Hunger in The City

Hunger in the United States and Brooklyn NY affects a wide variety of people including people in your own neighborhood. For working families, the pain of childhood hunger is especially intense. Often earning just over the limits for food stamps, working poor face many obstacles when trying to get enough healthy food for their families. Here are just some of their struggles.

Obesity- Food insecurity is one of the primary causes of childhood obesity. While this seems like backwards logic, the link between hunger and obesity is the amount of low quality food items consumed. Struggling families often make less healthy food choices. The reason for this is obvious when you shop. Low quality ‘junk food’ is often on sale making it more economical for the calories than more healthy food (example price potato chips vs fresh produce) Macaroni and cheese, hot dogs and ramen noodles while kid friendly and taste are not the healthiest, but often the cheapest options. Kids need fresh fruit and veggies and healthy choices to help stave off obesity. Obese children often lack these foods in their diet due to economics. To make this worse, food insecurity, or not knowing when the next meal will come cause overeating when food is available. All these things are dangerous and lead to diabetes, lifetime obesity and costly health bills, which will ultimately end up costing the US more than providing healthy food for all children.

Too Low Income Limits for Help- The working penalty is often severe for lower middle class families. In working hard at low wage jobs to provide for their families, they often find themselves unable to access benefits. It is no wonder that public assistance rolls are swollen since their is little incentive or reward to work when benefits such as food stamps may be cut off.

High expenses- Any family knows that the cost of living is soaring. For families ‘just making it’ before the economic downturn, the reality of higher gas prices, rent, food bills, have made it impossible to help their families. As a result, more families are going hunger.

How you can help:. Local food banks and food pantries always welcome donations (see links for some options).

You can also look for more tips at Homeless and How to Help for low and no cost options to make a difference in the lives of children in need.

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