What Is Food Insecurity?

Food insecurity is a major issue in children all around the world. With this debilitating sociological and economic issue comes changes in household structure and nutritional intake. Lack of availability, access, usability, and stability are involved in the food insecurity definition in the United Kingdom, while doubt about obtaining nutritional food legally is involved in the United States’s definition (Marion 19-30, 34-37; Coleman-Jensen, et al). A parent’s lack of marital status can play a role in the poor mental health of the household and childhood academic success. Through all of this, the government has aid programs that may or may not have suitable dietary restrictions on what food can be purchased with the funds. Food insecurity is characterized by the ability to acquire food and affects households with

in Marion, 12). The USDA states that hunger cannot be measured due to its physiological roots and, unlike food insecurity, it is considered at the individual level (Coleman-Jensen, et al.). Even though the two organizations do not agree on other definitions, they do have similar stances about the distinctions between food insecurity and hunger; hunger is a result of food insecurity. Marion also adds that “food insecurity basically measures hunger” (10). As stated earlier, the FAO has a different definition of food insecurity than the USDA. The FAO’s definition is “[a] situation that exists when people lack secure access to sufficient amounts of safe and nutritious food for normal growth and development and an active and healthy life” (qtd. in Marion, 9). This can be broken down into four main principles: lack of availability of food, problems accessing food, unsafe or unusable food, and the stability of food purchases (qtd. in Marion, 19-20). If a household lacks these standards, they are considered food