Food Insecurity in the United States

Food Insecurity in the United States Food Insecurity In The United States Julie Hurley Introduction This paper will introduce the topic of food insecurity and hunger in the United States. According to the definition approved by the 1996 World Food Summit, â€Å"food security exists when†¦all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life†.(Simon, 2012, p. 4-5) Food insecurity therefore, is the inability to acquire adequate food intake for all household members as the result of insufficient resources. Food Insecurity is also the official term used to describe the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) measurement for all the possible variations that a family or house might experience while getting insufficient to sufficient food. The USDA measures the degree to which good food is available and how nutritious that food actually is. So while some members of a family might be getting food most of the time, some of the time some members are getting no food, others are getting food that is not very good and sometimes no one is eating at all. All these variations are taken into account and measured. Food insecure households are not necessarily food insecure all of the time and food insecurity may also reflect the trade-offs a household needs to make between paying the bills and purchasing nutritionally adequate food. (NYC Food Insecurity, 2014) Not surprisingly, low-income families are more likely to experience food insecurity than middle or higher income families. There are four dimensions to food security: availability, accessibility, utilization and stability. So food insecurity occurs when there is: a lack of food (no availability); a lack of resources (no access to food); an improper use (no proper utilization of food); or changes in availability, accessibility or utilization (no stability with regards to food). (Simon, 2012, p. 5-8) The United States produces more food than it could ever use for domestic consumption. Yet despite the ability to produce all this food, food insecurity is still a problem in the United States. American hunger is the result of economic poverty, when some people literally do not have enough funds to purchase food. But levels of income and poverty do not fully predict food insecurity. This suggests that other things (such as the ability to budget resources), are important in determining whether or not someone will be food insecure. (Gowda, Hadley, Aiello, 2012, p. 1586) In 2008, 17 million US households were considered to be food insecure.(Gowda et al., 2012, p. 1579) In 2010, household food insecurity in the US was at its highest level since measurements began in 1995.(Fram et al., 2011, p. 1114) Also in 2010, over one-fifth of U.S. children lived in food-insecure homes. The problem was considered serious enough at the time that President Barack Obama publicly pledged to end child hun ger by 2015.(Fram et al., 2011, p. 1114) Today, food insecurity is combated by both government programs and aid from the private sector. And while both types of aid have increased in this century, hunger relief by the government has outpaced that provided by the private sector.(Gowda et al., 2012, p. 1583) However, this was not always the case, and for many people throughout American history people were essentially on their own. History The prospect of food insecurity is a constant part of the human condition and in the United States has been a concern for as long as people have been living in North America. The European colonists who first settled in North America faced the prospect of severe hunger much of the time. Transplanting crops brought from Europe and trying to grow native crops was difficult. In the early days of the first colonies, many settlers watched their crops fail and ultimately died of starvation or the effects of starvation. But many other settlers were saved from starvation through the generosity of Native Americans. Over time the colonists adapted and they either copied, continued or created farming methods that were successful. In the process of doing this, they discovered that the land in North America was very fertile.(Eisinger, 1998, p. 32-34) They were so successful that despite the rugged environment and violence, hunger in North America was already becoming less severe than the level of hunger found throughout Western Europe. Improved food security had the effect that despite the dangers of life in the colonies, by 1776 American colonists enjoyed a higher life expectancy than their European cousins. The average life expectancy in North America at that time was 51 years; in Great Britain 37 years; in France only 26 years.(Eisinger, 1998, p. 44) A big factor in the food security experienced by North Americans though was that in addition to good fertile land, there was also a low population level. There was also no shortage of jobs. With low unemployment levels and plenty of work, any able-bodied person was prevented from suffering from the effects associated with unemployment, such as low income and the resulting inability to access food.(Fogel, 2004, p. 14-15) But conditions changed by the early 19th century when good land (or at least access to good land) became more scarce, usually available only to those who already had with wealth. It had also become harder to make a living from public land or by owning and operating a small farm. Poor economic conditions forced many small farmers off their land, making them homeless. With a growing population of homeless people, America’s first homeless shelters (which also provided food), were set up, called Poorhouses.(The Poorhouse, 2012) In some areas city officials would also â€Å"hand out† emergency cash to the starving to buy food, but this did not stop the overall rise in poverty or hunger. By 1850 living conditions had fallen so low that in America that life expectancy had dropped to 43 years. It is thought that by 1865, as many as 1 in 5 Americans could have been suffering from food insecurity.