Hunger

"Ocras" by flinner!

One of the worse issues that has affected the United States and several other places around the world for years is hunger. When a person is going through hunger, it means that they are not obtaining the necessary nutrients and proteins they need to have good health as frequently as they should. Usually, people associate hunger with a person who has absolutely no money, is homeless, and appearing as if they have gone so long without food that they are to the point where their bones are visible to the human eye. While this is the case for several people, not all the people that are going through hunger fit this specific appearance. Someone could look like a regular person and have a normal job, but it would be unknown if they are struggling to feed themselves. Some people that are struggling to feed themselves and others they care for is going through food insecurity, and millions in the U.S. alone have it. People who have food insecurity do not know when or what their next meal is going to be because they have limited access to food. Those that are typically affected by food insecurity are unemployed, have low-paying jobs, or are living in poverty. Currently, in several countries, the unemployment and poverty rates are high, and this would suggest that there are millions of people and families who are not able to easily get the food they need.

Hunger is known by many as one of the worst problems that continues to affect the world because of the consequences it brings. Studies have shown that “people affected by food insecurity issues face a wide range of negative potential health and wellness impacts” (“Food Insecurity”). The “health impacts” that hunger causes are diseases and health conditions that can be more easily obtained by both children and adults, and most of them are incurable. Some of the diseases and health conditions that hunger causes include obesity, cancer, birth defects, abnormalities, and an overall poorer health status. The “wellness impacts” that result from hunger are the additional stresses and worries that people will have to face in their daily lives. For instance, instead of being able to have both a car to go places and some type food for their families and themselves, they must decide which they need more and then sacrifice the other. This type of lifestyle filled with negative impacts has affected millions, and it continues to trap more and more people.

"Poor Kid"

While hunger has caused millions of people much pain and sorrow, there haven’t been many developments to try to combat hunger. As of now, there are very few organizations and programs that are trying to end hunger, and they are not enough to help the millions that struggle because of food insecurity. One of the most notorious programs that was developed was SNAP, which stands for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and it has helped many people and families get some type of food (“Food Insecurity”). Those people who are part of SNAP are provided with electronic debit cards that can be used at places, such as grocery stores, so that people can purchase foods. However, not everyone who has food insecurity meet the eligibility requirements needed in order to receive assistance from SNAP. Those who are ineligible are pushed to the side and left to continue struggling to obtain food that they can feed themselves and others they care for (Silverbush). Obtaining food should not be a difficult task, yet there have been little to no improvements for those who have limited access to food to more easily get food. This is mainly because hunger is not considered a serious matter and does not receive the attention it deserves from people. People need to start treating hunger as an important problem for there to be more advancements in the fight to end hunger.

If people would take hunger as a more serious issue, there could possibly be new ideas and developments that could put an end to hunger. Currently, the main method people are using to end hunger is to let the government decide what to do about the problem, which is the reason for why hunger has yet to be solved. The government can do a lot, but if they are not exposed to new innovative ideas, there will be no major changes for hunger. A person who has noticed this problem is environmental activist Frances Moore Lappé, and in her essay “Biotechnology Isn’t the Key to Feeding the World,” she urges for more of the citizen’s participation in ending hunger. Lappé states that for the hunger problem to be solved, “only citizens can answer it, through public debate and the resulting accountable institutions that come from our engagement” (295). The government could use these ideas that come from public discussions about hunger to create a development that ends hunger in the future. Additionally, the chance of possibly ending hunger in the world for good will not result from people ignoring the problem and letting the government solve it themselves. The different ideas and developments that result from the public’s involvement in the issue could change the fate of hunger for the better.

