Free Essay

Child Hunger in America

In:

Submitted By MONYA2024
Words 1213
Pages 5
Child Hunger in America
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

A) Write a rationale for the presentation in which you do the following:
Hunger is a discomfort that emerges as a result of lack of food accompanied by the desire to eat. In the United States, hunger does not take the extreme form as it is experienced in some third world countries. Instances of severe food deprivation are rare in the United States. Clinical symptoms of food deprivation are sometimes used to determine if children in a country are faced by hunger. Such symptoms include low weight in relation to body height, low height for age and wasting. Such symptoms characterize children who are starved although in the USA they are rare and when they occur they are limited. The impact of hunger as seen in the United States is usually difficult to be measured. The impacts include; tiredness, irritability, frequent headaches, frequent colds and infections. The clinical objective of measuring hunger is very difficult hence alternative methods have been deployed in both the private and public sector. The alternative measures of measuring hunger are using a person’s self-report of his/her psychological or subjective experience of hunger.
Researchers may not agree on any particular definition of hunger. But for the purpose of policy making and measurement hunger is defined as taking in inadequate amount of food resulting from lack of money and resources. It can also be defined as the mental or physical condition resulting from not eating due to poor economic or community resources. From the two definitions, hunger is defined as resource restricted and in most cases related to poverty and it is distinct from the premealtime hunger witnessed across the economic spectrum. Researchers in the past have associated hunger with food insecurity. Food insecurity is a much broader aspect of hunger. Families may experience food insecurity that may force them to borrow money for food purchases. The presentation is useful for policy makers as they will come up with appropriate policies that will be implemented. The presentation would be suited to policy makers so that they include effective measures in the policies that will be developed to help children in the United States against hunger. Information relating to child hunger in the United States is very essential as it can be used in decision making. This will ensure coming up with effective policies that will ensure American children receive the best care through effective planning (Haddad, Kennedy, & Sullivan, 1994).
Significance of Child Hunger information in America
Information can be used by policy makers in making effective decisions regarding to health. Children who have experienced hunger in the past often get sick and their recovery rate is slow with regularly being hospitalized. In most cases they are prone to experience colds, headaches and stomachaches. The children are more prone to obesity and its harmful health implications which are both evidenced among children and adults. In academics hungry children tend to perform poorly and cannot grasp concepts in class fast. Lack of sufficient nutrients will also impair their ability to concentrate and attain good grades in school. When it comes to their emotional and well-being, children who lack sufficient food have high chances of having behavioral, emotional and academic difficulties and in most cases they are aggressive and anxious. They also have high chances of being expelled from school and difficulties getting along with other children. B) Create a plan (outline) for a presentation on your chosen topic that includes the following: 1. Introduction
Americans have a moral responsibility of ensuring that they eradicate child hunger in the country. That will translate to a country where no child goes hungry irrespective of their social, economic or political background. Well-fed children will be able to perform better in school and their relations with their colleagues are always perfect unlike children who have experienced hunger in the past who have very poor relations with others. Their learning ability is also impaired as they tend to have low concentration span. Children who face lack of adequate food may also not be able to grow to attain their full potential and hence they may not attain their full physical potential. Hungry children will experience developmental problems that will hinder them from attaining their full physical, academic and emotional development. The government should put in place measures to ensure that all children in the United States get access to food. Child hunger is an academic challenge to teachers as they have to deal with children who have problem in class. At workplace, workers who experienced hunger in their childhood may not be physically fit to carry out their duties as they not have fully developed emotionally, physically, socially and mentally to perform tasks that may be assigned to them. The children experiencing hunger may cause health care costs to increase both to their families or their employers (Olson, 1999). 2. Adequate support for each point
Child hungers possess an educational challenge to the school and the community at large. Children who have experienced hunger in the past will always have their concentration greatly reduced and they may not be able to cope with others in school. That will be as a result of direct mental retardation that emerges from the hunger they experienced. Education will also be affected in that the children may be expelled from school as a result of not being able to cope with others and they may at times be violent.
Workers who experienced hunger in their early lives will be a problem to an organization. That will be attributed to fact that they may not have had the chance to grow properly and attain their full potential and physical stature they are supposed to have gained. They may also have not full developed emotionally and mentally. At workplace they may also find it difficult to socialize with their colleagues. Such workers are also frequently hospitalized increasing the health costs of the organization.
In general, people who experienced hunger in their early lives pose a burden of high health costs both to the government and their employees. In the short term they will have high health costs as they are frequently hospitalized while in the long term they will chronic under nutrition increasing health care costs (Weinreb et al, 2002) 3. Appropriate visual element Child hunger hurts and it is the responsibility of all Americans to ensure that child hunger is eradicated.
Conclusion
Food security is a matter of matter of national importance and all people in the United States have a role to ensure all children have access to sufficient food. Through enhanced food security health costs will be reduced. The workforce in the nation will also be effective hence more people will be productive. Companies will have reduced costs of treatment.