(Fogel, 2004, p. 36) After the Civil War, the industrial revolution began to change this situation to some degree. Factory jobs provided more access to income for workers and by the 1870’s there was less hunger and homelessness in the U.S. Of course most of these jobs were low wage and workers suffered in terrible conditions, but there were more jobs to choose from (and therefore less unemployment) so that at least people could earn enough money to eat. Though these â€Å"sweat shops† with their bad working conditions were the engine driving the â€Å"Gilded Age† the overall result was that they improved economy. This in turn created even more (and better) jobs being created outside of the factories as consumers had more money to spend. One side effect however, was that life for the poorest of the poor actually got worse. Many wealthy Americans opposed the idea of government intervening to help the hungry, thinking this would only create masses of lazy unemployed people. They also th ought that it would somehow sabotage the growth of the free market. Laissez Faire capitalism was thought to be the appropriate response to the starving poor. But at the same time, the private sector began to provide help to the poor by creating America’s first soup kitchens.(DePastino, 2005, p. 22) In the early 20th century there was a revolution in farming with the creation of the first methods of mechanized agriculture.(Janick, 2014) Ironically, although this lead to an increase in rural unemployment it also created a surplus of food which helped lower food prices in the United States. As a result, during and after the first World War (1914-1918), the United States sent about 20 million tons of food to a war ravaged Europe. And since World War I the United States has continued to be a world leader for relieving hunger.(Vernon, 2007, p. 242) In the 1920’s America’s economy was booming, but the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression that followed reversed much of the progress that the United States had made in reducing domestic hunger. But as a result of the Great Depression, the issue of American hunger became a major issue for the government. In time both the government and the private sector responded to the needs of the American people. More private soup kitchens and bread lines were opened and the â€Å"New Deal† program of government relief was launched. Some government programs like the Works Progress Administration (or WPA) tried to reduce unemployment by providing much needed jobs. Other programs tried to reduce poverty by raising wages. Another government program, the Federal Surplus Relief Corporation tried to provide poor people with food and bought surplus food from farmers. By the 1940’s the New Deal programs had improved the economy and seemed to have reduced most of the hunger in the United States. Until the late 1960s, many Americans considered hunger in their nation to be a solved problem.(Poppendieck, 1999, p. 11) So much so that some states even ended the practice of distributing federal food surpluses for free. Instead they provided an early form of food stamps but there was a price charged and since many could not pay for them, more people began to suffer from severe hunger again.(Poppendieck, 1999, p. 10) As American society rediscovered hunger, more private charity groups opened soup kitchens and the first modern food bank was created in 1967.(Poppendieck, 1999, p. 112) The so-called â€Å"Hunger Lobby† was also launched to petition politicians to improve welfare for the hungry. By 1967 senate hearings were held on hunger and in 1969 President Nixon called on Congress to end hunger in the U.S. once and for all.(Melnick, 1994, p. 311) In the 1970s, U.S. federal hunger relief grew substantially with food stamps distributed free of charge. Though these efforts again helped combat food insecurity, eventually the federal government again reduced welfare spending.(Dando, 2012, 177–178) The private sector again responded with grass roots relief agencies, essentially in the form of bigger and better food banks.(Dowler, 2012, p. 1) Food Insecurity Interventions America’s heritage of food insecurity provides an interesting look at the cycle within which food insecurity rises and falls. By now the relationship between economics and food insecurity seems pretty well documented: as the economy gets worse, poverty increases and with more people experiencing poverty, more experience food insecurity. Sadly, government policy, again operating in cycles, provides some initial, emergency, short term assistance but then eventually seems to blame the victims for their own deprivations and ends assistance. To be realistic about ending hunger in America, we must acknowledge that no matter how good the economy might ever get, there should always be interventions already in place to prevent food insecurity in the first place and to provide food to the hungry in preparation for the next big economic downturn. As a nurse viewing food insecurity as a public health issue, there are three types of interventions in the field of healthcare: primary, secondary and tertiary prevention. Primary preventions try to protect healthy people from developing a problem to begin with. Secondary preventions happen after an illness has already been diagnosed, with the goals being to halt or slow the progress of the illness. Tertiary preventions try to help an ill patient cope with the long term issues associated with an already exiting, full blown condition that cannot be reversed.