Poverty And Hunger : 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

Over 8.2 million seniors over the age 60 face the threat of food insecurity, up 78% from a decade ago affecting one in seven seniors. The rise in food insecurity is primarily seen among senior Americans with income less than $30,000 or one to two times the poverty level. Younger seniors between the ages 60-69 are becoming more likely to become food insecure than older adults, due to early retirements and not being able to rely on Social Security or Medicare until they reach 65. Elder malnourished patients experience 2 to 20 times more complications and 100% longer hospital stays. Good nutrition is vital to helping America’s 34 million seniors to stay healthy,

America is said to be one of the greatest countries in the world. Advanced technology, thriving agriculture, the so-called land of opportunities all obtainable in our beautiful America. So why then do we still have people going hungry every night? Why does such a disparity exist between a person who has an abundance of food and routinely discards food that is perfectly edible and one who digs for those same scraps in trash bins? At times, these people are living within a few miles of each other.

Imagine your stomach growling, a feeling of emptiness, fatigue, and an inability to concentrate. Most people would associate these feelings with hunger and eat. Unfortunately, many Americans do not have the luxury of eating because of living in poverty. According to the Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the number of people living in poverty rose from 31.6 million in 2000 to 36.5 million in 2006. The number of people living in households facing food insecurity rose from 31 million in 1999 to 35.5 million in 2006. More than 12 million of the people living in food insecure households were children (Labue, 2009). Food America (2017) reports:

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.

The United States is experiencing social issues related to food insecurity and hunger. Current research states that older adults are especially vulnerable to food insecurity. In a study published in the Journal of Urban Health states, “Among the 14.6% of American households experiencing food insecurity, approximately 2 million are occupied by older adults” (Chung, Gallo, Giunta, Canavan, Parikh, & Fahs, 2011, p. 1). Since the year 2011 the Athens Community Council on Aging reports, “Almost 9 million older adults in the United States are at risk for hunger, and Georgia is 8th in state rankings for older adult risk of hunger” (2014, p. 1). Fortunately, in North America, hunger seldom reaches

In the United States of America, the richest nation of the world, one in six Americans do not have enough food to eat. Have you ever wonder why there are so many food banks and food pantries throughout the country? They are not simply, as you thought, existent to offer emergency food assistance. Indeed, they are the main sources of food to millions of food-insecure Americans. Food insecurity, the state of not having sufficient quantity of affordable and nutritious food, has been very widespread and common in America. It affected millions of Americans and has been increasing dramatically in recent years; in 2012, more than 48 millions of food-insecure Americans rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) (McMillan). The depth of deprivation varies in each family. Some families have to skip meals in order to save food for the next meal, some families get enough food but eat an unhealthy diet due to economic reasons, and some families get to eat but in the cost of other family members go hungry. Food insecurity is one of the most serious nutrition-related public health issues in the United States. Obesity in America is due in part to the consequences of food insecurity because of innutritious and unbalance diet. Food insecurity is associated with

Hunger and poverty are global issues that American is not an exception to. As of 2012, statistical data provided by the government reported that "46.5 million people were in poverty, including 16.1 million children under the age of 18" and households with children are hit disproportionately with hunger (Feeding America, Hunger). This disproportion results in an equally startling deficit in the quality of education for our children. These alarming statistics attest to the fact that poverty has become an epidemic. Educating all students to ensure they become productive and successful citizens cannot just be a desire, but a need. The required reformation to fix this epidemic requires government and community assistance with teacher involvement.

