Hunger in America
Enough?
If you have been reading my daily Food Crumbs or my blog posts for a while you will know that ending food insecurity and hunger are important to me. The National Geographic has a collection of recent essays about Hunger in America looking at food insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic. The stories are both heartbreaking and hopeful. One in six Americans experienced hunger in 2020 that is an increase of 15.2 million people, of which 6.3 million were children. I think what the pandemic showed us, if nothing else, was how close how many American workers are from food insecurity. For many hunger is less than one paycheck away.
There are many solutions. Some are immediate, for example local businesses such as restaurant owners, making sure their neighbors have food. Others are long term such as building a better social support network. In particular people need to be paid a living wage in which they earn enough money to be able save against this kind of emergency.Â
What are you doing in your local community? Ideas welcome in the comments.