Hunger in America Is Visible If You Look for It?

Hunger in America is quite evident. All you have to do is look around to see it. In most large cities, you’ll see the homeless. Unemployed or underemployed, the ability to obtain simple needs such as food and shelter is a struggle for too many Americans. In Florida, for example, the minimum wage is so low that a person would have to work 99 hours in a week just to afford a two bedroom apartment in today’s market, according to American Poverty.org and data on In Our Own Backyard.Us. You can just imagine that the people who are lucky enough to land a suitable job will struggle to pay for a decent place to live and pay for food. Many times, people who are poor sacrifice nutrition just so they could survive. Eating three or more meals per day is a luxury, and they make due with one meal if they can manage even that.

If you look, you will see people with cardboard signs on the side of the roads in America. They may be begging for money, but they really want the basic necessities that money can buy. They are hungry, and they may also seek a comfortable, safe place to live. They know that receiving a few dollars in donations will only take them so far. They are looking for a more permanent solution.

According to Feeding America, approximately 1 out of every six people are hungry. Although we too often see men and women on the streets in our cities and towns, many of these hungry people are children. The children may live in shelters, or with other relatives. You might see them on the streets. If you look closely you will realize that there are hungry.

Where are the Hungry?

The homeless people that you see, the people living in shelters, and people who are begging along streets in America are not the only hungry people in this hungry. People who get up every day and work a job or two are hungry, too. They probably skip breakfast, lunch, or dinner on occasion. They may miss several meals. Sometimes parents go without meals so that their children can eat. When school is out, children who receive free and reduced meals have to rely on food from home. If there’s little food in the household, those children are likely to go without meals.

A Fall From the Middle Class

A report in the Working Families Project stated that an alarming number of Americans have fallen out of the middle class due to various factors, including job losses and a reduction in hours at work. Some people have lost their full-time positions and have become part-time workers. The loss of full-time employment might inadvertently result in a loss of healthcare benefits for workers who once had healthcare. Therefore, they must pay for treatments out-of-pocket, further burdening their budgets.

Because gas prices have risen, people see an even deeper strain on their budgets. Since they have to pay more for gas to get to and from work, they are likely to have less money to feed themselves and their family. You might see someone going without lunch at work, or you could notice that a co-worker is more tired than usual from a lack of proper nutrition. If you look around you will see the hungry in America.

C. Williams is a freelance writer who writes about a variety of social and technical topics, including those that relate to how information and referral software can assist others.