References
Haddad, L., Kennedy, E., & Sullivan, J. (1994). Choice of indicators for food security and nutrition monitoring. Food Policy, 19(3), 329-343.
Olson, C. M. (1999). Nutrition and health outcomes associated with food insecurity and hunger. The Journal of Nutrition, 129(2), 521S-524S.
Weinreb, L., Wehler, C., Perloff, J., Scott, R., Hosmer, D., Sagor, L., & Gundersen, C. (2002). Hunger: its impact on children’s health and mental health. Pediatrics, 110(4), e41-e41.

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Child Hunger In America

...Childhood hunger is an issue that more than 16.2 million children face sometime in their life in the US. This issue affects children in many ways like, weaker immune systems causing kids to become sick, weaker brains causing kids to poorly perform in school, and lower self-esteem. Malnutrition is one of the most common ways kids get sick and/or get life threatening diseases. Just imagine going through a twenty four hour period and only being able to eat one meal. How would you feel after just one day? There are kids in the US that experience this problem everyday of their lives. With malnutrition, these kids tend to develop a weaker immune system, which cause them to be more prone to sicknesses and/or diseases in the future. By just having...

Words: 502 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

Social Studies

...anyone: Let’s be the Zero Hunger Generation World Food Day Either we build a future for all, or there will be no acceptable future for anyone: Let’s be the Zero Hunger Generation By By:Deavion Dyanta Semple By By:Deavion Dyanta Semple World Food Day World Food Day Theme: “Social Protection and Agriculture: breaking the cycle of rural poverty” Theme: “Social Protection and Agriculture: breaking the cycle of rural poverty” Street Address Address 2 City, ST ZIP Code Phone: 555.555.0125 Fax: 555.555.0145 E-mail address Street Address Address 2 City, ST ZIP Code Phone: 555.555.0125 Fax: 555.555.0145 E-mail address Caption describing picture or graphic. Caption describing picture or graphic. Why care about Hunger? Because the right to food is a basic human right.   In a world of plenty, 805 million people, one in nine worldwide, live with chronic hunger. The costs of hunger and malnutrition fall heavily on the most vulnerable. 60% of the hungry in the world are women. Almost 5 million children under the age of 5 die of malnutrition-related causes every year 4 in 10 children in poor countries are malnourished damaging their bodies and brains Every human being has a fundamental right to be free from hunger and the right to adequate food. The right to adequate food is realized when every man, woman and child has the physical and economic access at all times to adequate food or means for its procurement. Because we can end hunger in our lifetime. It’s...

Words: 1222 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Lisa Bullock's Article From The Missoulian, Fight Childhood Hunger

...According to the Lisa Bullock’s article from the Missoulian, Fight Childhood Hunger week was successfully wrapped up last April 19, 2015. In 12 communities throughout Montana, 35 service projects raised awareness of childhood hunger. This project was held under one solid principle; No child in Montana or our country should be hungry. Last semester, I took a class of Health Issue of Children and Adolescents. The class helped me to understand current issues of children. We learned about physical and mental health problems of kids and possible solutions of them. Among those issues, the issue of Childhood hunger caught my attention mostly. According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), 15.3 million children lived in food-insecure household in 2014....

