CIVICS_FoodInsecurity

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Drexel University *

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101

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Health Science

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May 8, 2024

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pptx

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Food Insecurity in America

Food Insecurity in America  Food insecurity is defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) as “a household-level economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food” (Coleman-Jensen et al., 2020).  Food insecurity is not only having insufficient amounts of food, but also a diet that is lacking in quality, variety, or desirability. (Hayes, 2021)  Food is a basic human need. Often people who face food insecurity have to choose between food and other basic human necessities. As Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs states, our basic needs as humans need to be met to achieve higher levels of needs (psychological and self-fulfillment needs). If these basic needs are not met, they cannot prioritize the needs of others.

History of Food Insecurity in America  Food insecurity is an age-old problem, but we didn’t fully recognize it until the Great Depression when many Americans went hungry.  Note that food insecurity does not necessarily cause hunger, but hunger can be an outcome.  After the post-World War II boom, many thought food insecurity was no longer a problem. This attitude changed in May of 1969 when President Richard Nixon addressed Congress stating that even though America was thought of as “the most bounteous of nations,” many Americans were still suffering from malnutrition. He then revamped the Food Stamp program to make sure it covered adequate nutrition and to establish a new federal agency to focus on hunger and to call on the private sector to help (Rothman, 2016).  The White House Conference on Food, Nutrition and Health decided that President Nixon must declare that a national hunger emergency exists and implement programs to fix the problem for the estimated 15 million Americans facing food insecurity (Rothman, 2016).  These efforts didn’t solve the problem, but they did cause food insecurity to be recognized as a major problem in the US.  The National Nutrition Monitoring and Related Research Act of 1990 (NNMRR) developed a survey measure, and The Ten- Year Comprehensive Plan developed under that Act specified that they should “recommend a standardized mechanism and instrument(s) for defining and obtaining data on the prevalence of 'food insecurity' or 'food insufficiency' in the United States and methodologies that can be used across the NNMRR Program and at State and local levels.” (Coleman- Jensen et al., 2020).  The U.S. Census Bureau carried out a cognitive assessment and field test of a food security questionnaire, administered as a supplement to the Current Population Survey (CPS) of April 1995.  The September 2015 release of annual food security statistics marked 20 years of measuring household food security in the United States (Coleman-Jensen et al., 2020).

Underlying Causes  According to research done by Tara O’Neill Hayes, the most common cause of food insecurity is low income – “In 2016, low-income households were 2.6 times more likely than the average American household to be food insecure” (Hayes, 2021).  Other factors that influence food insecurity include employmen t (either being unemployed or employed but in a low-wage job), where one lives , race/ethnicity , and disability .  Some people live in areas known as “food deserts” or ”food swamps,” which are areas that lack grocery stores or other markets from which to buy fresh food and produce. This causes people to shop at fast-food restaurants and convenience stores with more unhealthy foods. Income and race also play a role in whether a person lives in one of these areas.  “One study found that wealthy neighborhoods had three times the number of grocery stores than poor neighborhoods, and majority White neighborhoods had four times the number of grocery stores than majority Black neighborhoods” (Hayes, 2021).  A disability may limit one’s ability to work, which often leads to low income. It may also impair one’s ability to remember to eat, to know how to cook or what they should eat, or how to budget appropriately for necessary food consumption. Physical limitations may impair an individual’s ability to cook, prepare a meal, or shop for groceries.  According to the USDA, one-third of households including an adult with a work-limiting disability suffered from food insecurity, and households including a disabled adult represented 38 percent of households with very low food security (Hayes, 2021).  As largely a reflection of income and the cost of housing, homelessness is also correlated with food insecurity. Individuals who rent rather than own their home are also highly associated with food insecurity.  Not owning a car can also increase the likelihood of food insecurity by making it difficult to shop for groceries, although unlike with homeownership, the association is not entirely a proxy for income. Without a car, people typically must either walk to the grocery store or take public transit which limits them to purchase only what they can carry or easily transport on the bus or subway (Hayes, 2021).

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