Thread: Why is there a hunger problem in the U.S.?

I usually only half listen to public service announcements on the radio on the evening commute home. One finally sunk in enough to be puzzled by it.

I forget the statistic in the ad, but it says thousands of children in the U.S. suffer from hunger each day. Why is that? Our state of MN has a very robust food assistance program and I will assume other states are similar. I know this has even expanded to where many families previously ineligible have qualified for food assistance for some time now.

Given our assistance programs I would assume anyone in the US who needs food would be able to get enough.

Does anyone know why this apparently is not the case?

Chrisl

It could be pride in not wanting to take hand-outs

Originally Posted by dinnermint

It could be pride in not wanting to take hand-outs

It's not as simple as that.

There is no guarantee for free food in this country the same as there is no guarantee for free healthcare. With both if you need it in many places you can seek it out or beg for it and depending on your situation it varies as to what you can get.

A lot of times it's just a temporary thing. And yes the pride thing can be a big factor in some cases.Of course you have transient homeless and children living to far from urban centers where they are hard to find. I had the privilege of doing some volunteer work though Home Depot for Project Hope Alliance in Costa Mesa Ca. They take homeless families and help them get back on their feet. Most of these families are living in motel/hotels and both parents may or may not be working , have cars, and finding assistance. The thing is the children are living in a hotel room with their parents which is a cramped situation to say the least. The average is like 214 sq. ft. per 4 people, average. Now the children go to school and get lunches there in most cases but with out a kitchen they are eating Mc D's or Jack in the box, dry cereals candy and other junk. This is not A proper diet and so they suffer illnesses they shouldn't not to mention how it affects their growth and energy levels. Which in turn affects how they will be when they grow up. It is a life long process that affects them into adulthood. They learn to accept that this is how life is. Not good.
My manager sent my to PHA center paid for by the store to build a computer room and remodeled the storage and kitchen area of the center. Corporate got involved and we remodeled the whole place. Floors, bathrooms, desks, shelving, kitchen with new appliances, a lot :<0) I got to see these kids come in and get their bellies full and use computers to do their homework. This project would pick kids up and take them to school, bring them to the center, feed them and help them get good grades in school. They have a bunch of statistics too but fro what I could see they were doing everything they could and still only helping 25% of what they could find. Only so much money to go around and of course you have those that just want the hand outs and not do the work for the success. Tough job making that call. Who do you help and who do you turn away. They had a process but still.

Hope this helps you understand. No matter where you are I am sure there is a way to help if you are so inclined. I like the smaller places because I see the money and work going more to the people in need than the whole set up. The lady who runs Project Hope Alliance was a very successful corporate attorney. She got to a point in her life when she decided to give back. She herself had gone though this sort of situation as a child. She practices law no more. She is a lot more successful now if you ask me :<0)

I think that most of them are not really hungry, at least truly hungry.

If you can afford to eat any fast food and tell me your hungry then I don't feel sorry for you. If you are cold and beg for a coat but insist that it has a new price tag on it before you will accept it I don't feel sorry for you.

I know a guy whose son died young and begged for help to bury him. Then he went out for a snowmobile ride... If he had sold his snowmobile to cover 3/4 of the price I would have felt sorry for him!

I have 2 lbs of cheese in my refrigerator right now that came from a food shelf. I have never received anything directly from a food shelf but have eaten much that others have gotten but refused to eat.

A person I know would be eligible to receive from a food shelf but chooses to work there instead. One time they got a big batch of dried Figs that no one would take. She baked cookies with the figs and brought them in to show how they may be used. People liked the cookies but still wouldn't take the figs. To me they were not hungry enough to beg for food then!

I feel that there are understandable times and problems that will need and deserve help but a vast majority of the time people feel entitled and/or are lazy.

I wish the Food Stamp program were run like the WIC program. That is, restricting the FOOD that can be purchased to actually healthy stuff. IF you truly are hungry or your family is hungry, then good quality nutritious food should be the only thing you should be buying. That means no soda, no chips, and no candy. I know that the argument has been made that they should have the right to eat whatever they want but that should NOT be the case when it is a handout.

I had money for beer and a friend had food stamps. I bought the beer and he bought a live lobster!

Originally Posted by Utopian

I wish the Food Stamp program were run like the WIC program. That is, restricting the FOOD that can be purchased to actually healthy stuff. IF you truly are hungry or your family is hungry, then good quality nutritious food should be the only thing you should be buying. That means no soda, no chips, and no candy. I know that the argument has been made that they should have the right to eat whatever they want but that should NOT be the case when it is a handout.

That is the argument I've always heard as well. Limiting the kinds of foods a person can purchase through govt food assistance would be discriminatory and demeaning.

This is a seriously multi faceted situation. There are all types in the mix. There are the working poor that have poor education and poor income earning potential that spend a lot of time working and not preparing nutritious meals, but instead opting for more expensive ready to eat or heat and serve frozen foods, because of a lack of time and energy. There are people that grew up in those situations that don;t even know how to cook. There are those that grew up as a third or fourth generation in the welfare line that have no idea how to find a job or even where to start looking that live so deep in the inner city projects that everyone they know lives like that and begs for more just because it's all they know. We also have people who had jobs and homes that got caught up in shrinking economies and bank crashes and are struggling to try to get back on their feet. Then we have all the people with disabilities and mental health issues and the children of people with addiction issues. There are a lot of reasons why people find themselves living below the poverty line. There are some that are just plain lazy jackasses that I have no sympathy for, and a whole other realm of people who I wish had somewhere else to live. There are other that live a great life and live mostly off the land, but well below the poverty line in terms of income, and lead rich lives, the difference sometimes is geography and upbringing.

Originally Posted by ChrisL

That is the argument I've always heard as well. Limiting the kinds of foods a person can purchase through govt food assistance would be discriminatory and demeaning.

If you have enough balls to beg for help and then complain what you are given then you don't need the help.