hungry us

Hunger in the US is a significant problem that effects the whole population, in particular the 49 million Americans sleep hungry most nights due to lack of food or support by its own people. According to Mahatma Ghandi, “A nations greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members”. Hunger in the U.S. is caused by poverty, leads to poor health, and the government is not contributing enough to help stop the problem. or are they?

Many people in the U.S. are considered low income families or below the 200% poverty level. That means that the families make just enough money to pay the bills but not enough money to be fed. According to Jonathan A. Foley “Right now about one billion people suffer from chronic hunger. The worlds farmers grow enough food to feed them, but it is not properly distributed and, even if it were, many cannot afford it, because prices are escalating.” (Foley) These low income families don’t have enough money to eat or provide their families with the nutrition they deserve. Because of the low income the only choice a family has is to run to the cheap but health costly food that are processed and full of unhealthy preservatives, pesticides and much more. The cheap foods are processed food, mostly loaded with saturated fats, sodium, and high fructose corn syrup. All of the ingredients in the processed foods lead to many diseases like heart disease, diabetes, cholesterol, and hypertension. Those families are not only suffering from food insecurities they are at risk for obesity and much worse. However, some families are fortunate enough to be funded by the state. This funding is called a SNAP Also known as food stamps. Only 40 million Americans are on SNAP, or supplemental nutrition assistance program but sometimes that’s not enough. According to A Place at The Table, some family’s get as low as 4 dollars per person a day. That is not enough for the family to have a single nutrient dense meal even though they need 3 meals a day to be considered a healthy human. If you think about it, 4 dollars a day is nothing for some family’s that would not even be a fraction of a person’s meal cost, so they usually run to cheap fattening foods like chips and soda pops

to fill their stomachs and quench their thirst. Unfortunately, SNAP is not enough help from the government. Frances Moore Lappé is an activist and an author. She has written many books and was awarded many awards for her dedication to fight against world hunger. She claimed, “hunger is not caused by a scarcity of food but buy a scarcity of democracy.” (Lappe) Which leads to believe that she believes that hunger in the US is a government issue.

The government is not doing its best to serve the people of America. In the movie A Place at the Table there were a few times people implied the government is not doing enough. The U.S. Government funds projects and foreign countries for multiple different things but is stingy to its own people. Leepé explains, “it is not that we do not have enough food, it is that we do not have a successful democratic system.” She also states, “Hunger, I learned, is the result of economic “givems” that we have created, Assumptions and structures that actively generate scarcity from plenty. Today this is more, not less, true.” (Lappe)

The only reason behind the low costly foods is because of the boost in the economy. The government provides food that are low in price at the store and an even lower price to process them in

factories. The only thing that matters in the governments eyes is how much money is rolling in from this food production. They provide low funding to the families that are not making a high income. Those low fundings provide the unhealthy foods.

Even though the government doesn’t help as much the U.S government can’t just hand money out to people or else the people of low income start to rely on the Government. People will then begin to quit their jobs, get lazy, and let the government pay for everything including food. The economy will fall, and the country will follow it. The U.S can’t just give people what they want because the people of the U.S. are going to get greedy and want more and more. The problem is not as simple as it looks, if it was no one will be hungry because the government would Have done something to fix the big problem. Most people choose to be lazy and ask for money on the side of the street. Some people actually look for a job and try to succeed. But others are lazy and do not want to contribute their time to find a job and work to provide for their family.

While the government isn’t helping the people directly, the government funds scientists to cross breed plants to have a bigger production of the edible parts of the vegetable. For example, a long time before vegetables were domesticated, corn and other crops had the edible parts incredibly small, but because the government funds small projects scientist create bigger crop to help the people

of America. This is basically a fight against hunger from behind the scenes. Leepé says, “biotechnology companies and even some scientists argue that we need genetically modified seeds to feed the world and protect the earth from chemicals”. Scientist spend years and years to fight hunger by genetically modifying food. Infact, cabbage, Kale, and other vegetables were produced through genetically modifying the mustard plant. foods have been increasing in variety and its quantity because of the government.

The Government also cannot control what the consumer of America buys. When the government funds SNAP balances, those balances are being used to buy cheap unhealthy foods. SNAP is provided not to fund the whole month of food it is provided to assist. It’s like a discount or a half off coupon for the people, but people take advantage and choose not to fund the rest. So, it turns to a game of survival, and the government is blamed for the people’s decision. So, the people then are choosing to eat the unhealthy food and get effected from the sodium, sugar, carbs and the saturated fats. The people choose to consume sweeter and cheaper products. The people already are knowledgeable of the effects and diseases that occur when eating the food, they do. While the people consume more unhealthy foods the government finds it that the people are actually satisfied with what is being produced, so they fund more of the cheap and unhealthy to satisfy the people of the country. It’s not the words of people that matter as much as the statistics of the consumers most bought products. So, it’s the choice and decision that matters for the government. The government cannot force feed the country food they don’t like. If the U.S cuts budgets for cheap and unhealthy food would the people like it? Would the people be satisfied enough? The fact is, no matter what the government does, funds, or helps some people are just not satisfied.

When there is nothing to do for the situation the U.S becomes Stuck. The issue stays still, some notice and some don’t. the Issue is bigger and bigger as the time passes by. We tend to look away and just assume it will eventually go away. Hunger is a huge issue that many of people are facing. Again, Hunger in the U.S. is caused by poverty, leads to poor health, and the government is not contributing enough to help stop the problem because of the consumers satisfaction foods. So, do they really help?

The fault is from both the people and the government. The people choose to eat the cheap and unhealthy food that lack nutrition. So, the government funds and helps produce what satisfies the majority of the country. In conclusion, both parties are to blame for hunger. both should do more, and both should choose wisely. If the people show, they are unsatisfied the government will try their best to satisfy the people its serving.

"59:365" by chrisjtse is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0