What Has Been Done to Eradicate this Issue?
The ones who were there to help alleviate the constant worry of “am I going to eat and how much is it going to cost?” where the Hunger relief organizations that have been put together to take charge of emergencies when crises hit. Food pantries, banks, and community meal programs offered free food to millions of people who are affected in the United States.
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As we know the food needs of the vulnerable have been increasing and so have the utilizations of these gracious programs, but could that possibly be something that needs to be looked into?
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Brett Rowland as he discusses the utilization of these meal programs in his article, “ Improving Health while Alleviating hunger: Best Practices of a Successful Hunger Relief Organization”, he stated a concerning fact. Rowland communicated that “The number of people utilizing food pantries and community meal programs in the United States continues to increase because people are no longer using pantries and meal programs only for emergency food aid but as one of their primary sources of food”.
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Though these pantries and banks have done such great work in at least providing a meals for children and families, you cannot help but overlook the possibility of these organizations running out of resources due to high demand. It could be only a matter of time, with that said more plans need to be in the process of alleviating food insecurity. But are we running out of food? not enough to feed those in need?
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In the perspective of Tom Houston, we actually have too much food and it is going to waste.
Tom Houston, writer for the The Guardian Lab, explores the curiosity of how we are going to feed billions of people in the next 33 years in his blog post called “How do we feed the planet in 2050?” According to Houston, in the year 2050 the human population is expected to be 9 billion people. Instead of writing about how we are not going to have enough food to feed billions of people, on the contrary he states “The good news is, we already produce enough food for that many people…” That we have so much excess food we waste about 1 trillion dollars per year. If we have that much food then why is the rate of food insecurity not dropping dramatically? Despite having too much food, the meal programs and relief organizations that have been put into place, people still confidently believe that nothing has changed drastically to make a difference.
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