GLOBAL HUNGER- AN ONGOING PROBLEM
Global hunger is an international struggle that involves the malnutrition and lack of food access between people, primarily due to lack of money. According to the USDA, 870 million hungry people do not have sufficient access to safe and healthy food. Not only does global hunger affect a nation’s stomach, it also tarnishes a country’s economy and overall longevity. By aiding these countries into becoming more food secure, their agricultural market, income, and population growth will gradually increase.
CALORIE AVAILABILITY VS FOOD SHARE
Many countries have an unbalanced ratio between how much money their spend on food, versus the amount of calories they consume. This leads to an inefficiency within the agricultural market. The United States is a wealthy country, and spends less than 10% of their food shares on food bought from grocery stores. Despite this, the U.S per capita consumes a substantial 3,639 calories per day. The opposite is true for poorer countries like Kenya, where they spend about 50% of their food shares, but they only digest 2,206 calories.
CONTRIBUTIONS TO HUNGER IN THE U.S
1) LACK OF INCOME
Although the United States is considered a rich country, a fair amount of people still suffer from starvation. Almost half of the counties in the Northeast have poverty rates greater than or equal to the national average. EFSNE (Enhancing Food Security in the Northeast) is a research project aimed to increase food access to the Northeast area of the United States by increasing the region’s reliance to create food.The entire operation is a collaboration between researchers and community leaders in an effort to raise the region’s income. In theory, having a deeper relationship with locally grown food will decrease the dependency on imported goods and raise more internal revenue for the state.
2)LOW FOOD ACCESS
Low food access is when a household does not have a consistent and convenient supply of food. The USDA Economic Research Service (ERS) determines the level of food access by the distance between households and local food markets. For urban regions, “low food access” is defined as a person living greater than a mile away from grocery stores, while the interval for rural areas is when that distance exceeds ten miles. 4% of the population in the Northeast qualifies as “low food access” and poses a problem for low-income consumers who have a finite amount of resources to travel to a supermarket.
3)FOOD INSECURITY
The ERS has also also asked a survey of questions to households in order to measure their level of food insecurity. “Low food security” is a label given to families when they have three or more insecure food conditions, like lack of healthy food or consistent scarcity of food supply. “Very low food security” exists if in a household has “low food security” , while also having at least one member having lower nutritional intake due to limited money.
The rate of food insecurity in the Northeast is greater than national levels in nine of the twelve states within the region. Therefore, food insecurity in the Northeast and the United States as a whole is increasing over time.
4) SCHOOL LUNCHES IN THE U.S
A program that helps low-income families is the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) a federal program that aids schools in serving healthy, delicious, and affordable food to students. According to the program, 38% of US students were able to receive free lunches due to their family earning below 130 percent of the poverty level. Despite these efforts, the United States still struggles with feeding school children a nutritious meal. One problem is regulating salt content. If a school inputs too little, then children will not eat it. However, if they input too much and students exceed their daily amount of sodium. School cafeterias would rather serve overly salty foods that children will eat, then have them starve. Another problem lies in home cooked meals, in which Americans are making less food at home. As a result, children and their family have a shallower relationship with their food and are not open to try new and healthier options.
SCHOOL LUNCHES IN FRANCE
The French school lunch system is more refined than in the United States. One difference is that many French schools hire certified dieticians to create menus that take into account sugar and sodium intake. These people also ensure a healthy balance of vegetables, protein, fruits, and complex carbohydrates. The food is also made fresh at the schools with staff personally serving children at their tables, unlike the cafeteria lines in the United States.
