Who Helps Feed the Hungry? Part 1

As we have determined, food security, defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as “access by all people at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life”, is the norm for over 80% of the population here in the United States.

But if you’re among the nearly 20% of Americans who deal with hunger issues, where do you turn for assistance?

Most people assume that there are government agencies which provide help to any individual or family that can’t regularly put food on the table, and to some extent, that’s true.  The USDA has a number of food assistance programs which target specific populations who face issues of food insecurity. These are programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which provides monthly benefits to eligible low-income families, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, also known as WIC, supporting low-income women and their young children up to age five (USDA, 2014).

Several other USDA-sponsored programs are commodity-based, meaning they supply bulk food products to state governments for distribution by local government programs. Many of these programs target women and young children, the elderly, rural support programs, and low-income Native American families living on or near Indian reservations.

This is all fine and well. As a nation, we have a moral obligation to help the neediest among us. I am certainly happy to see a portion of my tax dollars go to help those less fortunate than me. But the problem is that my desire to help those less fortunate souls is not always in step with my government representatives. The U.S. Congress decides how the federal budget is distributed, and they don’t always put money toward those programs that I wish to see funded.

This past February, Congress voted to cut SNAP benefits. For the average family receiving these benefits, that translated to a cut in supplemental funds of roughly $90 per month. Now, to a Congressional representative earning $174,000 annually (Brudnick, I.A., 2014), $90 per month is pocket change. And it’s not likely that any of the 535 Congressional representatives are receiving SNAP benefits anyway. I’m sure those who voted to cut these benefits think it’s not that big a deal.

But if your income is so low that you qualify for SNAP benefits (and the organization Feeding America indicates that approximately 83% of all families receiving SNAP benefits have an annual income of $19,530), you’re receiving  about $133 per person per month to supplement your food expenses, about $532 a month for a family of four (Feeding America, 2014). Cut $90 from that. $442 for a month’s worth of groceries. To feed four people.

Have you been to the grocery store recently? Apparently no one in Congress has.

And when government assistance doesn’t stretch far enough to feed hungry families, community and faith-based support networks must step in and share the burden.  We’ll look at some of those resources in a future edition of this blog.

References:

Brudnick, Ida A. (2014). Congressional Salaries and Allowances. Congressional Research Service, pg. 4 January 7, 2014. Retrieved from: http://www.senate.gov/CRSReports/crs-publish.cfm?pid=%270E%2C*PL%5B%3D%23P%20%20%0A

Feeding America (2014). SNAP (Food Stamps): Facts, Myths and Realities. Retrieved from: http://feedingamerica.org/how-we-fight-hunger/programs-and-services/public-assistance-programs/supplemental-nutrition-assistance-program/snap-myths-realities.aspx#

United States Department of Agriculture, 2014. U.S. Nutrition Assistance Programs. Retrieved from: http://fnic.nal.usda.gov/nutrition-assistance-programs/us-nutrition-assistance-programs

Brochure

Shameful Statistics

When was the last time you were hungry?

If you’re like most people, it was probably when you woke up this morning. Unless you’re one of those odd folks who sleepwalks and you happened to raid the fridge in the middle of the night, you likely had dinner last night, went to bed, and woke up with a bit of an appetite. So you probably had a bowl of cereal or scrambled an egg or something.

And you probably didn’t think much about it.

But if you were a member of one of the 17.6 million households in America that deals with food insecurity on a regular basis, you would have given it a tremendous amount of thought. Because in a food insecure household, there’s no guarantee that cereal or eggs or any other kind of food is going to be available all the time. And for those people, there’s a lot of thought and worry that goes into figuring out how to feed themselves and their families.

Food insecurity, as defined by the organization No Kid Hungry, is “the limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe food.” As the chart below indicates, it’s a problem for many people. Maybe not for you or me, but for roughly 20% of the population. That’s a lot of people!

The fact is that this problem exists here in the United States, despite our being one of the wealthiest nations in the world, with an abundance of resources at our disposal. There is not a lack of food available in America, but for the roughly 20% of American households who experience food insecurity, there is frequently a lack of money to buy food, or a lack of access to food sources.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) provides food and nutrition assistance programs to low-income families on a regular basis, but that organization’s budget, and thus, its ability to assist, is under the control of Congress. And Congress, as it is currently configured, seems more intent on voting to support its own best interests, rather than those of the constituents who they represent.

The farm bill that funds the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP, once known as the Food Stamp program) was renewed in February this year, but only after a substantial budget cut was made, and $9 billion dollars was sucked out of the SNAP budget. This means that about one million needy families who now receive SNAP assistance have had to adjust to a reduction in benefits of about $90 per month. About a week's worth of groceries.

I don’t have an answer, but I’m certainly going to be looking for one. What’s the old saying? If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem?

I want to be part of the solution.

References:

No Kid Hungry. (2013). Hunger Facts. Retrieved from: http://www.nokidhungry.org/problem/hunger-facts

United States Department of Agriculture. (2014). Key Statistics and Graphics. Retrieved from: http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/food-security-in-the-us/key-statistics-graphics.aspx#.U5orYfldWSo

Introduction

Hello fellow classmates,

My name is Kelly Greene and I'm a master's student in Health Studies. Barring any unforeseen complications, I will be graduating this December.

I'm about to celebrate my 53rd birthday at the end of the month. I've been married for 32 years, and have two adult children, ages 28 and 26. I currently work as a grant administrator for an area community college, but once my MS is complete, I will most likely be looking for something new.

The health issue which most concerns me, and the problem that I most want to focus on as I finish up this degree, is the issue of food insecurity, especially among our nation's children. I find it disheartening that, in this, the richest nation in the world, one in five children goes to bed hungry every night. In this land of plenty, that's simply unacceptable.

I hope everyone has a great summer, and a successful semester. See you soon!