Hunger In America

When people mention hunger, one will most commonly think of third world countries that suffer from starvation. When I google imaged hunger, pictures of starving children in Africa appeared. It is not only third world countries that are suffering. There is hunger here in the United States that just goes unnoticed. Due to the recession, 14.6 % of American households, 49 million people, were food insecure at some point during 2008. This is the highest number since the survey was first taken in 1995. With such high numbers, there is clearly a number of people seeking help from local food banks and soup kitchens. However, there has been a drop in donations from companies that are on a tight budget. The Capital Area Food Bank, in Washington D.C., delivers around 25 million pounds of food to 700 nonprofit agencies each year. The Capital Area Food Bank also reported a 91% increase in calls to its Hunger Lifeline last year. There are two very important things that we as citizens of the United States can do to help the hunger here in our country. There are three hunger-related bills that discuss ways of saving food and helping those in need. The Good Samaritan Hunger Relief Tax Incentive Extension Act would extend a tax incentive for farmers to donate extra food to charity. School Food Recovery Act would allow schools to donate extra food to food banks. The third bill is a bill to amend the National School Lunch Act which serves more than 30 million children nationwide. Senators are looking to include the Hunger Free Schools Act to eliminate bureaucratic obstacles in the school lunch program and serve an additional 3 million children. The other important thing we can do to help prevent hunger in the United States is that we can donate food, money and our own time at local food banks. There are even programs here at Merrimack College where students can volunteer at local soup kitchens. The Merrimaction group goes to the Lazarus House and Bread and Roses once a month to serve in soup kitchens to feed the less fortunate. President Obama made a pledge to help end childhood hunger by 2015 and to do so, the administration and Congress must provide funding and support for food banks and nutrition programs. We can do our part as students by getting involved in our school community volunteer programs and by checking out websites such ashttp://feedingamerica.org and http://www.foodlifeline.org