All this money going towards foreign aid, and people who live in your country cannot put food on their table

BY SIMONE J. SMITH

You wake up with a familiar rumbling, growling sensation in your stomach. You know that there is nothing in the fridge to feed yourself, and right next door is a room with two little ones who you know you will not be able to feed either.

You send them off to school, and rush to work. Hopefully you can pull something off and be able to feed them later on. Throughout the day you are irritable, have difficulty concentrating, and you feel lethargic. Well of course you do; you need food to fuel you.

You were able to grab something small that you can share for dinner. Together you share a box of macaroni and cheese, drink some water, and head to bed. There are tears in your eyes as you lay your head on your pillow. Why has it become so hard; you live in one of the richest countries in the world?

Every day, millions of families across the United States confront a problem that undermines their ability to study, work, or participate vibrantly in their communities. These millions of families do not have enough to eat on a regular basis, a problem known as “food insecurity.”

There is a significant and growing crisis of food insecurity in the U.S., where 24.6% of families lack reliable access to nutritious food. That is especially true in New York City and its borough of Queens. The rate of food insecure children increased from 13.8% in 2019 to 20.5% in 2020.

Food insecurity, as defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), means “the disruption of food intake or eating patterns because of lack of money and other resources.”

According to the USDA, the rate of food insecurity among children in Queens County, NY is double the rate as compared to the U.S. population as a whole — 10.2% nationwide to 20.5% in Queens.

A recently released “NYC True Cost of Living Report” found that a family of four in New York City with a preschooler and school aged child must earn at least $100,000 to cover basic expenses such as food, housing, childcare, utilities, and medicine. The report also observed that, “The presence of children in the household almost doubles the likelihood that a household will have inadequate income. The combination of being a woman, having children, and solo parenting is associated with the highest rates of income inadequacy.”

According to an annual study conducted by Feeding America, it was found that people of color have an elevated risk of food insecurity, with rates 6% higher for African Americans and 10% higher for Latinos than for White people.

Many food insecure children — particularly those from multi-generational households, people of color, and first-generation immigrants — enter the classroom hungry, which can often cause them to have difficulty focusing on their primary mission, their studies. Students with unreliable access to food were found to have higher stress levels and unhealthy sleeping habits

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that malnutrition contributes to insulin resistance, obesity, heart disease, asthma, liver and kidney failure, cancer, mental illness, and pregnancy complications, along with other chronic diseases.

One positive is that schools that provide breakfast and lunch can help alleviate the burden on food insecure families and reduce the risk of further households experiencing food emergencies. Nationwide, the provisions of school meals lifted 722,000 children above the poverty line and provided meals to children who otherwise might not have known where their next meal was coming from.

There is definitely something wrong here; all this money going towards foreign aid, and people who live in your country cannot put food on their table.  Community stakeholders cannot simply leave the problem to the schools, or public officials alone to solve. Instead, a vibrant dialogue is needed that includes many stakeholders, community nonprofit advocates, food establishments, federal, state, and local government leaders along with the entire Queens business community to join the conversation about how to address the growing food insecurity crisis.