The definition of food insecurity. It isn't hunger.

USAFacts is doing a feature on "food insecurity." That term was invented because there is not enough actual hunger in the U.S. to measure by population and put in a graph. However, I read far enough to get to the "food desert" definition. Notice: "easy and ample access." 

"What is a food desert? The Department of Agriculture defines them as an area where low-income people do not have easy and ample access to food retailers. This limits people’s access to affordable, nutritious food."

Here's what happens. When a chain store with jobs and fresh fruits and vegetables plans to expand in a poor neighborhood, they are run out of town by organized protests from the Left and tied up for years in the courts battling city codes. It's like when AOC got an Amazon distribution center run out of her district. And what company would ever invest in Portland or Minneapolis after the anti-police, pro-crime riots of the last year?

https://usafacts.org/articles/which-cities-have-the-most-people-living-in-food-deserts/?

https://www.salon.com/2020/06/03/kroger-grocery-closed-protests-food-inequality-desert/?

Looters Leave More Food Deserts In Black Communities | BlackDoctor.org - Where Wellness & Culture Connect

Chicago's George Floyd reaction looting foists 'food deserts' on locals: 'What did we accomplish?' - Washington Times

What Really Happens When a Grocery Store Opens in a ‘Food Desert’? (nyu.edu)  a paragraph summary follows:

"Over the past decade, federal and local governments in the United States have spent hundreds of millions of dollars encouraging grocery stores to open in food deserts. The federal Healthy Food Financing Initiative has leveraged over $1 billion in financing for grocers in under-served areas. . . We studied the grocery purchases of about 10,000 households in those neighborhoods. While it’s true that these households buy less healthy groceries than people in wealthier neighborhoods, they do not start buying healthier groceries after a new supermarket opened. Instead, we find that people shop at the new supermarket, but they buy the same kinds of groceries they had been buying before."

Feeding America's hungry children

 This charity, Feeding America, suggests donating to them because hungry children can't learn, but 13 million U.S. children get free or reduced cost breakfasts at school, free or reduced cost lunches, and free after school snacks, and special plans for summer time and camps through USDA programs. If you read through Feeding America's programs, none seem to be about breakfast at school.

FA is now 35 years old, a charity (2nd Harvest) begun by one person to distribute food surpluses. However, the government's definition of hunger has expanded and is now "food insecurity," not hunger, and all the programs, both government and charities, have expanded. Low income households are not dumb about their resources. As food programs expand, those households factor that into their budgets, leaving more cash for non-food items such as rent, utilities, clothing, alcohol, cigarettes, gasoline, cell phone contracts, etc. Studies show that even with the lowest unemployment rate since the early 1970s, food pantries are still an important resource for many households, some increasing their visits from occasional to regular.

Although the recession ended in June 2009, participation in SNAP, the government's largest low income food program, has never returned to pre-2008 levels, in part because people were recruited to participate with expanded ARRA money. Yes, it sounds heartless to question why so many people remain on government and charity food programs when we have 123 transfer of wealth programs to assist, however, some questions need to be asked about why parents are not using their resources to feed their children.  A low income family with children can receive about $400/month in just SNAP benefits, plus access to USDA programs at school and church food pantries. And yes, a family can eat very well using just SNAP--there's a cook book on line.

 

The poverty meme

"The global incidence of extreme poverty has gone down from almost 100% in the 19th century, to 10.7% in 2013. While this is a great achievement, there is absolutely no reason to be complacent: a poverty rate of 10.7% means a total poverty headcount of 746 million people." https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-poverty/

This progress wasn't made with Communism or dictatorships or street demonstrations, and it won't continue by taxing wealthy countries more to fight a mythical climate problem when that money could be going to address poverty problems today instead of sea level in 10 decades. We should have learned from the Rachel Carson debacle which killed millions of African and Asian children with still no solution for malaria while trying to protect birds and insects.

There are genuinely hungry people in the world and the USA, but what has lifted most people out of hunger and poverty isn't government programs, but innovation, technology, creative use of fossil fuels, the green revolution in agriculture and entrepreneurship. Someone living below the "poverty line" in the USA today has more material luxuries than the wealthy of the 19th century. Refrigeration, indoor plumping, flush toilets, healthy food, education, health care, sanitation, even smart phones automobiles and computers. Yet, the SJW only care about the gap.