Words: 628 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

World Hunger

...World hunger World hunger is the worst problem in the world today. My goal today, is to bring to yourknowledge the facts surrounding world hunger and what you can do to help. Let’s start bydefining world Hunger. Hunger is a term which has three meanings according Oxford EnglishDictionary (1971) “1.the uneasy or painful sensation caused by want of food; craving appetite.Also the exhausted condition caused by want of food 2.the want or scarcity of food in a country3.a strong desire or craving.” World hunger is defined by the 2nd definition on a world scale. Ithink that world hunger is an unfair problem in the world and needs to be solved. Just becausepeople have fewer opportunities than me does not mean they can suffer hunger. In this paper Iwill list statistics, other information surrounding world hunger and ways you can help so thebiggest problem in the world can be solved. In 2010 United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization(FAO) estimated the numberof people hungry in the world. The numbers were:578 million in Asia and the Pacific, 39 millionin Sub-Saharan Africa, 53 million in Latin America and the Caribbean, 37 million in the NearEast and North Africa and 19 million in developed countries. That is a total of 925 millionpeople in the world. World Food Programme put it in a different statistic that puts a light on justhow big the problem is. They said that 1 in 7 people in the world are hungry. That is why I careabout world hunger. 1 in 7 is hungry because they have fewer...

Words: 1048 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

World Hunger Thesis

...One of the biggest problems in America is our denial. Denying the fact that one out of seven people can’t afford to fill up one cup of food, even in the home of the all you can eat buffet. We face the tremendous problem, yet so simple to solve, World Hunger. World Hunger is a astronomic problem with our ever-lasting increasing population rate. There is approximately 925 million hungry in the world out of 7 billion currently, but it is soon to be 9 billion people. Not only is it adults suffering from hunger, it is mostly children too. Every 10 seconds, we lose a vulnerable, helpless child to hunger. Due to a study conducted in 2008, we discovered that if a child is not provided with it’s proper nutrients within its first 1,000 days of life,...

Words: 634 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Summary Of Heather Gitchell's Ripley, Tennessee

...In Ripley, Tennessee, one can find Heather Gitchell, a 6th grade science teacher, teaching her students how to grow their own food. According to FeedingAmerica.org, over 30,000 kids are suffering from hunger, and 1 in 7 people in the state are also fighting this same issue. Every spring, Gitchell lets her students grow vegetables. Gitchell said, “This is not only hands on, but it teaches a lesson that can provide for themselves or for a family.” There is a vast amount of students that attend Ripley Middle School who are suffering from hunger. By knowing this, Gitchell makes sure she teaches about plants in hopes the students will try and grow a small garden at their home. Ripley is a small, rural city in the state of Tennessee. DataUSA shared that 39.2% of...

Words: 718 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Hunger Data

...Hunger Data The world hunger problem: Facts, figures and statistics • In the Asian, African and Latin American countries, well over 500 million people are living in what the World Bank has called "absolute poverty" • Every year 15 million children die of hunger • For the price of one missile, a school full of hungry children could eat lunch every day for 5 years • Throughout the 1990's more than 100 million children will die from illness and starvation. Those 100 million deaths could be prevented for the price of ten Stealth bombers, or what the world spends on its military in two days! • The World Health Organization estimates that one-third of the world is well-fed, one-third is under-fed one-third is starving- Since you've entered this site at least 200 people have died of starvation. Over 4 million will die this year. • One in twelve people worldwide is malnourished, including 160 million children under the age of 5. United Nations Food and Agriculture • The Indian subcontinent has nearly half the world's hungry people. Africa and the rest of Asia together have approximately 40%, and the remaining hungry people are found in Latin America and other parts of the world. Hunger in Global Economy • Nearly one in four people, 1.3 billion - a majority of humanity - live on less than $1 per day, while the world's 358 billionaires have assets exceeding the combined annual incomes of countries with 45 percent of the world's people. UNICEF ...

