Food Insecurity in the United States

nourishment for thinking In tribute in the bring in turn out together States nutrient In warrantor In The coupled StatesJulie HurleyIntroductionThis paper w sickish enroll the topic of forage hazard and famish in the united States. agree to the definition approved by the 1996 World provender Summit, pabulum aegis exists whenall heap, at all condemnations, thrust physical, social and frugal accession to sufficient, safe and nutritious solid solid food which meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an fighting(a) and healthy life.(Simon, 2012, p. 4-5) Food insecurity therefore, is the inability to acquire seemly food in retain for all fel low-pitchedship members as the result of shortsighted resources. Food Insecurity is to a fault the official circumstance social functiond to see the United States Department of Agricultures (agribusiness) measurement for all the mathematical variations that a family or house might experience while getting i nsufficient to sufficient food. The agribusiness measures the degree to which effective food is useable and how nutritious that food actually is. So while some members of a family might be getting food virtually of the clock, some of the time some members argon getting no food, former(a)s are getting food that is non very good and sometimes no one is feeding at all. All these variations are taken into account and measured. Food unsteady households are not necessarily food insecure all of the time and food insecurity may also reflect the trade-offs a household needs to make between paying the bills and purchasing nourishmentally comely food. (NYC Food Insecurity, 2014) Not surprisingly, low-income families are more(prenominal) the likely to experience food insecurity than middle or higher income families.There are intravenous feeding dimensions to food security availability, accessibility, utilization and stability. So food insecurity occurs when there is a lack of food (n o availability) a lack of resources (no access to food) an unconventional use (no proper utilization of food) or changes in availability, accessibility or utilization (no stability with regards to food). (Simon, 2012, p. 5-8)The United States produces more food than it could ever use for domestic consumption. Yet despite the ability to produce all this food, food insecurity is still a problem in the United States. the Statesn hunger is the result of economic s thunder mugtiness, when some wad literally do not have replete funds to purchase food. however levels of income and poverty do not fully predict food insecurity. This suggests that other things (such as the ability to budget resources), are important in determining whether or not someone will be food insecure. (Gowda, Hadley, Aiello, 2012, p. 1586) In 2008, 17 million US households were considered to be food insecure.(Gowda et al., 2012, p. 1579) In 2010, household food insecurity in the US was at its highest level since measurements began in 1995.(Fram et al., 2011, p. 1114) alike in 2010, over one-fifth of U.S. fryren lived in food-insecure homes. The problem was considered serious enough at the time that President Barack Obama publicly pledged to determination child hunger by 2015.(Fram et al., 2011, p. 1114)Today, food insecurity is combated by both authorities programs and aid from the toffee-nosed sector. And while both types of aid have increase in this century, hunger eternal sleep by the government has outpaced that nominated by the underground sector.(Gowda et al., 2012, p. 1583) However, this was not al manners the case, and for legion(predicate) people by means ofout Ameri crowd out report people were essentially on their own.HistoryThe prospect of food insecurity is a constant part of the human condition and in the United States has been a concern for as long as people have been living in North America. The European colonists who first settled in North America faced the pros pect of severe hunger such(prenominal) of the time. Transplanting crops brought from Europe and travailing to grow native crops was difficult. In the earliest days of the first colonies, many settlers watched their crops fail and ultimately died of starvation or the effects of starvation. But many other settlers were saved from starvation through the generosity of Native Americans. Over time the colonists adapted and they either copied, keep or created farming methods that were successful. In the process of doing this, they discovered that the land in North America was very fertile.(Eisinger, 1998, p. 32-34)They were so successful that despite the upset environment and violence, hunger in North America was already fit less severe than the level of hunger found throughout westward Europe. Improved food security had the effect that despite the dangers of life in the colonies, by 1776 American colonists enjoyed a higher life expectancy than their European cousins. The average li fe expectancy in North America at that time was 51 age in slap-up Britain 37 years in France only 26 years.(Eisinger, 1998, p. 44) A large(p)r-than-life factor in the food security experienced by North Americans though was that in addition to good fertile land, there was also a low population level. There was also no shortage of jobs. With low unemployment levels and plenty of work, any able-bodied person was resisted from sireing from the effects plug intod with unemployment, such as low income and the resulting inability to access food.(Fogel, 2004, p. 14-15)But conditions changed by the early nineteenth century when good land (or at least access to good land) became more scarce, usually available only to those who already had with wealth. It had also sustain harder to make a living from public land or by owning and operating a small farm. Poor economic conditions forced many small farmers off their land, making them homeless person. With a growing population of homeless p eople, Americas first homeless shelters (which also provided food), were set up, called Poorhouses.