Our children are unhealthy. This is in part due to hunger and poverty. It is also due to poor diet and lack of exercise. Each day as I look at the students in our middle class school in the Maryland suburbs of the national capital city, I see the effect.
Obesity -
* Childhood obesity has more than tripled in the past 30 years.
* The percentage of children aged 6–11 years in the United States who were obese increased from 7% in 1980 to nearly 20% in 2008. Similarly, the percentage of adolescents aged 12–19 years who were obese increased from 5% to 18% over the same period.
* In 2008, more than one third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese.
The figures are from
The Centers from Disease Control and the pattern has continued - the best estimate in 2011 is that about 25% of our children are obese, figures that put us shockingly behind many countries as you can see in
the graph at this site.
Hunger and poverty: Feeding America provides some additional powerful statistics:
Poverty [1]
*In 2009, 43.6 million people (14.3 percent) were in poverty.
*In 2009, 8.8 million (11.1% percent) families were in poverty.
*In 2009, 24.7 million (12.9 percent) of people ages 18-64 were in poverty.
*In 2009, 15.5 million (20.7 percent) children under the age of 18 were in poverty.
*In 2009, 3.4 million (8.9 percent) seniors 65 and older were in poverty.
Food Insecurity and Very Low Food Security[2]
*In 2010, 48.8 million Americans lived in food insecure households, 32.6 million adults and 16.2 million children.
*In 2010, 14.5 percent of households (17.2 million households) were food insecure.
*In 2010, 5.4 percent of households (6.4 million households) experienced very low food security.
*In 2010, households with children reported food insecurity at a significantly higher rate than those without children, 20.2 percent compared to 11.7 percent.
*In 2010, households that had higher rates of food insecurity than the national average included households with children (20.2 percent), especially households with children headed by single women (35.1 percent) or single men (25.4 percent), Black non-Hispanic households (25.1 percent) and Hispanic households (26.2 percent).
*In 2009, 8.0 percent of seniors living alone (925,000 households) were food insecure.
*Food insecurity exists in every county in America, ranging from a low of 5 percent in Steele County, ND to a high of 38 percent in Wilcox County, AL
The national level of Food Insecurity is 14.6%, with seven states being significantly higher, the top two being Mississippi at 19.4% and Texas at 18.8%.
This is despite various government assistance programs, to which increasingly Americans have been turning. According to this Wall Street Journal blog Post,
Nearly half, 48.5%, of the population lived in a household that received some type of government benefit in the first quarter of 2010, according to Census data. Those numbers have risen since the middle of the recession when 44.4% lived households receiving benefits in the third quarter of 2008.
In December 2008, when Daily Kos hosted its first ever Feeding America blog-a-thon, one in eight Americans faced hunger.
The number now is 1 in 6, and this weekend, we ask for your support again.
And remember - for children the figure may now be 1 in 4.
Please keep reading.
It may seem counter-intuitive to talk about obesity and hunger simultaneously. Too often those who are poor fill their stomachs with foods that are cheap and filling, but not particularly nutritious. Combine that with heavy commercial promotion of non-healthy foods and snacks, and until recently their ready availability in public schools where many of our children get much of their nutrition, and we have had a recipe for disaster, one which will impose significant costs upon our nation of
- lives cut short because of health
- loss of productivity because of poorer health
- loss of learning in school because of poor health and nutrition
- higher than necessary expenses of medical care
I said "until recently." There are some things for which this administration deserves some credit. One is Michelle Obama's efforts to combat childhood obesity. Another are the reforms of the school lunch program. These reforms include the efforts, spearheaded in part by former President Bill Clinton, to try to eliminate junk food and soda from schools. Others include various efforts both by the U. S. Department of Agriculture to promote healthier school lunches via new rules and facilitating the use of things like local produce, and parallel efforts within some states.
To see a state by state comparison, please look at this page from USDA and see whether your state is doing all it can to help decrease/prevent childhood obesity and improve nutrition.
The diaries in this blogathon are to focus attention on the issue of hunger.
It has many dimensions.
The needs have increased as economic times have hardened for more Americans.
Our children are suffering.
The effect of obesity developed early are devastating.
We need to do all we can to address the ongoing crisis.
Clearly at a time of crisis it should be more important to meet the basic needs of the people of America than to worry about balancing the budget in the near term.
Congressional gridlock is prevent action on many things that could ameliorate the economic problems that are affecting nutrition and thus obesity.
Working with Feeding America is one way we can make a difference.
Thanks for reading, and for anything else you might due.
Why we join with Feeding America.
Through the assistance of local and national food assistance programs, Feeding America is able to provide nutritious, fresh foods to Americans struggling with hunger; safe and nurturing places for children to have a meal; emergency assistance for disaster victims; as well as a chance at self-sufficiency for adults trying to break the cycle of poverty and hunger.
Feeding America
Feeding America locates food surplus and intercepts it on its way to the trash and distributes it to food banks all over the country. They do not buy most of their food, which is why they can provide meals so efficiently. They collect from vendors, grocery stores, and restaurants all over the country. Plenty of food is out there -- the problem is one of logistics, transportation, and distribution.
Because Feeding America redistributes surplus, they can provide healthy meals cheaply. Ninety five cents on every dollar that you donate here goes to food distribution. Donating to Feeding America is one of the most efficient ways that you can help aid hungry people.
Even $1 will help. Click on the icon above.
If you have the means, please donate to Feeding America by clicking on the box to the right. In addition to supplying food banks all over the country, they help hungry kids through their Backpack Program, Kids Cafe, Summer Food, and School Pantry programs. And this month, Ameriprise Financial will match your donation -- which means that each dollar you donate will provide 16 meals to hungry people.
Donate By Mail Here.
Feeding America is a strong advocate for ending hunger in the United States.
Sign Up to Advocate Here.
Please read and recommend these diaries:
All times Eastern!
Saturday, Oct 15:
9:00a -- noweasels
in 1 in 6 Blogathon for Feeding America: Hunger Lives Near You
12:00p -- teacherken
3:00p -- TheFatLadySings
6:00p -- Timroff
9:00p -- JayinPortland
Owls -- blue jersey mom
Sunday, Oct 16
9:00a -- rb137
12:00p -- JanF
3:00p -- Aji
5:00p -- Patric Juillet
7:00p -- Chacounne
10:00p -- boatsie
Thank you all, so very much.
Special blessings to our own rb137 who organized this great effort, and to all the amazing diarists participating this weekend.