A Place at the Table

A Place at the Table

        “Hunger: It`s right here in the United States. It could be right next door and you would never know because people are too afraid to talk about it” (Barbie Izquierdo). Hunger is a problem in the United States, there`s no doubt about that. But why isn’t the government actively doing anything about it?  People are often better off living on food stamps and government support than working for minimal wage, and that says a lot.

The government is willing to spend billions of Dollars on the military every year, but they can`t even keep their people fed. Why spend billions to protect the people when the real threat comes from within?

        The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that about 50 million people fall into the category “food insecure”, which means that they don’t always have the money they need to buy food every day. Nearly 17 million of these are children. Letting children go hungry impacts not only the children themselves, but also the future of the United States in general. These children are supposed to be our future. If they are starving or only eating empty calories it will affect their health and also their ability to focus and learn in school. 70% of the children born into poverty stay in poverty (cnn.com), and I believe that these numbers would be completely different if the government actually encouraged and helped poor families out to eat healthier and keep the kids in school. Kids drop out of school now to work for minimum wage to support their families, and they will never get anywhere from that.

        Unhealthy food is cheaper than healthy food. This is a fact. You can get over 3000 unhealthy calories for the same price as 300 healthy calories. So of course the poor families will choose the unhealthy calories to keep their family from starving. The U.S. Government needs to contribute to lower the prices of healthy food. I know it`s not that easy, but the concept of it is.  Healthy food needs to be available to the poor for a reasonable price. The government could raise the value of the food stamps, but only if they are used on healthy food. This way people can still choose to not be healthy, because being healthy cannot be forced on people.