Jacqueline March
Dupont Challenge
Agriscience
January 26, 2015
Fighting Hunger
As Penelope Cruz stated, “We need to stop the dying and start the living; stop the hunger and start the hoping.”
At this moment there are approximately 842 million people worldwide that are hungry. This is about 1 of every 8th person you see. That’s over 2.5 times the population of the United States. In 2012, more than 18,000 children younger than 5 died every day; most from preventable causes. It’s estimated that nearly 8,000 of these deaths were tied to hunger. That’s about one every 10 seconds. Most of these kids died not from starvation, but from malnutrition. Malnutrition means going too long without the right kind of food. Eating just enough to stay alive had weakened their bodies so much that disease could come through and strike the final blow. In 2014, approximately 49 million Americans Struggled with Hunger, and continue to struggle each and every day.
There are people all around us that are hungry, and no one ever notices. But why don’t we notice? They are everywhere. They’re in our schools, on our sports teams and in our community. It may be that we are too focused on our own wealth and family we don’t care or think to help others. Those around us are similar; those who starve may have no major noticeable physical differences than the rest of us. This is why we don’t notice those in need. Sometimes The average American family of four ends up throwing away an equivalent of up to
Thereby “there were children who starved to death.” One interviewee said, “I didn’t eat for two days.” This is a major problem on many levels. Kids are dying because they cannot eat food. If people don’t have easy access to food, living is extremely challenging.
Have you ever thought about what it is like to be constantly hungry as a result of not having access to adequate food? For some people in the world this is a reality. In my interview with Melinda Vonderhorst she recounts her personal observations from her five trips to Haiti, where she helped to build a school along with working in an orphanage and clinic, of countless children
It was difficult to read that countless millions of federal dollars and many of our country's most successful efforts to halt the spread of childhood hunger and starvation have recently been withdrawn. And as a result, this problem of childhood hunger is not getting better but is actually getting worse. The most recent estimates compiled by the USDA in 1999 indicate that 36.2 million Americans live in food-insecure households, which means that their access to adequate and safe food is limited or uncertain. This too is very disturbing information.
In Janet Poppendieck's “Want Amid Plenty: From Hunger To Inequality” she argues that America puts excessive focus upon hunger issues among the poor when there are many other important issues that go unnoticed. Poppendieck believes that it is time to find a way to shift the discourse from undernutrition to unfairness, from hunger to inequality. In today's society, there are many food banks, food drives, soup kitchens, etc. Food is extremely abundant in America, therefore Poppendieck's statement is proven true when she states that there is too much focus on hunger. Throughout this text, she strongly supports her claims about hunger, equality, and poverty in general.
Most people in the United States today are unaware of the increasing numbers of child hunger throughout the country. Today, a staggering one in five kids struggle with hunger in our own country (Francisco 18). Not only does it affect their concentration and grades in school, but also their overall health. Over 1.02 billion people in the world are considered to be malnourished, and hunger and malnutrition is the leading cause of child deaths, which accounts for 6 million children each year (Nah and Chau). When most people think of children and families going hungry, they think that it is just a problem in other countries. However, there is an increasing amount of children and their families in North Carolina
Though it is not right for any child, mother, father, etc. to go hungry sometimes us Americans need to take the time to think about how lucky we are to live in a country that provides us with opportunities for food assistance programs. Berg quotes Robert Rector about how hunger America actually is, “But while hunger does exist in the United States, it is relatively restricted in scope and frequency. For example, [federal] survey data…show[s] 96 percent of US households report they have “enough food to eat,” (p. 113). One in six people in America report having food security (uncertain availability to adequate food in the past 12 months), but somehow almost half of the food in the United States goes to waste today according to “Wasted: How America is losing up to 40 percent of its food from farm to fork to landfill” by Gunders. (2012).