People do make bad choices--we eat too much, exercise too little, smoke, drink, and are promiscuous. Government isn't going to change that. That's the job of the church to address moral and spiritual failings. Read the definition of "food insecure." Hunger in the USA isn't even relevant and is a meaningless word. The number of people living in extreme poverty fell by more than 1 billion since 1990, from 1.85 billion in 1990 to 0.76 billion in 2013. On average, the number of people living in extreme poverty declined by 47 million every year since 1990 (or 130,000 every single day). Violent crime is also down dramatically since the Omnibus Crime Bill. Who is driving the narrative that this is an awful, horrid place in need of more government control? I can think of at least two. 1) Democrat party, 2) the media.

Renters have more food insecurity

In the United States, “food insecurity” is a term designating households, and hunger designates an individual. The new term appeared about 2006 and is somewhat subjective meaning if at anytime during the last month one adult in a household reported in a USDA survey being unable to afford balanced meals or reducing the size of meals or being hungry because too little money for food, the household has “food insecurity.” From the USDA definition, it seems to be primarily based on money, and not behavior like not able to get to a store, or being incapable of preparing food for the household, or not knowing how to boil a potato when McDonald's is closed.

The 2015 information was included in the 2016 Census Bureau’s American Housing Survey for the first time noting differences between households that rent and those who own.  Renters have more food insecurity than owners.  Don’t start a Renters Lives Matter protest.  College students are generally renters, as are young professionals who don’t want to mow lawns.
 https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2016/cb16-193.html

Christmas at a Homeless Camp in the Woods by Rich Garon, guest blogger

There were about fifty people in the woods, behind a strip mall that sits right across from one of the largest outlet malls on the east coast. There were clusters of tents and a shack or two. Looking carefully, I could see the winding paths that led me to another way of life. My first visit was a novelty. My grandson and I had arranged with one of the homeless men at the camp in the woods to bring the group produce from a nearby food pantry. I’ll call him Sam. He was tall and led us to his site, which seemed to be very well organized. We didn’t speak long and he thanked us for the meals our church had brought earlier in the week. The air-conditioning in our car revived us from the stifling heat that hung in the woods that early July day.

A group of us continued bringing produce from the farmer’s market, chickens from Costco, and some gas for the one or two generators that powered some small fans fighting the oppressive heat. We continued this routine for a while and spent time getting to know the men and several women who called these woods home. “I’ll be glad when the fall comes,” a guy named Billy said.

We were all new to helping the homeless, but it soon dawned on us that produce, chickens and gas weren’t really the answer. As we became familiar with the people in the woods, we learned about them and realized their lives were complicated; that divorces, job losses, arrests, addictions, or chronic health issues had led them into the woods. In some cases, events unfolded abruptly. In others, it took a string of setbacks before they claimed the spot on which they set-up their tents. We gave them money at times. It seemed they always needed little things; that is, until we had to shell out $200 to get Randy’s car out of the impoundment lot so he could travel a considerable distance to his job. 

As we tried to help, we realized we really didn’t have a plan, so we decided to give money to groups we were told were more expert in helping the homeless. We still visited the homeless; many who by now had become our friends. We took them out to dinner occasionally, tried to interpret undecipherable forms and letters they received from county and state aid agencies and recognized each individual required more help and guidance than we could provide.

Remember how Billy was looking forward to the fall? Well, fall was short-lived that year and winter rolled-in with chilling winds and heavy snows. We brought shoeboxes full of toiletries and other notions. Billy even erected a beat-up Christmas tree. He situated it near a memorial of Christmas decorations dedicated to his twenty-five-year-old friend, Mantu, who froze to death one night outside his tent. Our friend, Sam, who had become increasingly ill, almost died one sub-freezing night when someone stole his propane heater. Such was Christmas that year in the homeless camp.

