During campaign season, Obama promised to tackle domestic hunger. He made a pledge to "strengthen and expand nutrition assistance programs and commit to ending childhood hunger by 2015." The Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) is holding Obama to his word.
Tuesday morning I attended FRAC's Hill briefing on "food hardship" (lacking money to buy enough food) in the U.S. The nonprofit organization works to improve public policies and public-private partnerships to "eradicate hunger and undernutrition in the United States."
For the first time, data that truly capture the extent of hunger in America, was unveiled. The report revealed nearly one in five American households ran out of money to buy enough food at least once during 2009. FRAC President, Jim Weill, along with Rep. Jim McGovern (MA), presented the data with the hope of igniting fire in the belly of our government, by helping policy leaders understand the "depth and breadth" of hunger in America.
With these data, hunger is no longer an abstract, state-wide number; we are closer than ever to understanding the extent of food insecurity and hardship in this country. The data reveal pervasive food hardship at the national, state, MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area), and congressional district level. Most importantly, the data show why every member of Congress is responsible to act.
Beginning in Jan. 2008, Gallup asked more than 530,000 Americans, over the course of almost two years: "Have there been times in the past twelve months when you did not have enough money to buy food that you or your family needed?"
The results are astounding:
- In households with children 24.1% had a food hardship problem, compared with 14.9% among households without children.
- Twenty states had rates of 20% or higher. Out of those twenty states, seven Southern states led the list.
- Of the 436 Congressional Districts (including DC), 311 had a food hardship rate of 15% or higher. In 139 of them the rate was 20% or higher. Practically every Congressional District in the country had more than a tenth of respondents reporting food hardship.
It's troubling to learn about data like these, and realize the lack of current media coverage compared to other hot-button issues, or the attention given to hunger and nutrition deficiencies abroad. But as Weill made clear in the briefing, if we skimp on nutrition we will end up paying for it somewhere else. The issue of food insecurity and nutrition in this country is connected to a bevy of issues that receive more coverage in the press. Hunger goes hand-in-hand with obesity and poverty, and by putting the issue of hunger on the back burner, we'll no doubt see an increase in health care and education costs.
While the results speak for themselves, many are curious to know what this means for Congress. Now that we know the true extent of hunger, how do we proceed?
To combat food hardship, McGovern suggests a better coordinated effort. It may seem simple enough, but as he put it, "we have 1,000 good plans, we need one plan." While hunger and food insecurity are commonly grassroots issues, we need change now more than ever on a national front. McGovern emphasized this need with a suggested White House conference on food and nutrition, claiming hunger is a "political condition."
McGovern explained, "It's not about more money, it's about how we can leverage the resources we have to get a better result...What's more important than making sure people have enough to eat? We're the richest country in the world, and we have a hunger problem."
Tags: food deserts, food insecurity
We are five years into our plan and agree with Rep. Jim McGovern that the government has "1,000 good plans, we need one plan." We can replicate our system nationwide within five years. Childhood Food Solutions provides food for low-income students for non-school days (187 days/year). This program doubled academic test results in our first school (Pre-K to 8). We provide food when hunger is at its late-month worst, when food-insecure families are awaiting early-month government assistance. We need funding to prove our systems of food support. Our pilot cost is $110 per student/year, small compared to the $10,000 academic student cost, but seems large when multiplied up for the nation - close to $4 billion, but small when compared to SNAP that unfortunately runs out and does not solve late-month hunger. Kids receive food and share it with their families (after hoarding enough to assure their improving test results).