Cyndi's Two Cents
Hunger in rural America
Commentary.
Christmas is just days away. The house smells of evergreen, cinnamon, and gingerbread. The halls are decked, presents are wrapped, and you can hear Faron Young singing Christmas carols when you step in the back door of our house.
We are blessed this Christmas season. Like most of our friends and family, we are not spending as much on gifts as we have in the past, but no one will feel slighted or left out. We’re investing less in things and more in adventures and experiences.
As always, this Christmas season, there is plenty of food on our table. We grow a lot of that food ourselves. We have beef, eggs, and vegetables that were harvested and preserved right here on our little piece of planet Earth. Like so many other farmers and ranchers, we are working 365 days a year to responsibly and sustainably grow food and fiber to feed the world.
Unfortunately, feeding the world doesn’t equate to everyone getting enough to eat. Hunger is a problem not only in third world countries, but right here in the United States of America. Unfortunately, the abundance America’s farmers and ranchers grow does not always reach our neighbor’s dinner tables. Hunger and food insecurity are more common in rural than in urban areas. In fact, according to USDA, although rural areas comprise less than two-thirds of all U.S. counties, nine out of ten counties with the highest food insecurity rate are rural.
Those people must be lazy, right? Spending all their money on booze and cigarettes or drugs and gambling? Not so fast, my friends. Plenty of working people – some paycheck to paycheck – but working all the same, must choose between gas for their cars to get to work, electricity for their homes, paying rent, or buying enough food to feed their families.
According to the U.S. Census, 38 million people lived in poverty last year, HOWEVER, two-thirds of the people facing food insecurity in America reported incomes above the poverty line.
The stark reality is this: 1 in 5 children in these United States of America is do not have enough food to eat. Children in rural areas are at an even greater risk of being food insecure. These hungry kids are more likely to fall through the cracks in academics. They have trouble staying focused and learning in school. Hunger can change the way a child’s brain and body grow and affect their thinking, behavior and learning not only in school but in all aspects of their young lives. Kids who are not getting enough to eat also face higher risks of anemia and asthma. A weakened immune system opens them up for more health problems.
When most of us consider who among us is hungry, we think of those who are homeless, living in shelters or disengaged from our society in some way (usually of their own choosing.) There are those in our communities who struggle silently, under the radar, feeling guilty and ashamed that they are unable to provide enough food for their families or themselves.
Let us not forget those less fortunate than we are this Christmas season. If you can volunteer or donate in some small way, it could change a life for the better.
Very salient article. When you think of food deserts in the US, you think of cities but many parts of rural America fit that definition. And as rural America ages, it becomes more difficult to be self sufficient.