Exploring Hunger in America: Causes, Solutions, and Drawbacks

This essay delves into the critical issue of hunger in the United States, examining the underlying causes and potential solutions. It highlights the prevalence of food insecurity, even in a wealthy nation, and explores factors such as poverty, lack of access to fresh produce, and the dominance of process...Read More

Running head: HUNGER IN AMERICA
Hunger in America
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Abstract
The purpose of this study is to highlight the issue of hunger in America and the dominant
reasons behind it. In order to bring a change in the scenario, government, non-profit
organisations and the citizens have some common viewpoints yet there are some
contradictions as well. The study aims to discuss all the reasons first and it will recommend
probable solutions against those. In addition to that, existing drawbacks will be elaborated in
order to identify the areas, where improvement is needed.

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Introduction
Being the richest country of the world, it is surprising to hear that United States of
America is suffering from hunger and food insecurity for a long duration of time. The issue
does not carry same intensity as several developing nations are facing yet a percentage of
American population are suffering from food insecurity due to their inability to afford fresh
fruits and vegetables. There are several reasons that have been derived from numerous
researches on this concern. Surprisingly, poor financial status has turned out not to be the
only factor that influence hunger. Shortage of agricultural land and cultivated products,
extreme climate condition and less developed infrastructure of farming are responsible for
high price range of fresh fruits and vegetables. Whereas, processed foods are dominating the
grocery stores. People are engaging themselves into consuming junks by paying lesser.
However, even they have realised the fact that regular intake of high calories is the reason
behind obesity; they cannot afford to have healthy foods and are choosing not to be hungry
over to be healthy. In most of the cases, even after working hard parents cannot afford
enough food for their children, as a result they are lagging behind from the track of living a
healthy and active student life. Moreover, more than 20 million American live in food
desserts which means they have to travel a long way to grocery market. Food desserts refers
to those areas of the country lacking in supply of fresh fruits, vegetables and meats. The essay
will try to discover a solution, which will be convenient to adopt for lawmakers, non-profit
groups and the people of America.
Common ground
Both the government and non-profit organisations of the country has realised the
intensity of the issue. Moreover, if necessary steps are not taken in near future, more people

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will be victimized of this crisis. Government has been trying to take the control of situation
since 2009. However, the situation went out of hand, as food scarcity and insecurity
increased to a greater level. Several non-profit organisations like Feeding America, are
continuously trying to help those people who cannot get access of adequate fresh and healthy
foods by building food banks (Orgut et al., 2016). There are roughly two kinds of American
population can be found. One kind of population is trying hard to balance their other
necessities with regular diet and the other kind of people are consuming more processed
foods because they are not able to afford healthy alternatives. Government has settled certain
goals to achieve success over this national issue. Non-profit organisations are working
towards the same objective. It can be expected that initiatives will welcome a positive
outcome. There are several proposed projects of grocery stores and food retailers under
Government’s supervision in the unprivileged areas of America. Besides, non-profit
organisations have launched stores on the wheels where resources are inadequate. It offers
large variety of fresh food materials from farmers at affordable prices without gaining any
profit.
Points of difference
Non-profit organisations face strong hurdle to gather operational costs. Therefore,
there is a consistent need of funds and they are not satisfied by the role of Government so far.
Further steps by government should be effective enough to resolve the problem of at least
minimum percentage of American population. It would make a great difference to the society
if both the lawmakers and the NGOs work together with single purpose. According to
Ordinary people and NGOs, Government has huge responsibility to accomplish further.
Citizens will not suffer by hunger if there are enough jobs of considerable wages and
immense opportunity to earn. Therefore, it is necessary to plan government income support

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programmes for struggling families so that children of those families do not follow the other
members’ footsteps and drop their career in order to earn money for foods (Ziliak &
Gundersen, 2013). With the purpose to strengthen child nutrition schools should be proposed
with salad bars. Government should agree with the fact that to reach remote areas, joint
ventures with local non-profit organisations can make the situation better.
Possible drawbacks
At first, government needs huge resource and research to understand the scenario
properly. Without estimation, it cannot be possible to serve necessary facilities to the
unprivileged citizens. Although, they have incorporated several programmes to ensure
adequate food for every Americans, the nation has not really experienced any notable
outcome yet due to the strict rules and regulations mostly. It is accepted already that only by
charity the solution cannot be derived, therefore internal strategies are needed to apply as
effectively as possible. The drawback of charity is that, it is not a permanent solution. In
addition to that, non-profit organisations face hazards in the process of raising fund for
operational costs. The process of granting help from government is critical and time
consuming.
Resolution
It is difficult to admit that being the richest country, America is suffering from hunger
issues. There are issues like, shortage of jobs, improper distribution of wages, fresh yet
expensive food materials, which are hard to afford. People are starving not only because they
cannot afford but also inadequate supply from the cultivators. Besides, people can access
processed foods and beverages at comparatively low price so they are embracing a healthy
life in order to sustain which is affecting the health of citizens. Not only adults but also

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children are diagnosed with obesity and diabetes. Sometimes they are found to be the victims
of depression as well (McIntyre et al., 2013). It has been noticed that food dessert Mississippi
possess the highest rate of obese people, simply because they have to depend on junks as
fresh foods are not available. Resolution has been taken by the government that they will
work on the process of improving infrastructure of farming and cultivation. Hence, citizens
will be able to make easy access to those products at affordable price. People should
cooperate with the whole process and try to avail the benefits offered by the government and
non-profit organisations.

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References
McIntyre, L., Williams, J. V., Lavorato, D. H., & Patten, S. (2013). Depression and suicide
ideation in late adolescence and early adulthood are an outcome of child
hunger. Journal of affective disorders, 150(1), 123-129.
Orgut, I. S., Brock III, L. G., Davis, L. B., Ivy, J. S., Jiang, S., Morgan, S. D., ... &
Middleton, E. (2016). Achieving equity, effectiveness, and efficiency in food bank
operations: Strategies for feeding America with implications for global hunger relief.
In Advances in Managing Humanitarian Operations (pp. 229-256). Springer, Cham.
Ziliak, J. P., & Gundersen, C. (2013). The state of senior hunger in America 2014: An annual
report. National Foundation to End Senior Hunger.