More handpicked essays just for you.
Concrete solutions to food insecurity essay
Causes of childhood hunger in america
Concrete solutions to food insecurity essay
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Child hunger has been prevalent in the United States for many years. As of 2012, over fifteen millions children live in food insecure households. For my paper I will examine Child Hunger as a social problem, the effects of the problem, solutions, and barriers that have hindered the solutions used for this problem.
Social Problem History
A considerable effort has been done in terms of defining the social issue of Child Hunger or hunger in general for policy purposes. Both private and public sectors, with the cooperation of the government agencies, privately funded advocate groups, and academic institutions have used the method to measure hunger by self-report of his or her own experience of suffering from hunger. (Lewit and Kerrebrock, 1997, Pg 129). According to Lewit and Kerrebrock (1997) poverty is defined as “an inadequate amount of food intake due to a lock of money or resources” (pg.129) or “The mental or physical condition that comes from not eating enough food due to insufficient economic, family, or community resources.” (pg.129). As it stands today, Hunger is now defined with the term “Food insecurity” which means families or individuals are unable to secure or afford nutritious safe food in order to have a healthy active lifestyle.
While there wasn’t much press during the Great Depression era concerning child hunger, there were a large influx of families who suffered from food insecurity because of the economic climate of the United States. Until the mid-1980s during a recession and a reduction of federally funded food programs, there was an increase in hunger in the United States by as much as twenty million people; most of whom were children.
Lewit and Kerrebrock’s (1997) study found the following: Between...
... middle of paper ...
...ghts
When I think about human rights and Article 25, the right to an adequate standard of living. If a family or individual is living in poverty and as a consequence is suffering from hunger then that means their basic needs aren’t being met. The word adequate seems to stick out to me because of its meaning. “Good enough to meet the needs of the person.” This clearly is not happening for children and their families who are not only getting enough food, but not notoriously good food that can maintain a healthy diet.
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.
Anna Quindlen identifies that child hunger is not just in other parts of the world, it is also here. She informs readers that, “In most cases these are not parents who are homeless or out of work.
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...
Jenson & Fraser’s (2011) discussion on the impact poverty has on children is even more relevant today because of the impacts the recession has had on childhood poverty and the need for more thoughtful social policies which will better elevate families out of poverty. Raedle (2013) reports that enrollment for SNAP has increased and now 15% of Americans are enrolled in SNAP. Raedle’s (2013) report on the rising enrollment in SNAP coincides with Sell, Zlotnik, Noonan & Rubin’s (2010) article discussing how the recession has impacted outcomes for children; Sell, Zlotnik, Noonan & Rubin (2013) discuss how food insecurity can have a major negative impact on childhood wellbeing and can produce negative outcomes into adulthood (p. 14). According to Sell, Zlotnik, Noonan & Rubin (2013) the last recession has resulted in high rates of unemployment, which can take years after a recession to recover, and “unemployment is a known contributor to food insecurity” (p. 16)
World hunger is a very important epidemic because of the risks or implications it imposes on the rest of the world. Juveniles are the utmost apparent victims of under-nutrition. 2.6 million children die as a result of hunger-related causes each year. 66 million school-aged children go to classes hungry across the developing world, with 23 million in Africa alone. One in four of the world's youth are kept from growing due to malnutrition. In developing countries the proportion can rise to one in three. A strong maternal-infant bond provided through psychosocial stimulation is essential for positive child development. The formation of this bond at the beginning of life is an essential step that sets the stage for cognitive,emotional, and social development later in life. Feeding and other care practices provide opportunities for psychosocial stimulation and help to establish a positive attachment between caregiver and child.(WHO) Under-nutrition magnifies the effect of every disease, such as measles,diarrhea and malaria. Asia has the largest number of hungry people (over 500 million) however S...
In the year 2015, around 40 million U.S. citizens were food insecure (Randall para. 3). Food insecurity can be defined in paragraph 3 by “[having] difficulty at some time during the year providing enough food for all their members due to a lack of resources. This 12.7% of American citizens also contains another group - children. Aged 10-17, 6.8 million adolescents struggle with a food insecurity. There have been several years of cuts to the social programs designed to help these people, along with the Great Recession continuing to leave an impact on the U.S. economy (para. 6). Under the Obama administration, $8.6 billion was cut from the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as Food Stamps. From 1993-2001 under the Clinton administration, former President Bill Clinton’s administration “gutted the welfare system” (para. 15). Because of these budget cuts, the families who rely on food assistance from the government have been allotted less throughout the years. From a sociological perspective, the concepts of sociological imagination, class stratification, and social location are in effect when it comes to child hunger in the United States. Being hungry is an issue larger than any one individual can control.
