By the raw numbers, Texas has the second highest number of food insecure people in the US, behind California. Texas reports 1.7 million people have experience food insecurity in the past three years. For reference, that’s over 2 times the population of Boston. How does Houston stack up to the rest of Texas? No too badly.
Overall, food insecurity levels have been dropping in Houston for the past handful of years. Starting in 2011 at 19.5%, Houston lowered their food insecurity level to 16.6% by just 2015. The overall level continues to drop in Houston, as they are on their way to getting their food insecurity levels under nationwide averages. The main problem for Houston comes with children. 1 in 4 children in Houston have experienced some kind of food insecurity in their lifetime. As with most cities, families in Houston with children struggle more than those without to get away from food insecurity, and that is the true issue here. Houston has proven that they can lower overall food insecurity, but how can they help children? That’s what their legislature is working on right now. In the meantime, while the legislature is trying to figure out solutions for Houston’s childhood food insecurity issues, help us make sure no child goes hungry. Because, not only can hunger affect a child in everyday life, it also can affect their possible future outcomes.
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Much of San Francisco’s problems with hunger harken back to those of Boston, so if you haven’t read that Food for Thought piece yet, I highly recommend it. In a recent study, the San Francisco Chronicle found that 23% of the population are what they consider to be “Hungry.” With the idea thoughts of Boston in our mind, it is easy to see why there may be issues with hunger in the city.
Over the past few years, San Francisco has quietly become the most expensive city in the US to live in. It has surpassed both Boston and New York, and even a cursory look at housing prices in downtown will help you understand why it has been ranked so highly. This leads to many families struggling to make important decisions again. Housing vs. food, and other battles that families trying to help themselves shouldn’t have to fight. Again, we ask for your assistance. Assist us in giving everyone in San Francisco who struggles with hunger, a boost to where they want to be. Let’s turn the page from Boston, to our next city, Chicago. The third largest city in the US, Chicago deals with food insecurity just like anyone else. Different from Boston, Chicago deals with the majority of their food insecurity coming from low-income disabled adults. This sets forth a completely different set of issues for workers to resolve.
Those low-income disabled adults create issues, as there is again no easy way to solve their situation. One often suggested way is to increase access to food assistance programs, and to increase who is allowed into them. This is one potential way of helping solve it, but Chicago has been implementing these sort of policies to little avail for a while. Another way is focusing on creating jobs that these people could fill. Again, not a perfect solution. What these workers would be able to do is extremely variable from intense physical labor to data entry and more. It isn’t easy to focus on one industry to fix the problems. Constant monitoring and dispatching of resources would be necessary to help alleviate some of these issues. You can see there is no easy answer, as there isn’t with most food insecurity issues. The only clear thing is it is important to help these needy people, who, even though they try their best, can’t help themselves because there are no opportunities for them. Help us give them a hand up, and support them on their way to a happy life. For a long time, food insecurity in Boston was quite low. However, ever since the recession in 2008, it has been on the rise. In a study done by Project Bread in 2016, food insecurity in Boston is 24.9% higher than it was just a decade ago. This is not due to high unemployment either. Boston’s employment rate is at a fifteen year low right now. So what is happening?
We can never really be sure. There seem to be many factors that are contributing to the overall increase in Boston. For the past few years, living expenses in and around Boston have been greatly increasing, and that seems to be the main issue that is specific to Boston (not counting other, general food insecurity issues that are applicable across the country). Increasingly, families are not able to make enough money to pay for their ever-rising housing costs, or utility bills. Many believe this is due to the way the federal government bases food grants on income, not family costs and income. Large families (even though they have a decent income for a smaller family) are not able to feed everyone adequately. No family should have to choose between keeping a roof over their head and feeding their family adequately. No family should have to choose between staying warm in their house and being fed enough. Help us make sure they don’t have to choose between food and something else.Let’s allow them to focus on other things and get their feet back under themselves. Check out the Project Bread study here: http://www.projectbread.org/get-the-facts/reports-and-studies/ As a new week begins at Babson, we are reminded that this week is a special time for reflection and action. The lives of those who struggle with the burdens of hunger and homelessness are brought the the campus limelight as we go about our daily lives. Its important to help in small, meaningful ways such as raising campus awareness or donating non-perishable food.
This fits well within H0's mission, as we strive to help hunger, especially in urban metro areas. On the website and below will be an interactive map that details the extent of hunger in the United States. Note how highly urbanized counties like Suffolk County have high incidences of food insecurity. Here is the map: link. Most Americans today would like to think hunger as a thing of the past, or, as a tragedy mostly connected to "african children". While to not demean the african hunger crisis, the sad reality is that there is a significant proportion of the american population that not only goes hungry, but is malnourished as well.
A whopping 41 million people struggle with hunger in America (source). While poverty has decreased in recent years, figures for hunger insecurity have been increasing. In fact, it is estimated that about 47% of food pantries have to turn people away completely due to a lack of resources and an incredible demand. As if that weren't bad enough, up to 85% of americans do not get the proper amount of vitamins and nutrients indicating that the food that is eaten in neither healthy or nourishing. This is the null hypothesis, that the United States' hunger issue is the standard, the default position that americans must live with. We hope to make this issue known. |
H₀: Urban Hunger
We're gonna open up the discussion about urban hunger. ArchivesCategories |