Food Insecurity in the U.S.

Tuesday, April14
Instructor: Dr. Holben


We had a class on food insecurity in the U.S. this tuesday. Dr. Holben provided us an overview of food insecurity status in the U.S. Food security could be defined as: "access by all people, at all times to sufficient food for an active and healthy life...[and]includes at a minimum: the ready availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, and an assured ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways." I noticed that the USDA has recently published the latest US hunger statistics: 35 million people live in households that have either "very low or low food security". To put it more simply and bluntly, 12% of the total US population doesn't have enough to eat.


Combining with videos that Dr. Holben showed us in the class, I am really astonished by the fact. Some videos from news report showed that lots of people in Ohio are living in poverty and food insecurity. I noticed that long sequences were waiting for the aids from Food Bank. Those poor people often show up with all their families. Maybe foods for aids are assigned in personal distribution--the more people show up, the more foods a family can get. However, the foods gained by people from aids could hardly satisify their nutrition needs. I have ever had a opportunity to be a volunteer for Food Bank in Logan, Ohio. I observed that foods we prepared in Food Bank were mostly cheap foods that not nutritious. Crackers, canned meat, canned corn, and peanut butter are still deeply kept in my mind. Poor people who do not have enough money to eat well are those do not have good job and high income. A poor family in the video cried because of low income and hunger.

Erin Brockovich, which is a movie acted by Julia Roberts, described the food insecurity problem exist in the household of a divorced women with no job, bad sanitation, little saving, and 2 kids. Through the life of Erin, the importance of work is attentioned again.