Hunger Crisis in America
48,100,000 people in the United States live in food insecure households. This is approximately fifteen percent of the entire population in the U.S. Hunger is an important issue because so many people suffer from it on a daily basis. It is unfathomable to think that individuals are suffering from malnutrition even though the United States has many resources. It is our responsibility to take a part in stopping nationwide hunger.
For a real life example, the article “My Story of Childhood Hunger: From Hungry to Lawyer” is a narrative piece by Nikki Johnson-Huston. It is published in the Huffington Post. During Johnson-Huston’s childhood, she was impacted by the effects of starvation and homelessness. Johnson-Huston believes these factors helped her to become the successful and strong person she is today. Johnson-Huston lived not knowing when to expect another meal. At a very young age, she realized most people did not experience the poverty she was in. Nikki had two meals a day from the rescue mission when they were not living in a home. She and her family also went to local food pantries, got free lunches at school, and had financial aid. Johnson-Huston is eternally grateful for the amount of kindness she received from people that had helped her along the way. Housing and food are aspects that are essential to life. When Johnson-Huston didn’t have them, she was too concerned about basic fundamentals to even think of daily life and future goals. Today, Nikki Johnson-Huston is now an award winning Tax Attorney, Donafy App Co-founder, and is a motivational speaker and advocate for the poor. She is always looking for opportunities to give back because so much was given to her when she needed it most.
There is hope for solving the hunger crisis. Feeding America is an organization that answers to the hunger emergency in America by supplying food to people in tough times through a nationwide network of foodbanks and food pantries. John Van Hengel started the organization in 1979. It is the largest national hunger relief institution with 200 food banks and 60,000 food pantries across the country. Feeding America helps 46,000,000 people at risk of starvation, which includes 12,000,000 children and 7,000,000 seniors. Through this, they serve every one in seven people in the United States. Feeding America has many different programs to help a wide variety of people. Some of the programs for school children are a school food pantry, summer food service, backpack program, kids café,and a child hunger corps. These all provide food for kids when they do not have the support from school lunches. In communities, Feeding America has a senior grocery, mobile food pantry, community health and nutrition program, and responds to disasters. To take part in Feeding America, people can donate food to food pantries or volunteer at local centers. Donations are also extremely helpful, for ninety-eight percent of all the money goes right into the programs. In summary, Feeding America is a country-wide organization that gives back by responding to the crisis of hunger through multiple beneficial programs.
To summarize, hunger is an important matter in the United States because every 1 in 7 people struggle with having a sufficient amount of food everyday. Food is crucial for human survival, and to give people energy to succeed during the day. There are many ways to get involved. For example, donating food to local food drives, ringing bells for Salvation Army, or volunteering at Feeding America.
Works Cited
"Feeding America." Feeding America. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Mar. 2016.
Johnson-Huston, Esq. Nikki. "My Story of Childhood Hunger: From Hungry to Lawyer." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 30 Nov. 2013. Web. 29 Feb. 2016.