At Least 1 in 8 Americans Live Close to Hunger

Much of the conversation about sustainable food has to do with health — obesity, transfats, salt, contamination — and industrial takeover — CAFOs, subsidies; but we don't talk a lot about the hunger the industrial food system was designed to combat.

Hunger is, by definition, unsustainable; yet, in the United States today, 1 in 8 people don't get enough food. Finding ways for everyone in one's community to have access to healthy food is an essential piece of the sustainable food movement.

Feeding America has released its 2010 Hunger Study, which reveals that the nationwide network of food banks, food pantries, soup kitchens and emergency shelters is feeding 37 million Americans, including 14 million children. The network is providing food to 1 million more people every week than it did in 2006.

More than a third of the households receiving emergency food aid have at least one person working, and more than a third report having to choose between food and other expenses such as rent or medicine.

Organizations like Urban Farming and Growing Power put access to food — particularly healthy food — at the center of their missions. And the extensive conversation revolving around school lunch actually focuses on securing better food for children who can't afford it anywhere else; the children who have to eat unhealthy and unappealing meals are those in free or reduced lunch programs.

Food justice is a central strain of the sustainable food movement currently taking shape. With all the technical terms and political arguments flying around, we must make sure not to forget that healthy food — and people's ability to get it and eat it — is what we're really talking about here.

Photo: Tiago Ribeiro via Flickr