Food Insecurity Essay

The Band-Aid Approach to Food Insecurity The availability of food is considered to be a fundamental human right and is crucial when living a healthy life. Unfortunately, an abundance of citizens in the United States struggle with facing food insecurity. Food insecurity, to define, “occurs whenever the availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, or the ability to acquire acceptable food in a socially acceptable way, is limited or uncertain” (Bazerghi et al. 732). The most common way people cannot feed themselves is due to a lack of money. The implementation of food banks has become a vital way to aid those suffering with food insecurity. For my service-learning project, I had the opportunity of volunteering at the Community Food

Food banks are mainly dependent on donations from individuals from food drives and surpluses from supermarkets and wholesale distributors (Keller 46). With the amount of donations decreasing and the increase in demand for food aid, it is likely that food banks are more lenient on distributing food that is not necessarily healthy so they can assist more people (Keller 46). It is difficult to become selective with donations when food banks are already struggling trying to receive enough items to supply their warehouses. Partnering with large supermarket chains, food banks will accept junk food, such as candy and soda, from grocery stores since they also receive staple items from them (Farmer). Masses of food banks are “reluctant to get picky with their biggest donors” considering those businesses supply them with meats such as beef and poultry (Farmer). While food banks do hand out fresh foods and produce, such as dairy, breads, and vegetables, those donations are only available whenever somebody decides to donate them (Irwin et al.19). There is not a constant stream of fresh items being distributed like there is with processed foods. When I was volunteering at the Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma, I bagged apples one weekend but the next weekend there were not any fresh items to work with, just canned foods. In their warehouse, there were crates upon crates filled with boxes of processed, preserved, and genetically modified foods, such as cereals, pastas, and cans of vegetables. Cereals and grains are “often high in sugars and low in many nutrients” (Irwin 19), while canned and processed foods are considered to be “high-sodium, high-calorie, and low-fiber foods” (Keller 46). An abundance of sugar and sodium and a depletion of necessary nutrients in foods provides for an innutritious diet. Therefore, many of the items that food banks distribute