Below is a website that compares school lunches from the U.S and France, along with a video that shows how school lunches operate in Lyon:
http://www.collective-evolution.com/2014/10/01/what-french-kids-eat-for-school-lunch-puts-american-lunches-to-shame/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Nth_j2jhsM WIC AND SNAP Food stores that have benefits such as: Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), make shopping for food less costly and are predominantly in regions with high poverty rates (see Table 2) Between 2008 and 2011, most of the Northeast region has steadily increased the amount of WIC and SNAP stores. However, five states in the Northeast, along with the U.S as a whole, decreased the number of stores that accept WIC benefits by 8%. This trend may be due to declining birth rates, along with the cost stores undergo by upgrading their technology to accept EBT cards from WIC supporters. SOURCES https://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?navid=food-security https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/charts-of-note/ http://agsci.psu.edu/research/food-security/about/project-narratives/efsne-food-security-narrative-pdf http://www.collective-evolution.com/2014/10/01/what-french-kids-eat-for-school-lunch-puts-american-lunches-to-shame/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Nth_j2jhsM http://www.cfare.org/events/c-fare-events/2013/seminar-to-elucidate-the-value-of-usda-data https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/03/05/the-slow-death-of-the-home-cooked-meal/?utm_term=.9cbe9f85e8f4
CONTRIBUTIONS TO HUNGER IN THE U.S
1) LACK OF INCOME
Although the United States is considered a rich country, a fair amount of people still suffer from starvation. Almost half of the counties in the Northeast have poverty rates greater than or equal to the national average. EFSNE (Enhancing Food Security in the Northeast) is a research project aimed to increase food access to the Northeast area of the United States by increasing the region’s reliance to create food.The entire operation is a collaboration between researchers and community leaders in an effort to raise the region’s income. In theory, having a deeper relationship with locally grown food will decrease the dependency on imported goods and raise more internal revenue for the state.
2)LOW FOOD ACCESS
Low food access is when a household does not have a consistent and convenient supply of food. The USDA Economic Research Service (ERS) determines the level of food access by the distance between households and local food markets. For urban regions, “low food access” is defined as a person living greater than a mile away from grocery stores, while the interval for rural areas is when that distance exceeds ten miles. 4% of the population in the Northeast qualifies as “low food access” and poses a problem for low-income consumers who have a finite amount of resources to travel to a supermarket.
3)FOOD INSECURITY
The ERS has also also asked a survey of questions to households in order to measure their level of food insecurity. “Low food security” is a label given to families when they have three or more insecure food conditions, like lack of healthy food or consistent scarcity of food supply. “Very low food security” exists if in a household has “low food security” , while also having at least one member having lower nutritional intake due to limited money.
The rate of food insecurity in the Northeast is greater than national levels in nine of the twelve states within the region. Therefore, food insecurity in the Northeast and the United States as a whole is increasing over time.
4) SCHOOL LUNCHES IN THE U.S
A program that helps low-income families is the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) a federal program that aids schools in serving healthy, delicious, and affordable food to students. According to the program, 38% of US students were able to receive free lunches due to their family earning below 130 percent of the poverty level. Despite these efforts, the United States still struggles with feeding school children a nutritious meal. One problem is regulating salt content. If a school inputs too little, then children will not eat it. However, if they input too much and students exceed their daily amount of sodium. School cafeterias would rather serve overly salty foods that children will eat, then have them starve. Another problem lies in home cooked meals, in which Americans are making less food at home. As a result, children and their family have a shallower relationship with their food and are not open to try new and healthier options.
SCHOOL LUNCHES IN FRANCE
The French school lunch system is more refined than in the United States. One difference is that many French schools hire certified dieticians to create menus that take into account sugar and sodium intake. These people also ensure a healthy balance of vegetables, protein, fruits, and complex carbohydrates. The food is also made fresh at the schools with staff personally serving children at their tables, unlike the cafeteria lines in the United States.
Below is a website that compares school lunches from the U.S and France, along with a video that shows how school lunches operate in Lyon:http://www.collective-evolution.com/2014/10/01/what-french-kids-eat-for-school-lunch-puts-american-lunches-to-shame/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Nth_j2jhsM WIC AND SNAP Food stores that have benefits such as: Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), make shopping for food less costly and are predominantly in regions with high poverty rates (see Table 2) Between 2008 and 2011, most of the Northeast region has steadily increased the amount of WIC and SNAP stores. However, five states in the Northeast, along with the U.S as a whole, decreased the number of stores that accept WIC benefits by 8%. This trend may be due to declining birth rates, along with the cost stores undergo by upgrading their technology to accept EBT cards from WIC supporters. SOURCES https://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?navid=food-security https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/charts-of-note/ http://agsci.psu.edu/research/food-security/about/project-narratives/efsne-food-security-narrative-pdf http://www.collective-evolution.com/2014/10/01/what-french-kids-eat-for-school-lunch-puts-american-lunches-to-shame/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Nth_j2jhsM http://www.cfare.org/events/c-fare-events/2013/seminar-to-elucidate-the-value-of-usda-data https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/03/05/the-slow-death-of-the-home-cooked-meal/?utm_term=.9cbe9f85e8f4
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