In today’s world, there is a huge quantity of people that are left without food. Hunger is explained as the excruciating feeling of lack of food. This chronic and uncontrolled lack of access to food can direct to malnutrition above time. My main goal is to find an idea to help those and contribute to those that need it. It must be tough for them to suffer through the scarcity of food. I was told by my father that kids in Vietnam had to dig for food long ago. It was so sad to hear why that occurred. I figured that so much can happen in one day. One life or even lives are lost because of this horrific problem. If we try to help those that are suffering, then one life or even lives can be saved. It may take time to figure this out, but it is possible to do so. The numbers of those suffering increase every year. Why doesn’t it seem to go down? Are people wasting food? Are people not sharing? What’s the problem? Like I stated, it is hard to figure what is the central problem to world hunger. I know that I am not in their position, so I do not know what they are going through. If I had to experience it just to understand, then I would try. These people are not just suffering from hunger issues, but they are also suffering from poverty. They could be without homes, they could be without care, and they even could be without family. Poverty may be an issue we will never be able to defeat. World hunger may be an issue we will never be able to defeat. The only thing we can do is try to help. It might be just a small amount to them, but it is still something. We can donate food. We can donate money. The only matter is this would only help them for the meantime and not their whole lives. I will be giving some statistics that I had researched on the internet for. Here they are:

1. One of the most disturbing and extraordinary aspects of life in this very wealthy country is the persistence of hunger. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported that in 2007:

• 36.2 million people lived in households considered to be food insecure.
• Of these 36.2 million, 23.8 million are adults (10.6 percent of all adults) and 12.4 million are children (16.9 percent of all children).
• The number of people in the worst-off households increased to 11.9 from 10.8 in 2005. This increase in the number of people in the worst-off category is consistent with other studies and the Census Bureau poverty data, which show worsening conditions for the poorest Americans.
• Black (22.2 percent) and Hispanic (20.1 percent) households experienced food insecurity at far higher rates than the national average.
• The ten states with the highest food insecurity rates in 2007 were Mississippi, New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, Maine, South Carolina, Georgia, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri.

2. Hunger Facts-Domestic Facts

• Over 35 million people in America faced hunger in 2006.*
• Nearly 12 million children experienced food insecurity
  in 2006.*
• The national poverty rate in 2006 was over 12%.*
• In 2007, 26.5 million people used food stamps each month.*
• Over 30% of single mothers and their children were food
  insecure in 2006.*
• The 2007 U.S. Conference of Mayor’s Hunger and Homelessness Survey states that the main causes of hunger in survey cities were poverty, unemployment and high housing costs. Also, 80% of the survey cities reported that requests for emergency food assistance increased since 2006.
• The USDA reports that rates of food insecurity are substantially higher for single mothers and their children, Black families, Hispanic families, and those who live below the federal poverty line. The USDA states that nearly 22% of African-American and nearly 20% of Hispanic households experienced food insecurity in 2006.
• USDA statistics show that over 850,000 households in non-metropolitan areas experienced hunger in 2006. Nearly 15% of the total households served by the America’s Second Harvest Network reside in rural areas.
• According to recent research from Cornell University and the University of California-Davis, poor women may be more prone to obesity due to their habit of periodically going without food in order for their children to eat. Also, many low-income families can only afford to purchase high-calorie, processed foods because they are less expensive (such as fast food “value meals.”) Many poor urban neighborhoods lack access to grocery stores that provide nutritious foods, while these areas also may not have access to safe areas for physical activity.

3. The following are statistics on world hunger from the World Food Program and the Office of the U.N. Secretary-General:

–In 2008, the number of undernourished people in the world rose to 963 million (more than the combined populations of the United States, Canada and the European Union), up 40 million from 2007.

– The majority of undernourished people live in developing countries, with about 65 percent of the total living in India, China, Democratic Republic of Congo, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan and Ethiopia.

– Hunger and malnutrition are the No. 1 risk to health worldwide, greater than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined.

– Hunger does not affect just the individual. Economists estimate that every child whose physical and mental development is stunted by hunger and malnutrition stands to lose 5 percent to 10 percent in lifetime earnings.

– The total food surplus of the United States alone could satisfy every empty stomach in Africa; France’s leftovers could feed the hungry in Democratic Republic of Congo and Italy’s could feed Ethiopia’s undernourished.

– Today 25,000 people will die from hunger. A child dies every six seconds of malnutrition or starvation.

– A number of factors, including high energy and fertilizer costs, sent global food prices soaring to all-time highs in 2008. In March the price of rice hit a 19-year high while wheat climbed to its highest level in 28 years. However the price of staple foods throughout the world has declined over the last few months.

– Food riots erupted in the spring of 2008 in Haiti, Mexico and Senegal. The World Bank estimated that social unrest, as a consequence of the world food crisis, could spread to 33 countries. Although riots have eased in recent months, at a meeting in Madrid, Spain, Jan. 26, Ban Ki-moon, U.N. secretary-general, urged wealthy nations not to ignore the shocking problem of world hunger.

– There is enough food in the world today for everyone to have the nourishment necessary for a healthy and productive life.

In conclusion, you can see by reading the statistics that every year the amount of people who are suffering is increasing. It seems so horrific, and it is. All we can do is come together as a community, society, and world to help those in dire need for it. There are many organizations that raises money for world hunger. If we could start our own, then slowly it would make progress. The numbers increase, and it is about that time the numbers should decrease. “HELP” is our main word. Our goal is to HELP! I hope to succeed in this goal. With the help of my classmates that are working on the same project, we can visit communities in New Orleans that are in dire need of food. We will know how much we can do, we will be able to raise money, and we will be able to receive food donations. In conclusion, we will do all we can do. All the help is needed, so whoever read this blog, come join us and help us.

SOURCES:

Catholic News Service. 2009. 13 October 2009 <http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0900507.htm>.

Food For All. 2008. 13 October 2009 <http://www.foodforall.org/hungerfactsus3.html>.

FRAC-Hunger in the U.S. 2008. 13 October 2009 <http://www.frac.org/html/hunger_in_the_us/hunger_index.html>.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 13th, 2009 at 2:58 pm and is filed under Week 07: Research Stats. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.