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. The effects are Families are homeless, parents don't have an education, health care is too expensive, violence is common, and children don't get a good education. Homelessness an effect on poverty. There is a lack of housing in the United States that people can afford. Even a minimum wage job isn't enough money to supply housing and food for a family with children. "Cuts in federal assistance for housing programs and social services have coincided with the rise in homelessness in the U.S."("Overview of Homelessness") This means that is harder to get housing because there are many budget cuts. Being homeless is hard on kids. It is hard for kids to do well in school because they have to move a lot more than the average kid. School can get interrupted. It can cause them to fall behind even having to repeat a grade. The long-term effect is having learning disabilities. ("Children and Hunger") Kids become homeless because they are being abused. They don't have anything so they start stealing and doin...
Food insecurity does not discriminate; it reaches many segments of society (Whitney, DeBruyne, Pinna, & Rolfes, 2007). Even through closely related to poverty, not all that have food insecurities are in poverty. Often it is the working poor that are hit the hardest. The working poor are a group that despite having a job, there income is too low to meet their need or that of their family. Most of the working poor (56%) live in families with children, so that the poverty of these workers affects many others as well (Problems Facing the Working Poor, Kim 1999). Many lower to middle class families will temporarily struggle with food insecurity at various times during the year. For these families government assistance may not immediately available. Appling for Supplemental Nutrition Assistanc...
For most Americans, the word poverty means insufficient access to to housing, clothing and nutritious food that meet their needs for a healthy life. A consequence of poverty is a low socioeconomic status that leads to being exposed to poor nutrition. Since food and dietary choices are influenced by income, poverty and nutrition go hand in hand. There are many important factors that threaten the nutritional status of poor people. The number one factor is not having enough money to buy food of good quality and quantity. Not having enough money can have a profound impact on the diets of low-income people. Limited financial resources may force low income people to make difficult decisions about what kind and how much food to buy. Limited financial resources often lead to food insecurity. According to Gundersen, Waxman, Engelhard, and Brown (2011) food insecurity is the lack of access to healthy food in quantity or quality.
During the 1930’s, the United States’ population was suffering through the Great Depression with hunger being its most severe consequence. Hunger in the United States became a national issue since more than 8 million people were unemployed by the spring of 1931 (book citation). Furthermore, families were With the “paradox of want in the midst of plenty”
There are many policy issues that affect families in today’s society. Hunger is a hidden epidemic and one major issue that American’s still face. It is hard to believe that in this vast, ever growing country, families are still starving. As stated in the book Growing Up Empty, hunger is running wild through urban, rural, and even suburban communities. This paper will explore the differing perspectives of the concerned camp, sanguine camp, and impatient camp. In addition, each camps view, policy agenda, and values that underlie their argument on hunger will be discussed.
"Hunger and Malnutrition." KidsHealth - the Web's Most Visited Site about Children's Health. Ed. Mary L. Gavin. The Nemours Foundation, 01 May 2012. Web. 12 May 2014.
It affects millions of Americans and has been increasing dramatically in recent years; in 2012, more than 48 million food-insecure Americans rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) (McMillan). The depth of deprivation varies for each family. Food insecurity affects people of all ages and causes more than just health-related problems. Children who are food-insecure have greater chances of anemia, malnutrition, cognitive problems, aggression, anxiety, dysthymia, asthma, mental health problems, oral health problems, behavioral problems and poorer general health (Gundersen, Kreider, and Pepper).
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.
Eliminating world hunger is an obtainable goal if a few small steps are put into place, with the focus being on growing more food. There are many options that should be utilized in the effort to end world hunger. If under developed countries were taught how to farm their own food and given even minimal supplies and tools it would eliminate a large percentage of the hunger complication. Education is another important dilemma that relates directly to under nourished countries such as Asia and Africa. In the United States there are many government sources for women and children to assist with food sources such as WIC (Women, Infant, and Children) and SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). Other countries could implement similar programs
Hunger and poverty have been a major problem in the world, which has being leading most people to death than cancer, Ebola, and malaria do. More than thousands of people die from hunger and poverty, and most of the people who suffer most are children below the age of ten. Hunger and poverty have contributed to the world food crisis that has an impact on the economy, the environment, and political issues. People living with hunger and poverty are more than those living a successful life in both developed and developing the world. Hunger makes victims live underweight, causing numerous of sickness to their health. Lack of