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Hunger in America is all over America and has to stop. For years starving children stay in their schools because they do not have a enough food at home. There are many organizations helping out to stop this starvation.
In 2002 34.9 million people in 12.1 million people homes were food insecure. 23 million unduplicated people sought emergency food assistance in 2001 through local charities in the America’s Second Harvest network. About 4 million elderly low income families accessed food pantries in 2002. The united states is the world's largest and most efficient food producers. The united states have tried to stop this hunger in a populous country, but they have failed to do so.
Hunger has always existed in America. The great depression
American society has grown so accustomed to receiving their food right away and in large quantities. Only in the past few decades has factory farming come into existence that has made consuming food a non guilt-free action. What originally was a hamburger with slaughtered cow meat is now slaughtered cow meat that’s filled with harmful chemicals. Not only that, the corn that that cow was fed with is also filled with chemicals to make them grow at a faster rate to get that hamburger on a dinner plate as quickly as possible. Bryan Walsh, a staff writer for Time Magazine specializing in environmental issues discusses in his article “America’s Food Crisis” how our food is not only bad for us but dangerous as well. The word dangerous could apply to many different things though. Our food is dangerous to the consumer, the workers and farmers, the animals and the environment. Walsh gives examples of each of these in his article that leads back to the main point of how dangerous the food we are consuming every day really is. He goes into detail on each of them but focuses his information on the consumer.
According to the “Hunger and Poverty Fact Sheet” on Feeding America’s website, in 2014 there were over 48 million Americans living in food insecure households, which included 32 million adults and 15 million children. For over 35 years, Feeding America continues to be in the forefront in solving this crisis by providing food to people in need through a nationwide network of food banks. In the late 1960s, Van Hengel established the nation’s first food bank and years later established the first national organization of food banks, Second Harvest. Second Harvest was later called America’s Second Harvest the Nation’s Food Bank Network and in 2008, the national organization changed its name to Feeding America.
U.S. Department of Agriculture. (2013, September ). Household food security in the united states in 2012. Retrieved from http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/err-economic-research-report/err155/report-summary.aspx
At the end, many people may not recognize this problem and maybe the hunger problem that the United States faces may not be as dramatic as in comparison to other countries, but this is only another reason to find and create solutions to stop hunger worldwide; It’s time to educate ourselves about the causes of hunger in America.
The United States Department of Agriculture defines food unsecurity as the availability of nutritionally adequate and safe food, or the ability to acquire such food, is limited or uncertain for a household. Food insecurity also does not always mean that the household has nothing to eat. More simply stated it is the struggle to provide nutritional food for ones family and/or self. The people that suffer from food insecurity are not all living below the poverty line. In 2012 49.0 million people were considered food insecure in the United States of those 46.5 million were in poverty (Hunger & Poverty Statistics, 2012). For some individual’s food insecurity is only a temporary situation for others it maybe for extended period. Food insecurity due temporary situation such as unemployment, divorce, major medical or illness can be become more long term. The vast majority of these are families with children.
The United States is known as the wealthiest country in the world. But, there are many people that can't afford to buy food for their families, many are also homeless. “While hunger affects people of all ages, it's particularly devastating for children even short-term episodes of hunger can cause lasting damage."(“Child Nutrition Programs") Child hunger in the United States is caused by poverty, unemployment, food insecurity, and food shortage; however there are many solutions to this problem like FRAC strategies, food banks, summer feeding programs, and backpack feeding programs.
Food insecurity is an issue faced by millions of Americans every day, and the biggest group affected by this is working families with children. Food insecurity is so big that the United States government has 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, increases in housing costs, unemployment, and inflation in the cost of food. These factors have caused food banks to see a change in the groups of people needing assistance.
In conclusion, Child hunger is prevalent in the United States. As of 2012, there are over sixteen million children suffering from Child Hunger in the US. While there are many solutions in order to solve this problem, it still persists. This issues needs to be continued to be looked at and dealt with our policy makers as they ultimately hold the key.
In order to determine the prevalence of households that are food insecure, “The Food Security Supplement is administered annually to about 45,000 households as part of the monthly, nationally representative Current Population Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. The supplement has been conducted annually since 1995.” (Health Indicators Warehouse, 2013). The survey was developed by the USDA in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control, and asks participants questions about their confiden...
Gundersen, Waxman, Engelhard, and Brown (2010) found in their study that 50 million people (including 17 million children) were food insecure in 2010. Poverty and food insecurity affects the lives of billions of people worldwide and millions of people in the United States. More than two billion pe...
President Obama once said, “As the wealthiest nation on Earth, I believe the United States has a moral obligation to lead the fight against hunger and malnutrition, and to partner with others.” Food insecurity has always been an issue of the public as well as around the world. For so long, many generations of Americans have been living in poverty or in a low income state. It would be surprise as to how many Americans are living in poverty. As a result of this living situation, there are problems that arise with it. One of the problems is food insecurity. Food insecurity can be simply explained as not having access to affordable and quality food. This problem can lead to serious
This is a problem that affects the nation entirely. However, there are some states that have a significantly larger population facing food insecurity. Many, but not all, of these states lie in the South Eastern region of the United States. Mississippi and Arkansas both have over 19.5% of their populations facing food insecurity (“Hunger and Poverty Statistics”). The US has been facing food security issues since its establishment. However, the problem began to draw immense public attention during the Great Depression. While there was not one sole focusing event, the images of bread lines and the millions of starving Americans caused policy makers to begin drafting legislation to alleviate these issues. This issue of hunger moved from the systematic agenda into the institutional agenda in May of 1939, when the first Food Stamp Program was piloted (“A Short History on SNAP”). However, this program became obsolete after just four years. It was not until 1961 that the federal government reinstituted a food distribution program. In fact, this was president John F. Kennedy’s first executive order (“A Short History on SNAP”). As time progressed, and political mood changed, many changes, modifications, and amendments have been made to the n...
In the United States of America, the richest nation in the world, one in six Americans do not have enough food to eat. Have you ever wondered why there are so many food banks and food pantries throughout the country? They are not simply, as you might think, able to offer emergency food assistance. Indeed, they are the main sources of food for millions of food-insecure Americans. Food insecurity, the state of not having sufficient quantity of affordable and nutritious food, is very widespread and common in America.
There needs to be a severe decrease in the number of kids suffering from food insecurity. Child hunger is a global problem, a state problem, and an Anderson problem. Ending child hunger starts now. In Anderson, more funds should be raised to expand the number of children that can be reached and helped through the Snack Pack Program. People should volunteer time to help the United Way organization prepare food to give to those in need. No child should ever have to stress about where his or her next meal is coming from. No child should have to witness his family suffering and feel like he has to sacrifice eating in order for his other family members to have enough food. Also, no child's learning ability should be compromised because there is not enough funding to help provide him with nutritious food to keep his brain engaged. Child hunger needs to be a priority, and it is not. Citizens need to become aware of how enormous of an issue child hunger really is, and citizens need to take action immediately. Let's work together to eliminate child hunger in Anderson, South Carolina, and eventually everywhere in the United
Food insecurity and poor nutrition is an alarmingly large problem for low income families, especially in developing countries. Many strategies exist to fight this problem, although not many of these address all the factors contributing to it along with all the possible solutions to solve it. In many cases, multiple strategies must correlate and work together so that all the determinants of this issue are addressed and can fight food insecurity from different angles. This essay will discuss the significance of the problem, a range of possible strategies to solve the problem, and go into detail on a select few that will correlate and work together to solve different factors of food insecurity and poor nutrition.