Food Fight
Dear Leading Ladies,
An ad pops up between my turns on Words with Friends. It is a quiz about food insecurity. I search for the icon which will let me skip the ad and get back to my game.
There is none.
My evening distraction, rationalized as an attempt to keep my mind actively engaged, is interrupted by the reiteration of information I cannot – and should not – dismiss. Admittedly, this is more important than my game.
They got my attention. Hopefully, I’ve got yours now too. Here’s what I learned or was reminded of about hunger in our country:
True. One in six Americans does not have enough access to food.
False. Most individuals struggling with hunger are homeless and out of work.
False. Very few children struggle with hunger because there are programs to take care of them.
False. Most people in low-income households would be fine if they just worked harder.
True. Even college-educated Americans struggle with issues of hunger.
False. The lack of adequate nutrition only affects children’s physical growth.
False. Children from food insecure households perform just as well in school as children who have enough nutrition daily.
True. More than 2 million rural households experience food insecurity.
False. Urban counties have the highest poverty rates.
True. More than 50 million Americans don’t have dependable, consistent access to enough food due to limited money and resources.
At holiday time, we are all bombarded with requests for donations and we feel the pull to volunteer our time to provide for those less fortunate than ourselves. We open our hearts and take out our credit cards to give to food banks and pantries. We sign up to help prepare meals at soup kitchens or pack baskets to deliver to homeless shelters. Our efforts do, indeed, help many who lack adequate resources to provide themselves and their families with nutritious and consistent meals. We bring some temporary joy to those who may not have a happy new year.
And we feel pretty good about ourselves. We are practicing charity in the true meaning of the word — kindness.
But we can’t confuse our micro acts with macro solutions to the problem of food insecurity in our country. The fact remains that too many people in the richest country in the world go to bed hungry. And, while providing holiday dinners is a welcome respite, it won’t solve the bigger problem.
The bigger problem is more complicated and messy. It demands systemic changes and costs money. The solution takes a long time so there is no immediate gratification for those who commit to it. The change required will make a lot of people uncomfortable and rattle belief systems about race and poverty and who deserves what in our society.
Should we stop giving to food pantries? Stop preparing meals at soup kitchens? Stop packing food baskets for shelters? Of course not. These efforts bring relief to millions and they are needed not just at holiday time but throughout the year.
But, let’s not stop our efforts at the micro level. We need to address the larger issues that cause food insecurity in America:
Living Wages
To start with, people who work full time need to earn a living wage. Without a living wage, they can’t buy enough nutritious food for themselves or their families.
Support legislative efforts to raise the minimum wage to a living wage. According to a 2021 study out of MIT, “A single mother with two children earning the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour needs to work 235 hours per week, the equivalent of almost six full-time minimum-wage jobs, to make a living wage.”
Affordable Housing
Until people working full time make enough to pay for rent or a mortgage, they will need more subsidized housing options. If people don’t earn enough for housing, they will not have enough for food either.
Support equitable housing and subsidized options. “A report commissioned by Feeding America shows that more than half of the 46.5 million clients that Feeding America serves make the difficult choice between paying for housing or food…A longitudinal study showed that families living in subsidized housing had lower odds of food insecurity than those on a waiting list for such housing.”
For example, housing trust funds in Massachusetts cities and towns support a variety of affordable housing measures “from emergency rent assistance for families facing the threat of eviction or homelessness to gap financing for new construction of affordable housing to repairs and weatherization for older homeowners.” Check to see if your community has a housing trust fund. If not, encourage local leaders to establish one. Learn more about housing trust funds here.
Child Care
Unless they earn enough to pay for child care, or child care is universally provided (as it currently is for 2-year-olds and older in New York City), parents — especially single parents — can’t afford to work.
Support efforts to make preschool universal and free. On May 18, 2022, the Massachusetts State Legislature’s Education Committee approved a landmark bill, H.4795/S.2883, titled An Act to Expand Access to High-Quality, Affordable Early Education and Care. “The bill provides a framework to increase the scope of public investment in early education and child care with an incremental roll-out over several years that prioritizes the lowest-income, highest-need families,” according to commonstartma.org, an organization with many opportunities for volunteers.
Mental Health Care
Those suffering from food insecurity are more vulnerable to mental health issues, particularly when they are stressed and isolated. Conversely, people with mental health issues are more vulnerable to food insecurity because they may have difficulty holding jobs or maintaining households.
Support mental health services for those at risk to help them be in productive living and working situations and avoid homelessness. Screening patients for food insecurity in outpatient clinics and physicians’ offices, and then referring those in need of psychological services, is an effective intervention. Ask your doctors and hospital if they are doing this.
The Opioid Epidemic
“Findings show that injection drug users have frequent and variable experiences of food insecurity and these experiences are strongly correlated with sharing of injection-related equipment,” according to a report from Canada. Such behaviors can “increase the likelihood of HIV and HCV transmission in this population.”
Support efforts to attack the opioid and heroin problem in this country, which has created a significant population of addicted people who can not function productively or provide for themselves or their families. Let your local, state, and federal leaders know you demand continued surveillance and legislation over large pharmaceutical companies and the products they are allowed to bring to market; the “perks” physicians and salespeople can accept for encouraging the sale and use of drugs; programs designed to limit long-term use of medications for ailments that might better be handled with other pain management interventions; and clean needle programs.
Food Stamps
The cost of food is documented as the greatest obstacle to a healthy diet, yet the allotments provided by SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, fall short of the cost of low-income meals in 96 percent of all U.S. counties.
Support efforts to expand SNAP to reach people in need more adequately. Let your representatives know you support US Bill H.R. 4077, aka the Closing the Meal Gap Act, which would require that supplemental nutrition assistance program benefits be calculated using the value of the low-cost food plan.
Family Planning
It’s fascinating that The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) advances and supports voluntary family planning and reproductive health programs in nearly 40 countries, but not the US. The intent, among other things, is to improve women’s health; reduce poverty and food insecurity; increase the individual rights of women and their ability to decide their family size and when to get pregnant; and reduce the number of abortions. So these services are delivered by our federal government to women in Africa and Asia, but not to those in the United States?
Support efforts for access to family planning and abortion in the US so that people can decide how many children they can provide for with knowledge and understanding.
So here we are, facing a holiday season that is bright for many of us, cold and hungry for others. I will keep doing Words With Friends and making my donations to worthwhile groups doing good work in our communities. But my New Year’s resolution is to keep my eyes from turning away from the bigger picture of hunger around me.
May everyone have enough to eat in this country of plenty!
Therese (she/her/hers)
Judy (she/her/hers)
Didi (she/her/hers)
Mackenzie (she/her/hers)
Leading Ladies Executive Team
ladies@leadingladiesvote.org