Women and Children Most Hit By Hunger

by Greg Plotkin · 2009-11-19 06:00:00 UTC
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By now, many of you have probably heard the news that 49 million people in the United States did not have access to a sufficient amount of food last year, more than any year since the USDA started keeping records in 1995.  Even more disturbing, this represents a 36% increase in hunger between 2007 and 2008.

Although there has been both statistical and anecdotal evidence concerning the spread of hunger across the United States recently, a new report released by the USDA paints a more accurate, and unfortunately grim, picture of the true extent of food insecurity in the most powerful nation on earth.

The numbers themselves are startling -- 16% of all people went hungry in 2008 -- but they do not go far enough in showing who is suffering the most.

As Raj Patel points out over on Stuffed and Starved, the new data seems to show that women and children have been hit the hardest by food scarcity.  This seems less surprising when you take into account that women continue to be paid less than men for doing the same work, and that women also regularly serve as the head of single-parent households.  With all else being even, this wage disparity puts women at a very real disadvantage when it comes to food security, for themselves and for their children.

This is not a problem relegated only to the United States either.  Across the globe, women are disproportionately affected by hunger and a lack of access to adequate food.

And it's the children who end up suffering the most -- now in the United States, one out of every four children goes hungry on a regular basis.

Remember back when President Obama pledged to eliminate childhood hunger by 2015?  Yeah, I do too.  And all I can say is that if this report doesn't jump start some serious legislative action, I don't know what will.

(Photo credit: meemal on Flickr)

Greg Plotkin currently works for Flying Pigs Farm in Shushan, NY. He is dedicated to eliminating inequalities in who has access to healthy food and alleviating hunger.
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