(Primary, secondary and tertiary prevention, 2006) Primary Interventions: Creating Food Security/Measuring American food insecurity Community food security is created through several avenues like nutrition education, public health, sustainable agriculture and anti-hunger activism. And as a modern public health issue, a primary intervention used to try and prevent food insecurity from occurring, is to track it using reliable and precise methods of measurements. With accurate statistics, policy makers and organizations can address problems before they get worse. The only way to really do this is to get statistics about what demographic is accessing food programs, and the circumstances which caused them to have to do this. The USDA is the government agency which has been tasked with tracking and fighting food insecurity and in 1994, the USDA organized a conference to try and figure out the best way to track food insecurity. The conference identified the appropriate basis for a nationwide measure and agreed that the best way to take such a measure was with nationwide surveys.(History Background, 2014) This conferenc e resulted in the creation of the U.S. Food Security Measurement Project (USFSMP), and current food security statistics are based on the survey measure the USFSMP developed. In 1995, the U.S. Census Bureau first carried out a field test of the first food security survey called the Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement. The Food Security Supplement was repeated again from 1996 to 2001 and has been continued annually ever since. Taking the data from these surveys and using the highly sophisticated statistical techniques, USFSMP created â€Å"an accurate scale that measures the severity of deprivation in basic food needs as experienced by U.S. households.†(History Background, 2014) So a major component of primary intervention is already in place by tracking and measuring food insecurity. But the second half of this prevention-oriented approach for community food security is to take those statistics and addresses a diverse range of issues such as: â€Å"food availability and affordability; direct food marketing; diet-related health problems; participation in and access to Federal nutrition assistance programs; ecologically sustainable agricultural production; farmland preservation; economic viability of rural communities; economic opportunity and job security; community development and social cohesion.†(Food Security In The US, 2014) According to the USDA themselves, primary intervention should also support the development of long term strategies: â€Å"To improve access of low-income households to healthful nutritious food supplies. To increase the self-reliance of communities in providing for their own food needs. To promote comprehensive responses to local food, farm, and nutrition issues.† (Food Security In The US, 2014) Some of these issues can be addressed directly by the USDA but some can only be address in conjunction with or solely by other government agencies and policy makers. For example, the USDA has no say in influencing â€Å"economic opportunity and job security† but at least it can provide other agencies that do, with feedback as to how their policies may or may not be working. It seems unrealistic to think that the USDA alone can end food insecurity and clearly the magnitude of the problem – and the power it would take to prevent it – is beyond the scope of the USDA as it currently exists. But at least this primary intervention is in place and can be used in the future to continue trying to prevent hunger from happening and, until preventing it completely, to act as an alarm for strengthening secondary interventions. Secondary Interventions While primary interventions for food insecurity involve the policy and decision making that affects poverty in America, the interventions that most of us associate with food insecurity are those involving tangible hunger relief that provides food to the hungry. Modern secondary interventions include the following: Food pantries. The most common food aid establishments in the U.S., food pantries collect food from donors and give out actual parcels of food to those in need. Although used by anyone, they are designed to help families have enough food for a few meals which will be eaten at home. The food closet. The food closet has the same purpose as a food pantry, but is not big enough to be in a building of its own. The food closet will be a closet or room in something like a church and is often found in more remote communities. Soup kitchens. Soup kitchens are also called food kitchens and meal centers, all of which provide hot cooked meals for the hungry. These meals are prepared and eaten in the soup kitchen building (not at home). Soup kitchens are the second most common food aid establishment in the U.S. The food bank. The food bank is the third most common food aid establishment. in the U.S. Most food banks usually warehouse food and distribute it to other agencies like food pantries, instead of giving it directly to the hungry. They get their supply of foods from large farms, manufacturers, supermarkets and the federal government. Food rescue organizations also warehouse food and distribute it to other agencies but they operate on a smaller scale than food banks and get their food from different sources – restaurants, smaller shops and small farms. The network of these organizations that provide food assistance is sometimes referred to as the Emergency Food Assistance System (EFAS).(Riches, 1986, p. 15-20)

Children and Young People’s Development Essay

