goes to housing bills.

Putting food on the table may become a difficult task putting the family at risk for hunger (Martin, 2011).

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 biosocial factors that predict food insecurity do not discriminate against the economic circumstances found in Canadian households and aligns with both low-income and higher-income populations. These factors were identified as single-parent households, people with rental

The United States faces many social problems. One of these problems is child hunger. It has sociological origins and challenges for government and citizens alike.

Johnny gets home from school and makes his way straight to the kitchen. He is hungry and wants a quick, yummy snack, but when he opens up the fridge, there is nothing there. Now he has to wait until his mom brings home dinner at six o'clock. Can you imagine what it would be like to experience this every day? Unbelievable, right? Well, for many children and families, this is their reality. What could possibly cause this, what are the effects, and what are people doing to help these poor families? A large number of children do not have access to fresh and nutritious food, due to lack of supermarkets or living on food stamps. This lack of healthy food can affect childhood development immensely and can lead to obesity and other diseases. Many people are doing what they can to help, like opening community gardens, connecting farms, restaurants, and hotels with food banks, and organizing food drives.

My family didn’t eat at all for the first two weeks and we were starting to develop health problems, fortunately none of my family had to go to the hospital but this wouldn’t be the case in real life. According to Canales, Coffey, & Moore (2015) “Eating nutritious food is one of the major modifiable determinants of chronic disease”. Low income families are especially at risk for malnutrition because more often than not healthier foods are more expensive and do not last as long as less nutritious food. IN addition to malnutrition, families who live in food insecure households are also more at risk for chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and depression. “In order to eliminate persistent health inequities related to food insecurity, nurses and other health professionals need to direct efforts toward identifying food-insecure patients and increasing access to healthy food for low-income populations” (Canales, Coffey, & Moore, 2015). It is also important for nurses to be empathetic and remain non-judgmental towards low income families because difficulty feeding ones’ family can be embarrassing and hard for families to discuss with other people especially

Food and beverage choices are an outcome of income and poverty levels. Parents with low incomes, or even poverty are often forced to keep a budget when

Poverty is one of the main causes of child hunger. Most people that live in poverty can't afford to buy food. All the

Food insecurity causes health issues such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and early mortality among young single mothers. According to author Christine A. Stevens young single mothers are affected by food insecurity in two ways “first, the stress of food insecurity can lead to compounding issues of depression for this mother, second, food choice.” Factors that assist these problems are socioeconomic status and the ability to obtain adequate nutrition. These young single mothers do not have enough money to give nutritional food to their families. With limited money they do not have a choice for nutritional food and according to Stevens are forced to buy “inexpensive, high fat, high carbohydrates food” (Stevens 163). In

Hunger is something that continues growing throughout the United States of America. The documentary, A Place at the Table, directed by Lori Silverbush and Kristi Jacobson, gives a look into people’s lives who are hungry and struggling to get by. One instance that is shown is a working mother who made too much money to be able to qualify for food stamps, by a mere $2. Agreeing with that, Tricia McMillan’s article, “Shift to ‘Food Insecurity’ Creates Startling New Picture of Hunger in America” states that most of the food insecure people in the United States are working families. She also mentions how the term hungry has changed over time.

If a family struggles financially they may not have money for food to be put on the table and the child will be hungry, which has a knock of effect to a child’s learning. A child will struggle to focus and learn if they are hungry as food is needed in order for the brain to function well.

Food insecurity is an issue faced by millions of Americans every day, and the biggest group affected by this are working families with children. Food insecurity is so big that the United States government have now recognized it and provided a definition for it. The United States government has defined food insecurity as a household level economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food (USDA.gov). Food banks and anti-hunger advocates agree that some of the causes of food insecurity are stagnant wages, increase in housing costs, unemployment, and inflation of the cost of food. These factors and unemployment have cause food banks to see a change in the groups of people needing assistance. Doug O’Brien,

The 2015 Statistical Analysis Poverty Level Data report shows in the United States, there was an increase in which families’ are able to provide food per person within their household. After the devastating financial and economic crisis in 2008, families have been in financial detriment for years trying to maintain consistency in providing food, support, and shelter. Not until the government 2015 report, there were clear evidence of a sufficient rise in food surplus in low income families since 2008. According to the governmental statistical report, 14% of households were suffering from food deficiency. In other words, 17.5 million households, approximate one out of every seven homes could not provide nourishment on a regular basis. This estimate is down from the last statistical data recorded in 2011 at 14.9%.