Words: 8178 - Pages: 33

Premium Essay

Hunger In Richard Wright's Black Boy

...Richard Wright experienced “hunger” in ways that could not be perceived today. The difference in the hunger Richard faced and the hunger we face today is that Richard didn’t have food to eat while today we simply don’t find the food we have appealing and therefore decide not to eat. Richard was a young black child without a father in the 1900s who would eventually grow to despise the south. He had one goal in mind which was to head north and escape the grasp of the south's cruelty. However, achieving his goal was much harder than Richard had originally planned. Richard Wright’s Black Boy contains many dimensions of “hunger” such as his hunger for food, hunger for knowledge, and hunger for reaching the promised land of the north, all of which describe the struggles of an African American during the early 1900s. One dimension of hunger faced by young Richard was the hunger for food, a feeling Richard would feel for many long years. "Hunger...

Words: 842 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Analysis of the Term “American Exceptionalism” in the Current U.S. Culture

...significantly different from other countries. The concept has origins in the writings of French scholar Alexis de Toqueville who made observations during his visit to America in the nineteenth century (Mansfield, 2011). Also, Puritan John Winthrop's 1630 sermon "A Model of Christian Charity" led to the widespread belief in American folklore that the United States of America is God's country because it would become a "city upon a hill", watched by the world (John Winthrop: "A Modell of Christian Charity", 2007). Although the term does not necessarily imply superiority, many political leaders and writers have coined its use in that sense. Naturally, others hold the position that America is not really exceptional at all. In fact, after taking a cursory glance at some of the issues that our leaders are charged to correct, we can easily peel off the loftier label and replace it with a more humbling phrase. To begin, America’s hunger issue is a strong reason to reduce our loftier standing. It is not impressive that in a country without drought or famine and with enough food and money to feed the world twice over 1-in-8 of our own people struggle to put food on its table (Berg, 2009). Also, in 2010, 4.8 percent of all U.S. households (5.6 million households) accessed emergency food from a food pantry one or more times (Hunger & Poverty Statistics). Reducing these numbers will be an exceptional task. The crime problem in the U.S. also keeps the country from meriting a prouder classification...

Words: 799 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Summary Of Wake Up America By Anna Quindlen

...Wake Up America Anna Quindlen uses article, “School’s Out for Summer”, to address child hunger over the school break in America. Normally when people in America hear child hunger, they think of 3rd World Countries and Feeding Africa etc., but what they’re failing to realize is that the issue goes on in America, it could even be happening in your neighborhood. Quindlen has made this issue evident and gives voice to the issue that is otherwise soft spoken. Quindlen kicks off this article by using a shocking statistic, “During the rest of the year fifteen million students get free or cut-rate lunches at school, and many of them get breakfast too. But only three million children are getting lunches through the federal summer lunch program.”...

Words: 401 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

Still Hungry in America

...Seth Brethauer Mr. Strahle English 111 October 6, 2014 Still Hungry in America 1. Edelman used this thesis statement to set up her paper by explaining that her family did not have a lot of food which caused her to lose a lot of weight. So much weight that she dropped five sizes, went from a five to a zero. She even told her mother that she was not hungry and to not worry about it because she knew that there was nothing that could be done. 2. In 1967, Edelman was asked to testify before the Senate Subcommittee on Employment, Manpower, and Poverty in Washington about how the anti-poverty program in Mississippi was working because she had become increasingly concerned about the growing hunger in the Mississippi Delta. 3. Robert Kennedy was able to provide help to Edelman by visiting homes in Cleveland, Mississippi, asking respectfully of each dweller what they had had for breakfast, lunch, or dinner the night before. He went immediately to see Secretary of Agriculture Orville Freeman the next day and urged him to get some food down there and to eliminate any charges for food stamps for people who had no income. Roberts pushing, passion, and visibility helped set in motion a chain of events including a 60 Minutes documentary on “Hunger in America” that led to reforms. 4. The reason that the government did not feel like there was a hunger problem is because Freeman did not believe there were people in Mississippi with no income who could not afford to pay $2...