A child development is influenced in many ways such as their background, health and environment. These factors will have an impact on the child’s different areas of development. Background Children come from all different family environments, cultures and circumstances. Children go through significant family changes such as a family break-up or a new step-family. These can affect a child’s emotional and intellectual development. A child may also change their behaviour, which means there ability to learn is decreased. This can affect their emotional development because they may feel like it is their fault for the break up. Having a new step-family is a big change for some children, this may affect their emotional development, as they may feel as if there mother/father is replacing each other. The child may also have difficulty bonding with their new family. Some children may be deliberately hostile towards a step-parent as they may feel it is the only outlet for their feelings, and those who do not express their feelings openly may become withdrawn. This can have major effects on their intellectual development, as they may become withdrawn at school and unable to concentrate on learning. Read more: Explain how children and young peoples development is influenced by a range of personal factors essay Coming from a low income family may have a significant effect on a child’s development. Burnham and Baker state ‘Statistic show that children who come from deprived backgrounds are less likely to thrive and achieve well in school’. Coming from a low income family may affect a child’s intellectual development, as the family may not be able to afford to pay for extra activities such as swimming lessons or dance lessons. This could also have an impact on the child’s physical development. This may affect the way a child is able to respond in certain situations. There communicational development may be affected as they may not have interacted with children their own age before. Cultural differences may also impact a child development, as they may feel isolated at school. This would affect there communication and intellectual development, as they may be unable to communicate with other children. They my also feel excluded because they are brought up different, this can affect their emotional development. Not interacting with other peers can have a large impact on different types of development, such as emotional as they can feel isolated and excluded. Children’s with different cultural beliefs or practice may cause emotional conflict. Such as if they want to participate in an activity which goes against their families wishes or religious beliefs, they would feel excluded. Other issues would be if the child has moved countries their intellectual development may be affected due to the fact that they have to ‘catch up’ with new languages and cultures. Health If a child suffers from poor health or impairment, this may have an effect on their development. If a child suffers from a medical condition this may lessen their ability to participate in activities than other children. This will affect their physical development, as well as their emotional development. Depending how aware the child is about their needs, they may feel excluded and isolated from other children. Other health factors maybe that the child was born premature, as they are more likely to develop slower than a healthy born child. There may be an effect on their physical development, as they are a smaller and behind on developing. This may also have an in pact on their intellectual development, as it has been shown that premature babies struggle with maths. Burdo-Hartman says. â€Å"Memorizing math facts in particular has been shown to be difficult for some preemies,† Environment A child’s environment, for example, family or school, plays a huge part in their development. A family that abuses or neglects a child will damage the child’s natural development. The indifferent family style has a negative effect on the child. The child may not have much opportunity, they may just watch television or play video games all day, will not gain the experiences and interactions needed to further their development. Where a child lives is an important factor for their development. If they live in poor areas, there are less services and opportunities. This can have a negative effect on their intellectual development as they are not able to access services such as playgroups or afterschool clubs. On the other hand, wealthy areas are more likely to have better services and opportunities, this means that a child’s development may not be affected. Burnham, L. Baker, B. (2010). Support Teaching and Learning in schools. Essex: Heinemann Learning.

Details of Sat Essay Samples 12 Prepscholar

Details of Sat Essay Samples 12 Prepscholar Details of Sat Essay Samples 12 Prepscholar The very last thing you would like is to need to retake the full exam, or, worse yet, not have the ability to apply to a specific college, simply because you took the exam without the essay. A standard question regarding SAT scores is whether the entire mess can be prevented by skipping the essay. This video gives a summary of the SAT Essay. To the dismay of several students, the newest SAT exam involves an essay section. There's no composite SAT Essay score (the 3 scores aren't added together) and there are not any percentiles. The SAT essay doesn't work like that. Writing an SAT essay could possibly be a familiar endeavor for you whether you've learned to write it in school. Sat Essay Samples 12 Prepscholar Options It is advised to go through the given passage thoroughly and attempt to read between the lines. You've got ample time to make certain you comprehend the passage, and it's important you do so in order to acquire the maximum reading category score possible. So basically my suggestion is to come across patterns. To be able to make a high reading score, in addition, it is imperative that you compose a considerable amount. Sat Essay Samples 12 Prepscholar - Is it a Scam? The very first thing that you ought to take note of is that the prompt tells you exactly what type of elements you ought to