Short Summary: The Problem Of Hunger In America

Have you ever had that empty, gnawing pain in your stomach? Not to worry, you can just grab a snack. Imagine feeling that empty gnawing every day with no snack to help. It is called hunger. And it is a very real problem. Hunger in America can be described through public unawareness, the reality it is for many families, and what can be done to help. It may seem backwards, but many of the hungry are obese. Strange right? Think of it this way, If you had $5 to pay for all of your food for one day, and a healthy apple costs $4, and a jumbo bag of chips only costs $1. Which would you buy? There are few places that are “hunger free”. According to the Supplemental Poverty Measure, out of the 318.9 million people in America, fifteen point three percent

Hunger is not usually caused by the lack of food in an area, such as no grocery stores, but rather from poverty. 40% of food is thrown out in the US every year, or around $165 billion worth! All of this uneaten food could feed 25 million Americans. If one of those 165 billion dollars worth of food wasted was donated to Feeding America, they could provide 6 meals! Imagine how we could easily stop hunger with those numbers! Food stamps can only do so much. Did you know that even with the help of food stamps, families are still left in hunger? A food stamp for a household, or a family of four, is only $200 and that is supposed to last 5 months!

In conclusion, Hunger is a very common thing in America. It is not just the homeless that have to suffer, many of your coworkers or classmates could come from food insecure families. Hunger seems to target two groups the hardest, children, and the elderly. Aren't these the people that need food the most? With everyone's help. Hunger can be prevented. So, the next time you don’t like something your parents made you for dinner, think of how many people in America alone would love to have even a taste of it, and of how fortunate you are to have that