(The Poorhouse, 2012) In some areas city officials would also hand out emergency hard cash to the starving to buy food, but this did not stop the overall show up in poverty or hunger. By 1850 living conditions had fallen so low that in America that life expectancy had dropped to 43 years. It is thought that by 1865, as many as 1 in 5 Americans could have been suffering from food insecurity.(Fogel, 2004, p. 36)After the Civil War, the industrial change began to change this situation to some degree. Factory jobs provided more access to income for workers and by the 1870s there was less hunger and homelessness in the U.S. Of course virtually of these jobs were low wage and workers suffered in terrible conditions, but there were more jobs to choose from (and therefore less unemployment) so that at least people could earn enough money to eat. Though these sweat shops with their bad fun ctional conditions were the engine driving the Gilded Age the overall result was that they ameliorate preservation. This in turn created even more (and better) jobs being created outside of the factories as consumers had more money to spend. One side effect however, was that life for the poorest of the poor actually got worse. Many wealthy Americans opposed the idea of government interact to help the hungry, thinking this would only create masses of lazy indolent people. They also thought that it would somehow sabotage the growth of the free market. Laissez Faire capitalist economy was thought to be the becharm response to the starving poor. But at the identical time, the private sector began to provide help to the poor by creating Americas first dope kitchens.(DePastino, 2005, p. 22)In the early twentieth century there was a revolution in farming with the origination of the first methods of mechanized market-gardening.(Janick, 2014) Ironically, although this lead to an inc rease in rural unemployment it also created a surplus of food which helped lower food wrongs in the United States. As a result, during and after the first World War (1914-1918), the United States sent about 20 million tons of food to a war ravaged Europe. And since World War I the United States has act to be a world leader for relieving hunger.(Vernon, 2007, p. 242)In the 1920s Americas economy was booming, but the stock market crash of 1929 and the corking Depression that followed reversed much of the progress that the United States had made in reducing domestic hunger. But as a result of the Great Depression, the issue of American hunger became a major issue for the government. In time both the government and the private sector responded to the needs of the American people. More private soup kitchens and bread lines were opened and the New regale program of government relief was launched. Some government programs like the kit and caboodle Progress Administration (or WPA) trie d to reduce unemployment by providing much call for jobs. Other programs tried to reduce poverty by raising wages. another(prenominal) government program, the federal official Surplus Relief Corporation tried to provide poor people with food and bought surplus food from farmers. By the 1940s the New Deal programs had remediated the economy and seemed to have bring down most of the hunger in the United States. Until the late 1960s, many Americans considered hunger in their nation to be a solved problem.(Poppendieck, 1999, p. 11) So much so that some states even ended the practice of distributing federal food surpluses for free. quite they provided an early form of food stamps but there was a price charged and since many could not pay for them, more people began to suffer from severe hunger over again.(Poppendieck, 1999, p. 10)As American society rediscovered hunger, more private charity groups opened soup kitchens and the first modern food depone was created in 1967.(Poppendi eck, 1999, p. 112) The so-called Hunger Lobby was also launched to petition politicians to improve welfare for the hungry. By 1967 senate hearings were held on hunger and in 1969 President Nixon called on Congress to end hunger in the U.S. once and for all.(Melnick, 1994, p. 311)In the 1970s, U.S. federal hunger relief grew substantially with food stamps shared free of charge. Though these efforts again helped combat food insecurity, eventually the federal government again reduced welfare spending.(Dando, 2012, 177178) The private sector again responded with grass roots relief agencies, essentially in the form of expectantger and better food buzzwords.(Dowler, 2012, p. 1)Food Insecurity InterventionsAmericas heritage of food insecurity provides an provoke look at the cycle within which food insecurity rises and falls. By now the relationship between economics and food insecurity seems passably well documented as the economy gets worse, poverty increases and with more people ex periencing poverty, more experience food insecurity. Sadly, government insurance policy, again operating in cycles, provides some initial, emergency, short term assistance but then eventually seems to blame the victims for their own deprivations and ends assistance. To be realistic about ending hunger in America, we must acknowledge that no matter how good the economy might ever get, there should always be interventions already in indue to prevent food insecurity in the first place and to provide food to the hungry in preparation for the next big economic downturn.As a nurse viewing food insecurity as a public health issue, there are cardinal types of interventions in the field of healthcare primary, endorsementary and tertiary prevention. Primary preventions try to protect healthy people from developing a problem to approach with. Secondary preventions happen after an illness has already been diagnosed, with the goals being to stymy or slow the progress of the illness. Tertia ry preventions try to help an ill patient cope with the long term issues associated with an already exiting, full pursy condition that cannot be reversed.