Poverty and the struggle of increasing prices... 

When you're hungry what do you do? You can easily go to your kitchen, make a delicious sandwhich or have as many snacks as you want until you can not eat anymore. As something so common and easily accessed for some households that is not the case for every household.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

• Around 40 million people struggle with food insecurity in the United States, leading causes poverty and financial resources. While those impoverished struggle to make ends meet and keep a roof of their heads, they have another reason to be worried, food prices going up. 

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

  Food-price-index-rises-march-07-march-08.png

​

• Food prices have been increasing non-stop and seems as though it is not going to stop in the near future. To obtain adequate and healthy food has become a pricey scavenger hunt. The only affordable and accessible food available are fast foods.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

• Low income families and areas where poverty is prevalent are experiencing uncertain availability to safe foods.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

• Lydia Preuss, a graduate Research Intern at Feeding America, states in her blog “Poverty and Food insecurity Rates Improved in 2017, but 1 in 8 People Still at Risk of Hunger'' that “Although more than half of people in poverty report being food secure, these two factors are closely interrelated.” With the lack of financial resources it will continue to be that way.  Financial resources can come from income earned by household members and other assistance acquired by private and public programs, including housing subsidies.

​

• Obtaining healthy food is impossible with the prices increasing, so why not lower it? Unfortunately they are increasing at a faster rate and regardless of the price the demand for food stays constant.

​

• Desperate and hungry, the impoverished have to resort to difficult decisions in order to make sure not only are they fed but their families as well. This insecurity aftermath is not only happening in the United States but around the world. 

​

According to the United States Department of Agriculture,

they list statistics and characteristics of those food insecure.

• All households with children (13.9 percent),

• Households with children under age 6 (14.3 percent),

• Households with children headed by a single woman (27.8 percent),

• Households with children headed by a single man (15.9 percent),

• Women living alone (14.2 percent),

• Men living alone (12.5 percent),

• Black, non-Hispanic households (21.2 percent),

• Hispanic households (16.2 percent), and

• Low-income households with incomes below 185 percent of the poverty threshold (29.1 percent; the Federal poverty line was $25,465 for a family of four in 2018).

​

​

Halil Dincer Kaya, who did a study of the global crisis and poverty, examines the impact of the global crisis on poverty rates. In the article, “The Global Crisis and Poverty” the results were mixed but Kaya states “our results show that the global crisis had affected the poorest group of people the most. Therefore, we suggest policymakers to focus on this group of people the most during these hard times”. So where were policymakers during the time these people needed them the most?

​