focus on to observe the way the author builds their argument. The key issue is that if you've got more than 1,500 points it's already excellent. Keep your eye on the clock and make sure you leave a few minutes at the end so you can review what you've written. Fifty minutes may not appear to be a very long time to come up with a well-written answer, but using a calm and practiced approach you are going to have the opportunity to reveal your very best work. Introducing Sat Essay Samples 12 Prepscholar The questions are paraphrased for simplicity, but they supply you with a notion of the way the themes are recycled annually. Instead, preparing beforehand how you are going to examine these techniques will help you save you a good deal of time and anxiety once the test rolls around. You'll ideally wish to compose a few practice essays before you sit for the actual thing. In a couple of minutes, you may truly be feeling friendlier. Third, ensure you really understand what the writer is saying and how he or she's arguing for it. Your work is to create the grader seem just like you agree. In the event the student has never utilized the accommodations in school testing ahead of their application, it is going to be harder for them to be approved. Describe the specific accommodations being requested on College Board tests, including the amount of extended time required or the maximum amount of time he can be tested in a day, if applicable. Sat Essay Samples 12 Prepscholar - What Is It? Use another particular example together with your persuasive skills to demonstrate how this position is flawed. In a complicated world, however, cooperation is a lot more likely to create significant, lasting accomplishments. On the 1 hand, percentile scores on this kind of imperfect measure can be quite misleading. Consider the context of the true world. Life After Sat Essay Samples 12 Prepscholar If you don't answer the true question, you haven't any possibility of receiving a good score, however well written your response could be. There's no one-size-fits-all reply to that question. You do not have to express your opinion or attitude to the issue. There is likewise an opinion that between 1,550 and 1,600 there's no precise difference. Ideas, Formulas and Shortcuts for Sat Essay Samples 12 Prepscholar Learn more about the way the essay is scored. It is not mandatory, but it is better to take it. It gives you an opportunity to show how effectively you can read and comprehend a passage and write an essay analyzing the passage. It must be organized into paragraphs. If you're reading this short article, you most likely want to excel on the SAT essay. At our essay support, essays are always delivered in a brief moment. In addition, we control various kinds of academic essay. Bear in mind, the more comfortable you're in writing the essay, the better you will almost certainly do. Sat Essay Samples 12 Prepscholar Options Don't worry if a number of the articles you happen across seem long. That's exactly what this article is all about. Inside this section, you will need to read an article from a sure newspaper and analyze the way the author employs various methods to persuade the reader. Beginning the article together with all of these facts and figures has a few strengtheing results on Goodman's argument.

Sample of Essay on Seat Belts Safety

Seat Belt Safety. Seat Belt Law Should the law require automobile drivers and passengers to use safety belts? According to the World Health Organization, more than 1.24 million individuals die in road accidents in the world each year, while more than 30 million people sustain serious injuries (World Health Organization, 2013). Road accidents are also in the top five causes of death around the world, which implies the seriousness of the matter (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013). Albeit road accidents may be caused by a lot of reasons including driving under influence, underage driving, road conditions and car malfunctions, but the major cause of deaths in road accidents is lack of safety precautions measures, especially not using seatbelts by the drivers and passengers. Using seatbelts increases the chances of survival considerably in case of accident or crash, and even though the advantages of seatbelts have been highlighted and emphasized hundreds of times, still, people simply ignore them. Drivers and passengers fail to realize that a simple decision to wear a seatbelt or not is, in fact, a serious one and draws the line between life and death. Many individuals opt not to use seatbelts when they are travelling small distances, since they are sure that bad things will not happen to them. When any collisions occur, they might result into death or serious injuries, if seatbelts are not used (Garcà ­a-Espaà ±a, Winston, Durbin, 2012). Many countries including the United States of America and United Kingdom have already necessitated the drivers, in the eyes of the law, to put on the seatbelts. Even after enactment and implementation of such laws, many people die in road accidents, as they do not use seatbelts, but such laws help to at least reduce the number of death cases. Thus it is concluded that the law should require both automobile drivers and passengers put on safety belts for guard life purposes. References Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2013, January 11). Leading Causes of Death. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/lcod.htm# Garcà ­a-Espaà ±a, J. F., Winston, F. K., Durbin, D. R. (2012). Safety Belt Laws and Disparities in Safety Belt Use Among US High-School Drivers. American Journal of Public Health, 102 (6), 1128-1134. World Health Organization. (2013, March 8). 10 facts on global road safety. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/features/factfiles/roadsafety/en/