{"id":2922,"date":"2010-02-01T17:15:16","date_gmt":"2010-02-01T17:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/americans_going_hungry_a_top_priority_for_2010\/"},"modified":"2020-07-07T10:59:04","modified_gmt":"2020-07-07T10:59:04","slug":"americans_going_hungry_a_top_priority_for_2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/americans_going_hungry_a_top_priority_for_2010\/","title":{"rendered":"Americans going hungry a top priority for 2010 – National Consumers League"},"content":{"rendered":"

Part two of a four-part series, in which we present the food issues we anticipate will affect American consumers the most in 2010.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em>By Courtney Brein, Linda Golodner Food Safety and Nutrition Fellow<\/strong><\/p>\n

Even in the best of times in modern-day America, amid a near-constant stream of news about the obesity rate and the overabundance of calorie-dense foods, hunger has remained a problem in American society. The current economic downturn has caused a dramatic increase in the number of Americans going hungry.<\/p>\n

According to a USDA report<\/a> on household food security in 2008, 14.6 percent of households \u2013 comprising 49 million individuals \u2013 were \u201cfood insecure\u201d at some point during the year.\u00a0 These figures reflected a sharp rise from 2007, when food insecurity affected 11.1 percent of households, or 36 million people.\u00a0 And, while the statistics on household food security for 2009 are not yet available, USDA SNAP monthly data<\/a> shows that the number of Americans receiving aid from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as \u201cfood stamps,\u201d rose dramatically throughout the year.\u00a0 In December of 2008, nearly 32 million individuals were enrolled in SNAP \u2013 up from almost 28 million in the first month of the year.\u00a0 By September of 2009 \u2013 the last month for which data is currently available \u2013 that number had risen to over 37 million.\u00a0 As the New York Times<\/em> reported at the end of November, one in eight Americans and, alarmingly, one in four children now rely on food stamps.\u00a0 Approximately 20,000 new individuals enroll each day.\u00a0 And as the discrepancy between food insecure individuals and SNAP enrollment reveals, a large portion of the population still experiences hunger, whether steadily or intermittently, without the benefit of the supplemental nutrition safety net.\u00a0 Of those who do receive SNAP, approximately six million individuals rely on it as their sole source of income, according to a December New York Times<\/em> article<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

While the federal government continues to fund the ever-growing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and food pantries find creative ways to serve a growing number of clients despite declines in donations<\/a>, it will require more than patches to the nutritional safety net to reign in hunger in the United States.\u00a0 The Healthy People 2010 objectives set the goal of decreasing U.S. household food insecurity by 50 percent from the 1995 baseline of 12 percent to 6 percent in 2010.\u00a0 Clearly, <\/strong>this was an overly ambitious goal.\u00a0 In October 2008, during the presidential campaign, President Obama pledged to end childhood hunger by 2015.\u00a0 As the official campaign statement<\/a> noted, \u201cThe most effective way to eliminate childhood hunger and reduce hunger among adults is through a broad expansion of economic opportunity\u2026Barack Obama understands that poverty is the primary cause of hunger and has a comprehensive plan to reduce and alleviate poverty.\u201d\u00a0 Coalitions such as the National Anti-Hunger Organizations (NAHO) and the Campaign to End Childhood Hunger continue to provide policy recommendations<\/a> and ground-level support<\/a> for meeting food security objectives, but it will require that the government make a lasting, financial commitment to providing the economic opportunities and income supports necessary to permanently reduce hunger.<\/p>\n

In a country as wealthy as ours, access to an adequate supply of nutritious food should be a basic human right.\u00a0 And for those not swayed by the moral argument, there is also a strong economic argument to be made for reducing hunger, particularly among children.\u00a0 As NAHO explains<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Over the past ten years, researchers have confirmed what educators, child caregivers and healthcare professionals know through observation: When children don\u2019t get enough nutritious food, they fall behind physically, cognitively, academically, emotionally and socially.\u00a0 They, their families, communities and country suffer the life-long consequences of these reduced outcomes.\u00a0 Adults who experienced hunger as children have lower levels of educational and technical skills.\u00a0 Ill-prepared to perform effectively in today\u2019s jobs, they create a workforce that is less competitive\u2026Ending childhood hunger in America will improve the health of its people while reducing short- and long-term healthcare costs, elevate the educational status of its people, and help the nation regain its workforce competitiveness and economic strength.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The ultimate goal of hunger-relief programs should not be merely to provide the necessities of life to those who need them, but to enable all consumers to be just that \u2013 individuals able to work and earn enough money to purchase food with which to feed themselves and their families.\u00a0 And, while the Healthy People 2010 objective to decrease U.S. household food insecurity to 6 percent clearly will not be met, the year 2010 is nevertheless a fitting time to commit to the reduction of hunger in America.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Part two of a four-part series, in which we present the food issues we anticipate will affect American consumers the most in 2010. By Courtney Brein, Linda Golodner Food Safety […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2922"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2922"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11338,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2922\/revisions\/11338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}