Words: 300 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Addressing Healthy Foods and Nutritional Education with Cleveland's Youth

...Addressing Healthy Foods and Nutritional Education with Cleveland's Youth Brenda McLelland Capella University MSN 6012 Unit 8: Designing Health Promotion Programs September, 2015 Abstract Concerns about addressing the nutritional health of Cleveland’s impoverished children continue to plague the Cleveland community. According to the U.S. Census Bureau in 2013, Cleveland has the third largest child poverty rate among the top cities in the United States ("Hunger Facts," 2013). Insufficient resources to provide adequate food and lack of proper nutritional education for these children has a dramatic effect on the health and well-being for this vulnerable group. Not only does poverty have a direct relationship to negative child outcomes, but nutritional intake and education, as well. This article will focus on a theory-based health care promotion plan that will address the poor, school-age children living in Cleveland. Strategies will be identified in promoting nutritional education to improve healthy eating for these children in an attempt to improve the health and wellness for this vulnerable group. Guidelines for quality monitoring, evaluating, and adaptations of this health promotion plan will also be discussed so that it can be used across various health care settings. Implementing a health promotion plan that incorporates appropriate theory, research-based interventions, evaluative measures, and quality improvement metrics is pivotal if the health care professional...

Words: 3075 - Pages: 13

Free Essay

The Public Needs to Know – Draft

...a community. A food pantry or commonly known as a food closet, food shelves or local food bank are non-profit organizations that provide assistance to communities in need. Their main focus is to assist people of various groups to maintain a healthy life. You will be surprised to see the groups within the community affected by food insecurity. Food insecurity, defined by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), is a limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods or limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways. Children are the number one victims of food insecurity because their family has to make the hard decisions whether to pay bills or to feed their child in a manner that is healthy. On a national average, 15.9 million children suffer from food insecurity. Food insecurity in children can hinder not only their physical health but their state of mind as well. Most children in a food insecurity environment might have a difficult experience in the performance of normal learning objectives in school. Low income families make up a very small percentage of food insecurity’s total population because most low income family has at least one working adult. Most people believe that people living in poverty, the homeless, the elderly, and low income individuals and families top the food insecurity list. This could be far from the truth. Other affected groups are Afro-Americans, Hispanics, Latino...

Words: 1316 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Fight Against World Hunger

...World Hunger and Society There have been countless occasions in which an ad showing a starving child appears on a television screen or in the middle of a magazine. These images are real and showcase he affect that world hunger is having on people worldwide. World hunger is a large problem that the world faces today. However, there are many examples of organizations and people that are making an effort to putting an end to this problem that plagues many parts of the world. Some of these organizations include UNICEF, Bread for the World, and World Food Programme. All of these organizations are making different methods to help relieve world hunger. One organization striving to end world hunger is UNICEF. UNICEF is a company that particularly tends to the problems affecting children of the world. In particular regards to world hunger, the UNICEF program suggests that the main influence on world hunger is poverty. More specifically, a lack of goods and services can hurt a child’s environment. With a deprivation of resources, a child can suffer from malnutrition and starvation, which can potentially lead to death. UNICEF encompasses different methods to tackle the problem of world hunger among children. For one, it directly provides funding and supplies for many countries. Food is directly delivered to people through smaller organizations and governments with UNICEF as the overseer. Also, UNICEF contacts local caregivers in countries to place children...

Words: 806 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

The Millennium Development Goals: Global Health Inequities

...Health Inquiry, Global Health Inequities Introduction: The Millennium Development Goals (or MDG) are a set of 8 goals set by the world’s nations in hope of reducing poverty by 2015. These 8 goals address poverty, education, equality, disease and the environment. Each goal has a targets and indicators we are aiming to achieve by 2015. The purpose of this report is to report on the history, objectives and constitution of the MDG’s and the success and effectiveness of the MDGs. History of MDGs: In the 1990’s the United Nation (UN) member states went through a historically extraordinary UN press conference process. This conference was aimed at building consensus on development priorities for the 21st century. However, at the end of the 1990’s the governments of the conference experienced conference fatigue and feared the process launched by the conferences was losing steam. In September 2000 in New York there was a large gathering of world leaders called the Millennium Summit. This was the largest gathering of world leaders in history including 189 UN member-states. At the Millennium Summit the United Nation Millennium Declaration was adopted as a result of a series of global conferences held during the 1990’s. The UN saw the Millennium Summit as an opportunity to bring back the development of priorities for the 21st century. It was at this Millennium Summit that the Millennium Declaration set in motion a global partnership and was signed by 147 heads of states....

Words: 3629 - Pages: 15