We were able to get Sam into transitional housing, but his medical condition was beyond what the home could accommodate. He was asked to leave. The snow had been replaced by the brutal heat of July, and his overall health declined rapidly. We tried to get him into a facility, but were told there was a two-year waiting list at most places. We spoke to another agency and they said they’d be pleased to help, but he’d need a fixed address. There was also little help available from non-profits.

We did eventually find a small studio apartment for Sam, and then one for Billy. We schooled ourselves in learning to navigate the bureaucratic tangle of regulations that tried to discourage us from finding out the types of assistance to which they were entitled. 

You see, most homeless people don’t have cars to get to assistance offices, and they don’t have computers to complete forms online. They don’t understand the importance of seeking medical help for a problem before it worsens. Many individuals, church groups, and non-profits—while well-meaning—often support competing programs, and local governments provide inadequate funds to address the problem. 

Sam and Billy have become family to us, and we’re going to continue taking care of them as family. Who would have thought that could have developed from our initial trip into the woods? There are plenty of other Sam’s and Billy’s who desperately need help, especially this winter. If you would like to help, check out non-profits and houses of worship in your area who work with the homeless. Any amount of time you have, can help those so in need. 

Rich Garon is the author of Felling Big Trees (BookBaby, December 2016), a novel about a congressman turning from politics to make a positive change on a disillusioned society. All proceeds from the book will go toward WhyHunger.org.  He currently works with the Immanuel Anglican Church in Woodbridge, VA, where he coordinates the homeless ministry and particularly dedicates his focus to helping individuals who live in the woods. Learn more at www.richgaron.com.

Feeding America and its hunger statistics

Just saw an ad on TV by Feeding America about hungry children. Feeding America is a United States-based non-profit organization that is a nationwide network of more than 200 food banks that feed more than 46 million people through food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, and other community-based agencies. Most of these are run by churches and their volunteers and donors. (According to FA website its $2 billion budget is through donations--CEO earns over $600,000/yr.) They do good work, but its ads about 16 million hungry children is most likely an exaggeration.  The federal government doesn't even use the term "hunger;"  it is called "food insecurity," and if mom was in a drug induced stupor or mentally ill and didn't pull a can of pop or chips out of the cupboard twice in 6 weeks, that's called "food insecurity." 

In the USA we don't have hunger, we have bad parenting and dysfunctional families that begin with babies before marriage. Marriage drops the probability of child poverty by 82%. We have foundations and state grant programs tripping over each other to help. We have 123 wealth transfer programs in the federal government to address the problems of low income and poor, everything from housing support to earned income tax credits, to special pre-schools, to special feeding programs for infants, to Medicaid, to clinics for women, to home heating plans, to job training. If there is a hungry child, statistically he sits in front of a flat screen HDTV with video games in an air conditioned home, Mom has a frig, microwave and dishwasher in the kitchen, a cell phone, and probably car in the drive way. But his "poverty" is supporting an enormous number of social workers, academics and non-profit employees through grants that come to his state, then his city, then the non-profit or church, and finally it trickles down to him.

Another dumb poster collected from Facebook (the people, not the art)

 

This is an example of how dumb the whiners on the left are (probably feeling the Bern and owing a lot of school debt). Agriculture is the most regulated industry in the country, and it's not capitalists who set the high standards for health, sanitation, weight, labeling, crop insurance, pesticide use, perfection, shipping, distribution, inspection, labor laws, import, export, etc., it's the local, state, and federal governments plus directives and policies. I wonder when the last time was that this poster picked up the wormy and bruised apple or the rotten potato instead of the one that was firm, quality tested and attractive. And no one in the U.S. goes hungry; the main job of the USDA is to distribute food.  For example:

 https://www.ams.usda.gov/rules-regulations/moa/dairy

 https://www.ams.usda.gov/rules-regulations/paca

https://www.ams.usda.gov/services/sci-contacts 



 “Standards for the Growing, Harvesting, Packing and Holding of Produce for Human Consumption” regulation under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). The webinar will be led by Leanne Skelton, Biological Science Specialist with the AMS SCP and the USDA’s FDA Liaison, and Dr. Samir Assar, Director of FDA’s Division of Produce Safety.  Just a sample how you can learn about regulations.