(Primary, second-string and tertiary prevention, 2006)Primary Interventions Creating Food credential/Measuring American food insecurityCommunity food security is created through several avenues like nutrition education, public health, sustainable agriculture and anti-hunger activism. And as a modern public health issue, a primary intervention used to try and prevent food insecurity from occurring, is to token it using reliable and precise methods of measurements. With accurate statistics, policy makers and organizations can track problems before they get worse. The only way to really do this is to get statistics about what demographic is accessing food programs, and the circumstances which caused them to have to do this. The USDA is the government agency which has been tasked with tracking and fighting food insecurity and in 1 994, the USDA organized a conference to try and figure out the best way to track food insecurity. The conference identified the appropriate basis for a nationwide measure and agreed that the best way to take such a measure was with nationwide surveys.(History Background, 2014) This conference resulted in the creation of the U.S. Food Security Measurement Project (USFSMP), and current food security statistics are based on the survey measure the USFSMP developed. In 1995, the U.S. Census Bureau first carried out a field ladder of the first food security survey called the Current Population watch over Food Security Supplement. The Food Security Supplement was repeated again from 1996 to 2001 and has been continued annually ever since. Taking the data from these surveys and using the extremely sophisticated statistical techniques, USFSMP created an accurate outperform that measures the severity of deprivation in basic food needs as experienced by U.S. households.(History Backgroun d, 2014)So a major component of primary intervention is already in place by tracking and measuring food insecurity. But the second half of this prevention-oriented approach for community food security is to take those statistics and addresses a diverse range of issues such as food availability and affordability contain food marketing diet-related health problems participation in and access to Federal nutrition assistance programs ecologically sustainable agricultural production plowland preservation economic viability of rural communities economic opportunity and job security community development and social cohesion.(Food Security In The US, 2014) According to the USDA themselves, primary intervention should also support the development of long term strategies To improve access of low-income households to healthful nutritious food supplies. To increase the impudence of communities in providing for their own food needs. To promote comprehensive responses to local food, farm, and nutrition issues. (Food Security In The US, 2014)Some of these issues can be addressed flat by the USDA but some can only be address in conjunction with or solely by other government agencies and policy makers. For example, the USDA has no say in influencing economic opportunity and job security but at least it can provide other agencies that do, with feedback as to how their policies may or may not be working. It seems unrealistic to think that the USDA alone can end food insecurity and clearly the magnitude of the problem and the power it would take to prevent it is beyond the scope of the USDA as it currently exists. But at least this primary intervention is in place and can be used in the future to continue trying to prevent hunger from happening and, until preventing it completely, to act as an alarm for strengthening secondary interventions.Secondary InterventionsWhile primary interventions for food insecurity involve the policy and decision making that affects poverty in A merica, the interventions that most of us associate with food insecurity are those involving tangible hunger relief that provides food to the hungry. Modern secondary interventions include the followingFood pantries. The most car park food aid establishments in the U.S., food pantries collect food from donors and give out actual parcels of food to those in need. Although used by anyone, they are designed to help families have enough food for a a few(prenominal) meals which will be eaten at home.The food loo. The food closet has the same purpose as a food pantry, but is not big enough to be in a building of its own. The food closet will be a closet or room in something like a church and is often found in more remote communities.Soup kitchens. Soup kitchens are also called food kitchens and meal centers, all of which provide hot cooked meals for the hungry. These meals are prepared and eaten in the soup kitchen building (not at home). Soup kitchens are the second most third estat e food aid establishment in the U.S.The food bank. The food bank is the third most common food aid establishment. in the U.S. near food banks usually warehouse food and distribute it to other agencies like food pantries, instead of giving it directly to the hungry. They get their supply of foods from large farms, manufacturers, supermarkets and the federal government.Food rescue organizations also warehouse food and distribute it to other agencies but they operate on a smaller scale than food banks and get their food from different sources restaurants, smaller shops and small farms.The meshing of these organizations that provide food assistance is sometimes referred to as the Emergency Food Assistance System (EFAS).(Riches, 1986, p. 15-20)