In the last five years there has been a growth in the level of food insecurity among the aging population. In 2012 15.3% of the aging faced a threat of food insecurity. Further from 2001 to 2012 there was a 44% increase in the aging population experiencing hunger (Ziliak & Gundersen, 2013). In 2008 8.1% of households with an elderly individual living in the residence were food insecure, and 8.8% of the elderly living alone were food insecure (Coleman-Jenson, Nord, Andrews, & Carlson, 2009). After a dip in 2010 rates of food insecurity among the aging there was an increase in food insecurity among households with the elderly present and households of the elderly living alone (Coleman-Jenson, Nord, Andrews, & Carlson, 2011; Coleman-Jensen, Nord, & Singh; 2012, 2013). 2013 8.7% of households with elderly individuals were food insecure (Coleman-Jensen, Gregory, & Singh, 2014; Ziliak & Gundersen, 2014). Research has shown food insecurity leads to the reduction of nutritionally sufficient diets and poorer health status, thus this growth in food insecurity for the elderly is troubling as the elderly are already at risk for poor health outcomes (Lee & Frongillo, 2001; Stuff, et al., 2004).

In 2014, approximately 5.7 million people over the age of 60 were food insecure which comprises 9% of the entire senior population. This number is projected to increase by 50% by the time the youngest of the Baby Boom Generation reaches age 60 in 2025. It has been proven that food insecure seniors are at an increased risk for chronic health conditions where 60% of the aging population experience depression, 53% report a heart attack, 52% develop asthma, and 40% report a congestive health failure (Feeding America, 2016). Recognizably, for seniors in poverty, protecting themselves from food insecurity and hunger is a lot more difficult than the general population. For instance, researchers conducted a study that focused on the experience of food insecurity among the elderly population. They took a sample of 46 elderly households from three large cities in upstate New York utilizing purposive sampling. Older adults were recruited via subsidized housing programs, churches, congregated and home-delivered meals programs, and a Latino community worker. The elders varied by age, sex food programs used, spousal status, and mobility. The final sample comprised of 25 Latino older adults living in one large city, 28 non-Latino elders residing in two large cities. They found that most of the time, food insecure older adults did not have the means to afford the right foods for health and they did not have the capability to prepare food (Wolfe et. al, 2003). To slowly combat the issue of this insecurity, Title III Grants to State Formula of the 2016 OAA Reauthorization Act accounts for geographic changes in the older population. The bill regulates the formula for the Title III supportive services, assemble meals, home-delivered meals as well as preventive service programs. The formula

Last summer I volunteered at our local Planting Hope event. We distrituted food products from the Maryland Food Bank to people of lower-income in my local town. We also gave shoes and clothes to those who needed them. What I learned after this experience is the realism of poverty and hunger in our country and even my hometown. What may seem to be a prevalent idea for third-world countries far from our homeland, the reality is that poverty and hunger are located closer than we think. Over thirteen percent of Americans are food insecure which seems untrue, but in fact it is a reality that sometimes we ignore. Planting Hope has not only signalled this issue into me, but has allowed me to want to learn more about other issues and rising issues

“Twenty-one thousand children age 5 and under die or get sick every day because of poor nutrition (Poverty).” Child hunger is a big problem in the United States. The main reason for this is poverty, they do not have or get enough money to buy food. Poverty in our nation has increased by about 10 percent. “Most of the children born in poverty almost never make it past the age of five.”...(Poverty) Our nation poverty level has increased because companies are raising prices and is harder to get food for families who do not make enough money.

Poverty for centuries has been a very severe issue that has troubled many nations while impeding economic developments and progress. Poverty stricken countries are majorly concentrated in the continents of Africa and Asia. Continents like the Americas and Europe have globally been recognized as been wealthier yet still many parts of these ostensible countries face massive cases of poverty. Most at times, countries with high populations owing to high birth rates face the most cases of poverty. The definition of poverty can be boundless in the sense that poverty entails so many subsections as it sometimes gets complicated to group everything under one umbrella. Society tends to focus more on the tangible aspects of poverty because many people associate poverty with lacking money and it makes sense because poverty in terms of lacking money is a major problem affecting almost every country in the world. Even though it is debatable that poverty can be physical, intellectual, spiritual and even emotional, it is best to talk about the lack of money and economic developments in this essay. With reference to the oxford English Dictionary, poverty is state of being extremely poor and the state of being inferior in quality or insufficient in amount. Reflecting on this definition given, I deduced that malnutrition and hunger can define poverty. In the light of this, I think poverty is lacking a comfortable place of shelter, being ill and not having access to a better

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.