Unless people begin to shift their ways of being and start treating hunger as a significant problem, a point in time will come when almost everybody has food insecurity. If this does turn out to be the result for the world, it will be too late for people to start to care about ending hunger. Professor of political science Robert Paarlberg has studied approximately how many people are being affected by hunger around the world and the how hunger has affected the lives of those people. In his essay “Attention Whole Foods Shoppers,” Paarlberg gives his research findings on hunger around the world and gives his intakes on the issues that he sees. One of the places he studied that already has high hunger rates is Africa, and he claims that “the number of ‘food insecure’ people in Africa (those consuming less than 2,100 calories a day) will increase 30 percent over the next decade without significant reforms” (271). This outcome that could occur to Africa could very much also happen in other places around the world, especially those with high hunger rates. For there to be “significant reforms,” hunger needs to become an important topic that people are having discussions about and giving solutions.

Spreading awareness about hunger and having more people to take it seriously could lead to major changes, but not everyone sees this as necessary. There are those, such as food companies, that view food as no more than just a product that is accessible to anyone. Since the foods at grocery stores are not very expensive, it is understandable to see why people could have this idea. However, while people might have access to food, those that have a poor financial status or are unemployed do not have access to nutritious foods. Nutritious foods are the fruits and vegetables that can give someone good health and a low probability of obtaining a dire disease. The foods in grocery stores that can be afforded by anybody with an income are usually highly processed foods with low nutritional value. Meanwhile, the healthy nutritious foods that nutritionists encourage people to eat more of are too expensive when compared to the cheap processed foods. Nutrition professor Marion Nestle explains in her essay “Eating Made Simple” that in order to have good nutrition, people must “eat a largely plant-based diet and avoid eating too much junk food” (45). The cost of nutrition has caused more and more people to become part of the statistics of hunger and disease rates. For more people to have nutritional food options, there needs to be significant change that can most likely come about from people caring about ending hunger.

"I am Hunger in America/ Feeding America"

Food is an essential part of a person’s life, and there should not be people that cannot always have it. The organizations and programs that exist are not enough to help all the people around the world who can only eat once a day. The world needs reforms and improvements in order to end hunger, and people giving hunger the attention it deserves would seemingly be the solution. Without people caring about hunger, the amount of people that have hunger problems will continue to increase until everyone has a hunger problem. Within the thoughts and ideas people could share about hunger, there could be a possible answer to ending hunger in all places around the world entirely. The government does not have a clear method to solve the hunger issue, but an average citizen that has carefully analyzed the hunger problem might. The solution might not come immediately out of public discussions, but it is better for the solution to come gradually than not at all.

"Poor kid" by John Christian Fjellestad is licensed under CC BY 2.0

"Ocras" by flinner! is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

"I am Hunger in America | Feeding America" by Freddy Agostini, Javier Valle, Daniel Jaramillo is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Works Cited
 "Food Insecurity." Gale Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection, Gale, 2018. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, https://link-gale-com.libproxyb.ggc.edu/apps/doc/PC3010999158/OVIC?u=ggcl&sid=OVIC&xid=ad162b58. Accessed 11 Nov. 2019.
Lappé, Frances Moore. “Biotechnology Isn’t the Key to Feeding the World.” Food Matters. 2nd ed., edited by Holly Bauer, Bedford St. Martin's, 2017, pp 294-296.
Nestle, Marion. “Eating Made Simple.” Food Matters. 2nd ed., edited by Holly Bauer, Bedford St. Martin’s, 2017, pp 37-45.
Paarlberg, Robert. “Attention Whole Foods Shoppers.” Food Matters. 2nd ed., edited by Holly Bauer, Bedford St. Martin’s, 2017, pp 270-277.
Silverbush, Lori, Kristi Jacobson, Jeff Skoll, Diane Weyermann, Christina W. Lurie, Jeffrey Lurie, Tom Colicchio, Julie Goldman, Ryan Harrington, Jeff Bridges, Raj Patel, Daniel B. Gold, Kirsten Johnson, T-Bone Burnett, Madeleine Gavin, Jean Tsien, and Andrea B. Scott. A Place at the Table. , 2013.