Hunger and Food Insecurity in the United States
When I visited with one of the owners of the not-for –profit SAME Café I was struck by her zealous beliefs about food, health, hunger, malnutrition, obesity and the startling effect of these potent issues to their relationship to homelessness. The SAME Café mission is to help people cope with hunger, homelessness, loss of dignity and friendship, and the biases people encounter everyday. They have taken up the banner of addressing the lack of healthy affordable food for the working poor and homeless resulting in the pandemic of malnourishment, obesity and diabetes (especially in children). The SAME Café addresses the lack of healthy organic whole foods available in minority populations and works fervently to tackle this issue in the Denver community.
America in one of the wealthiest countries in the Western world and I cannot help to find the breadth and depth of persistent hunger and food insecurity in this county extraordinary and disturbing. But what exactly does hunger, food insecurity and the resulting malnutrition mean to American citizens? Hunger is easily defined as the weakness and painful sensations caused by the lacking intake of food and essential nutrients for daily functioning. Hunger and food insecurity comes in many forms in America but it generally means the inability for citizens to obtain sufficient food and nutrients for themselves and their families. Sometimes it is as subtle as skipping a meal, purchasing cheaper (usually highly processed refined fatty foods) products, or buying less than will provide for optimal daily functioning. Sadly if this is sustained for even short periods of time because of the recurring and involuntary lack of access to food, especially whole foods, malnutrition and similar related maladies will develop over time.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported that in 2008: “Of the 49.1 million people living in food insecure households (up from 36.2 million in 2007), 32.4 million are adults (14.4 percent of all adults) and 16.7 million are children (22.5 percent of all children)” (Hunger, 2009).. In some nations clinical malnutrition occurs in pandemic proportions and mortality rates are severe. However, in the United States hunger and malnutrition manifests itself in a less virulent form. One of the reasons for this is because of governmental established programs that provide services and support to low income families and the disabled/disadvantaged. The most prominent of these organizations are: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Child and Adult Food Care Program, and instituted welfare and food stamps at the national and statewide level. We cannot deny the fact that these well established institutions are helpful but do not stop chronic malnutrition that may result in death. Again, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported that in 2008:
17.3 million people lived in households that were considered to have "very low food security," a USDA term (previously denominated "food insecure with hunger") that means one or more people in the household were hungry over the course of the year because of the inability to afford enough food. This was up from 11.9 million in 2007 and 8.5 million in 2000 (Hunger, 2009).
Other illnesses co-arise with malnutrition and are potentially more lethal than malnutrition by itself: mental health and physical degeneration that lead to detrimental effects on learning, physical and emotional development, productivity and attention, physical and psychological health, and family life.
The SAME Café works with all of these issues by providing organic local foods prepared into healthy and delicious meals. One of the most amazing aspects of this not-for-profit restaurants is that it asks you to pay what you can afford be that 10 dollars or nothing at all. Customers also pay anonymously which allows people to keep their dignity and privacy and if they cannot pay they have the option of volunteering to pay their way. On average the SAME Café has 75 customers per day and 90% of them are repeat diners creating a tight knit community. When I volunteered their on October 26th, 2010 their menu had two fresh organic salads full of nutrient dense vegetables, two different types of whole wheat crust pizzas (one vegetarian and one omnivore), and two choices of soups (a vegan option). Many customers came for second helpings of salad and soup. One of the owners, Libby, hugged almost every customer before they left and knew almost all of them by name.
The SAME Café relies mostly on local organic farms to provide fresh produce daily and weekly. This simple and quite logical act keeps money circulating throughout the community instead of relocating to big business outside of the Denver area. The stake-holders at the SAME Café are as diverse as its customers. The SAME Café has a hard working board of trustees, two diligent paid employees, an army of volunteers, and customers who directly depend on the café for food. However some of the more subtle and more encompassing stake-holders in the SAME Café is the greater natural world. Author Gary Paul Nabhan fervently believes that, “ultimately, the most potent way of conserving biological diversity may be to protect the diversity of the cultures that have stewarded the plant and animal communities on which our agriculture is based” (Nabhan, 1998, p. 223). Returning to healthy foods is a nutritional and cultural imperative.
Unfortunately food security had been getting worse even before the recession. “The number of people in this category in 2008 is more than double the number in 2000 and Black (25.7 percent) and Hispanic (26.9 percent) households experienced food insecurity at far higher rates than the national average” (Hunger, 2009). Because minority populations have higher rates of food insecurity and are more vulnerable to obesity and diabetes the work embracing diversity issues at the SAME Café becomes even more crucial. Renowned investigative Michael Pollan says,
According to the surgeon general, obesity today is officially and epidemic; it is arguably the most pressing public health problem we face, costing the health care system and estimated $90 billion a year. Three of every five Americans are overweight; one of every five is obese (Pollan, 2006, p. 102) . Most freighting is that the disease that was termed adult-onset diabetes had to be reclassified Type II diabetes since it now occurs so frequently in children. Again Pollan explains,
A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association predicts that a child born in 2000 has a one-in-three chance of developing diabetes. (An African American child’s chances are two in five.) Because of diabetes and all the other health problem that accompany obesity, today’s children may turn out to be the first generation of Americans whose life expectancy will actually be shorter than that of their parents (Pollan, 2006, p. 102).
The cause of this diseases of pandemic proportions is quite simple. When cheap processed foods cost less then natural nutrient dense whole foods people will eat more of it become overweight or obese and suffer from the diseases of western affluence.
The SAME Café offers the community a means of achieving peace, a safe shelter, and community to rely upon during strife. Food can sometimes be a contentious issue between cultures. It can be used as a means of environmental racism, political tyranny, genocide, oppression, and fear. My one hope is that through sitting people down at one table, even just in one room, that good food may facilitate communication between people with opposing worldviews. I am convinced that food is a stimulus for non-violent communication and can be a catalyst to the realization that no matter what differences we might have as humans we will always have more in common: the hope for safety of our families and children, shelter, food, dignified work, happiness, peace and love. In my opinion food is the foundation for the shift in consciousness that will bring our world into a more sustainable healthy place for all living creatures.
Bibliography
Hunger in the U.S. (November 16, 2009).Food Research and Action Center. Accessed on October 12th, 2010 <http://www.frac.org/html/hunger_in_the_us/hunger_index.html>
Nabhan, G. P. (1998). Cultures of Habitat: On Nature, Culture, and Story. Counterpoint.
Pollan, M. (2006). The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (First.). Penguin Press.
