What is food insecurity? It is “a household-level, economic and social condition of limited access to food” (Curtis 2008). Nowadays, there are many people that are unemployed and homeless because of our weakening economy. But nobody really stops and thinks about the numerous people that have unequal access to food, especially healthy foods. When I observed the people who go into food pantries, I notice that there are a variety of ethnic groups. However, the most prominent race that I see, are Hispanics. This observation brought me to produce my research question. Is there a significant difference of food insecurity among Hispanics compared to non-Hispanics? The purpose of this paper is to discuss the main factors that cause more food insecurity among Latinos than any other race.
Food insecurity is one of the major social problems that we have in our world today. The concern about this problem is the increasing number of people that are beginning to experience hunger more often. “While hunger has long been a public health concern in developing countries, it has received varying degrees of attention in the United States, most notable during the 1930s and 1960s” (Poppendieck 1992). In addition to lack of food, there are consequences that follow. People, especially children, who suffer from food deprivation also undergo some health issues such as malnutrition and obesity, which leads to more health care and hospitalizations. “In the early 1980s, most reports of hunger involved families with children, the elderly, the unskilled and unemployed youth, the mentally ill, the homeless and minorities” (Brown 1992; Nestle and Guttmacher 1992). However, a particular ethnic group that is greatly affected by food insecurities are the Hispanic...
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...han Hispanics, while Hispanics experience more food deprivation than non-Hispanics.
Works Cited
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Himmelgreen, David A, Rafael Perez-Escamilla, Sofia Segura-Millan, Yu-Kuel
Peng, Anir Gonzalez, Merrill Singer, and Ann Ferris. 2000. Food Insecurity Among Low-Income Hispanic in Hartford, Connecticut: Implications for
Public Health Policy. Human Organization, vol.59, no. 3: 334-342.
Kersey, Margaret, Joni Geppert, and Diana B Cutts. 2006. Hunger in young
children of Mexican immigrant families. Public Health Nutrition, vol. 10, no.
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Poppendiek, Janet E. 1992 Hunger and Public Policy: Lessons from the Great
Depression. Journal of Nutrition Education. 24.6S-10S.
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“Second-Generation Decline or Advantage Latino Assimilation in the Aftermath of the Great Recession” Tran/Valdez (2015) draws data from the Annual Social and Economic Supplement to the Current Population Survey (CPS ASEC). “The case of the Disappearing Mexican Americans: An Ethnic-Identity Mystery” Alba/Islam (2008) takes its data from censuses from 1980, 1990, and 2000.
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Fitzgerald, N., Hromi-Fiedler, A., Segura-Pérez, S., & Pérez-Escamilla, R. (2011). Food insecurity is related to increased risk of type 2 diabetes among Latinas. diabetes, 3(4), 24-26.
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.
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...
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, increase in housing costs, unemployment, and inflation of the cost of food. These factors have caused food banks to see a change in the groups of people needing assistance. Doug O’Brien, director of public policy and research at Chicago-based Second Harvest says “’we’ve seen a real shift in who we serve. A decade ago, it was almost always homeless, single men and chronic substance abusers. Now we have children and working families at soup kitchens’” (Koch). These families that are feeling the effects of food insecurity will not be only ones affected by it, but all of America. Studies have shown that there is a link between food security, performance in the classroom, and obesity. If this issue is not faced head on, America will have a generation of children not fully prepared for the workforce and high health insurance rates due to obesity health issues.
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...
As long as civilizations have been around, there has always been a group of oppressed people; today the crucial problem facing America happens to be the discrimination and oppression of Mexican immigrants. “Mexican Americans constitute the oldest Hispanic-origin population in the United States.”(57 Falcon) Today the population of Mexican’s in the United States is said to be about 10.9%, that’s about 34 million people according to the US Census Bureau in 2012. With this many people in the United States being of Mexican descent or origin, one would think that discrimination wouldn’t be a problem, however though the issue of Mexican immigrant oppression and discrimination has never been a more prevalent problem in the United States before now. As the need for resolve grows stronger with each movement and march, the examination of why these people are being discriminated against and oppressed becomes more crucial and important. Oppression and Anti-discrimination organizations such as the Freedom Socialist Organization believe that the problem of discrimination began when America conquered Mexican l...
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Alaimo, K., Olson, C. M., Frongillo, E. A., & Briefel, R. R. (2001). Food insufficiency, family income, and
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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.