Hunger in America happens every year to homeless people,kids, and adults,as sad as it is even new born babies. This could happen to anyone why? There is several reasons maybe some people don’t have the money. What if you were that person how would you live knowing that your child isn’t getting proper nutrition? Many people don’t seem to realize how much this really happens. one in 7 people in the United States face trying and struggling to get food to eat, and more than 12 million American family’s face hunger. Food insecurity is harmful to all people, but it is especially devastating to children. Proper nutrition is what a child’s needs to help with their development or you can say growing. Did you know that while hunger is nonstop - African
Everybody knows the feeling of hunger before his or her next meal. Think of that gnawing, empty feeling in your stomach. That feeling, that discomfort, is nothing compared to what millions are going through everyday in America alone. Imagine always being incredibly hungry. Imagine not knowing where your next meal will come from. Imagine not knowing if you will even get to eat each and every day. Millions of Americans, children and adults alike, suffer from those exact feelings. There are countless starving people in America, and as some of the more fortunate, we need to do something about it.
It is because when people hear the word “America” or “Americans” they automatically stereotype us. When most Americans think of hunger the first thing they think about is third world countries. They believe with the assistance the government provides, and the job opportunities nobody should be hungry. That is just not the case because millions of Americans just don’t have enough food to eat. Even our government is not trying to productively find a solution to this problem. Recently the food stamp program, formally known as the Federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, received a $5 billion cut. Then when congress addressed the issue the only thing they accomplished was cutting the benefit levels further. It is unfortunate how many people do not believe this is a serious issue that needs to be addressed. We as a country need to do something about it (Resnikoff,
A. How many of you are worried about where your next meal will come from? Are you unsure of how you’re going to purchase next week’s groceries or what you will be feeding your children for dinner tonight? This probably isn’t something most of you think about from day to day. When you are hungry, you eat. It’s easy for you to grab a sandwich, order a pizza, or run through the drive thru when you are on the go. However, there are many families, not just in other countries, but here in the United States as well, that are going hungry every day. According to kidshealth.org, a child dies from malnutrition and related causes every 6 seconds.
Last summer I volunteered at our local Planting Hope event. We distrituted food products from the Maryland Food Bank to people of lower-income in my local town. We also gave shoes and clothes to those who needed them. What I learned after this experience is the realism of poverty and hunger in our country and even my hometown. What may seem to be a prevalent idea for third-world countries far from our homeland, the reality is that poverty and hunger are located closer than we think. Over thirteen percent of Americans are food insecure which seems untrue, but in fact it is a reality that sometimes we ignore. Planting Hope has not only signalled this issue into me, but has allowed me to want to learn more about other issues and rising issues
Hunger is a big social issue facing America today. According to (“Do Something.com”) 1 out of 6 people face hunger in the US. Also 49 Million Americans Struggle to put food on the table. America is the best country in world, we shouldn’t have so many people hungry. Many people have thought of fixing this problem but one company has found a way to help fix this problem, this company is Feeding America. They have been giving people food since 1979. They’ve helped out 46 million Americans. ( feedingamerica.org )
What may be hard to see is that hunger is everywhere. Yes, hunger is in Africa and third-world countries, but also in the United States. Childhood hunger is nearly a bigger issue than overall hunger in the United States. Studies show that hunger among children has a higher percentage than hunger as a whole (Feeding America 28). It is found that children suffer from food insecurity in every county in the United States (Feeding America 30). It is easy to sit back and think that everyone has the financial and physical means to find food, but they do not. Over thirty percent of all children (under the age of eighteen) in New Mexico live in food insecure households; this state has the highest percent in the entire United States (Feeding America
Every day an estimated 24,000 people die from hunger or hunger related causes. Three-fourths of these deaths are children under the age of five. One may wonder how this can be living in a country were it seems so much food is wasted everyday. Food restaurants and grocery stores throw away food every night before closing. Many Americans waste food every day within their own homes. With so much “left over” food in America, how is it that an estimated 800 million people around the world suffer from hunger and malnutrition?
After reading the extensive “The New Face of Hunger” (Tracie McMillan), my eyes became more open to the overall issue of hunger, faced by many people today. In a few words, I was absolutely shocked by the true meaning and examples provided of what exactly food insecurity is. Honestly speaking, when I hear the word “hunger” I think of a human who has no food, living on the streets. “The New Face of hunger” brought to my attention that food insecurity is much more than simply having no food. In fact, “In 2006 the U.S. government replaced “hunger” with the term “food insecure” to describe any household where, sometime during the previous year, people didn’t have enough food to eat” (The New Face of Hunger). Not only was I able to see the harsh