Hunger and Poverty
we have a problem.
A recent newsletter from The Conservation popped in my inbox, which shared some thought pieces on the intersections of hunger and poverty.
Click through the links to learn more about food insecurity, the role of food banks, and much more.
“In a country that touts itself as the richest in the world, the fact that tens of millions of Americans don’t have regular, reliable access to adequate food is as shocking as it is depressing. But the truth is upward of 35 million people are food-insecure in the U.S., with that number likely to be higher in 2021 as a result of the economic hardship brought on by the pandemic.
Indeed, waiting in long lines outside food banks has become as routine for many Americans as lockdowns and social distancing – which is why we here at The Conversation are turning our attention to food and poverty in the U.S. In the coming weeks and months we will be publishing articles looking at hunger and food insecurity, focusing on who it affects and why, and what can be done to address it. We will delve into issues such as food justice – looking at how the history of racial inequity has factored into an uneven availability of healthy food – the impact of food insecurity on health, and the food supply chain at a time when climate change threatens to be a major disruptor.
Kicking off the series are articles that look at the here and now and offer some hope for the future. Caitlin Caspi, professor of public health at the University of Connecticut, explains what food insecurity is and how it fits with other food access concepts such as food sovereignty and hunger.
University of South Florida scholars David Himmelgreen and Jacquelyn Heuer look at the role food banks have played both historically and during the current crisis.
We also have a panel on what is being done to help the 18 million children at risk of hunger in the U.S. and a look at how Connecticut schools are making sure low-income students continue to receive meals during the pandemic.
Finally, Craig Gundersen, who has spent 25 years investigating the causes and consequences of food insecurity, provides an assessment of what the Biden administration could – and should – be doing to attain what no president to date has achieved: the near elimination of hunger in the U.S.”
Coincidently, Nicholas Kristof shared ways in which the Biden Administration can reduce child poverty in half, through his American Rescue Plan. You can read his opinion piece here.
“The Potential Poverty Reduction Effect of President-Elect Biden’s Economic Relief Proposal”- read the study by The Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University, found here.
According to The 19th (an independent, nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics, and policy), unemployment continues to be the highest for women (particularly for women of color).
“Women of color continued to bear an outsized burden of the job loss in January, according to new data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday.
Black women saw their unemployment rate increase to 8.5 percent, from 8.4 percent in December.
Asian women, for whom the data is not seasonally adjusted because the sample size is much smaller, saw a rise to 7.9 percent from 6.6 percent.
The unemployment rate among White women is now at 5.1 percent, down from 5.7 percent, a decrease that finds them significantly below women’s overall unemployment rate of 6 percent in January.
Latinas also saw a decrease, from 9.1 to 8.8 percent, but their unemployment rate continues to be among the highest of any group.
The only group with a higher unemployment rate is Black men, at 9.4 percent.
Women dominate the jobs most vulnerable to coronavirus closures — fields like hospitality and care work — and they are also bearing an outsized care burden at home. As a result, millions of women have left the workforce altogether.
Now 10 months out from the worst of the job loss in April, the first female recession continues as economic growth sputters to a stop. About 275,000 women left the workforce altogether last month, compared with 71,000 men.”
You can read the full story here.
cover photo from https://unsplash.com/@jmuniz?utm_source=squarespace&medium=referral