Healthy Food vs. Any Food at All

by Leigh Graham · 2009-02-26 07:47:00 UTC
Topics:

If you know something about hunger, send me a message - I'd like a guest blogger to talk more about this issue here at Poverty in America.  It's something I'm blessed to know little about, either through personal or professional experience.

But it is something more and more Americans are facing, and our existing food stamp program is not meeting the need of households to access affordable food in the current economic crisis.  State participation rates vary from barely half of all eligible Californians receiving food stamps to a few states where just about everyone who qualifies has them.  I recently looked at the USDA's eligibility requirements, as my household is close to qualifying, but not quite, from the looks of it.

The title of this post may be a strawman, but when we talk about food, hunger and poverty the issue of nutrition is in there.

Now I'm really out of my league, but I am as aware as the average American that grains and meats are generally much cheaper than produce.  Not to mention the former goes farther to fill up hungry bellies.  This issue over access to food and what kind of food takes center stage in school lunch debates - with some concerned parents debating the merits of healthier food versus affordable food with liberal foodies.  When I waded through the comments thread in that last link, I saw only one commenter really lambast the others to wake up to the realities of inner-city schools and the problems of no textbooks or heat or good teachers compared to broccoli versus pizza for lunch, but less incensed readers did point out that a community garden approach was nonsensical for the number of mouths to feed.  Commenters from colder climates also pointed out the necessity of freezing food versus the insistence on fresh food choices from the more seasonally-privileged folks. (I'm looking at you, Californians!)

Anyway, as I mentioned, I am in foreign territory here.  I'm curious what your personal and professional experiences are with these issues.

(Photo by karimian)

Leigh Graham
PREVIOUS STORY:
How to Spend $1.5 Billion
NEXT STORY:
Sallie Mae Blinks!

COMMENTS (14)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.