Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
How Can We End Hunger in America?
How Can We End Hunger in America?
Jul 6, 2025 5:45 PM

What does it mean to be hungry in America? And how do we solve the issue of domestic hunger?

To answer those questions, Congress created the bipartisan National Commissionon Hunger, a group tasked with providing “policy mendations to Congress and the USDA Secretary to more effectively use existing programs and funds of the Department of Agriculture bat domestic hunger and food insecurity.”

mission recently released a report on their findings and mendations. According to the executive summary, “ This report is based on mission members’ full agreement that hunger cannot be solved by food alone, nor by government efforts alone. The solutions to hunger require a stronger economy, munity engagement, corporate partnerships, and greater personal responsibility, as well as strong government programs.”

One of the key decisions mission had to make was an agreement on how to define hunger. They chose a readily available measure of hunger called very low food security, which occurs when eating patterns are disrupted or food intakeis reduced for at least one household member because the household lacked moneyand other resources for food.

For purposes of this report, hunger means the lack of access to food when families do not have enough money, causing them to cut the size, quality, or frequency of their meals throughout the year. We wish to be very clear that hunger in America is not the same as famine and the resulting malnutrition seen in developing countries.

By this standard, 5.6 percent of households—6 million Americans—experienced hunger in 2014, for an average of about 7 months.

mission identified 6 root causes of hunger:

Labor Market Forces and Job Availability — “The number of households experiencing hunger is sensitive to economic forces.”

Family Structure — “Marriage has a significant impact on whether or not a household will experience hunger: Households with an unmarried head of household are more likely to face hunger than other households in America.”

Education — “U.S. high school graduation rates have improved, with the national graduation rate exceeding 80% in 2012 for the first time in U.S. history; however, economic, racial, cultural, and ethnic differences remain.”

Exposure to Violence —“Research over the last 10 years has found that victims of violence, neglect, or abuse as a child or violence as an adult, are more likely to report hunger.”

Historical Context – “There are significant racial, ethnic, and gender disparities between households that report hunger and those that do not.”

Personal Responsibility — “Although we feel that our nation would make progress in reducing hunger if we made gains in each of the factors above, we also acknowledge one other key ingredient—the actions of individuals.”

mission also made mendations in six areas prise a total of 20 specific mendations to Congress and the USDA.

Make improvements to SNAP (10 mendations in threecategories: work, nutrition, and wellbeing)Make improvements to child nutrition programs(4 mendations)Improve nutrition assistance options for people who are disabled or medically at risk (2 mendations)Fund pilot programs to test the effectiveness of strategic interventions to reduce and eliminate hunger(1 mendation; 4 pilots)Incentivize and expand corporate, nonprofit, and public partnerships to address hunger in civil society(1 mendation.)Create a White House Leadership Council to End Hunger that includes participation by a broad group of government and non-government stakeholders (2 mendations).

In their conclusion, mission notes that “there is another aspect ofpersonal responsibility at work: personal responsibility extends to all. Everyone can take direct actions to reduce hunger.”

Each of us should passion for and help to our neighbors and get involved in hunger relief efforts in munities. We need more of that kind of personal responsibility, too. With it, we will end hunger in the United States.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Environmental News Roundup
Juliet Eilperin, “Bush Pollution Curbs Are Rated Equal to Clinton’s: Science Panel Says Proposed Cap-and-Trade System Will Help Clean Air,” Washington Post, July 24, 2006: The report from the National Academy of Sciences, released yesterday, represents the latest effort to assess how best to reduce air pollution estimated to cause as many as 24,000 premature deaths each year. The panel concluded that an earlier Bush plan would have allowed pollution to increase over a dozen years, but it found that...
Taking Games Seriously
An article in yesterday’s NYT, “Saving the World, One Video Game at a Time,” by Clive Thompson, gives a good overview of the current trend in the video game industry, especially by nonprofits and activist groups, to create “serious games,” a movement which “has some serious brain power behind it. It is a partnership between advocates and nonprofit groups that are searching for new ways to reach young people, and tech-savvy academics keen to explore video games’ educational potential.” “What...
Federal Funding for the Humanities
Hunter Baker, blogging at his new home on the American Spectator Blog (recently added to our blogroll), responds to a post by James G. Poulos, which emphasizes President Bush’s “proposed emphasis on math and science education, to the patent detriment of the humanities.” Says Baker, “Although I am a faithful disciple of the humanities, I often fort in the fact that the majority of students won’t have much exposure to the offerings on hand. Better they remain busy with their...
Connect the Energy Dots…
Today’s NYT editorializes: “a country that consumes one-quarter of the world’s oil supply while holding only 3 percent of the reserves will never be able to drill its way to lower oil prices, much less oil independence.” You’ll often hear plaint that Americans use more than their fair share of the world’s oil. We’re addicted to it, some say. After all, so goes the reasoning, we have less than one-half of one percent of the world’s population, but we “consume...
Original Sin
Headline: It’s a Sin to Fly, Says Church Actually, "It’s a Sin to Fly, Screams Headline" would be more appropriate. Here’s what the Church (or rather, the Bishop of London) actually says: “Making selfish choices such as flying on holiday or buying a large car are a symptom of sin. Sin is not just a restricted list of moral mistakes. It is living a life turned in on itself where people ignore the consequences of their actions.” I think there’s...
Secular Universities in Decline?
In his New York Times column this week, Peter Steinfels has an insightful analysis of an intriguing and provocative new book by C. John Sommerville, The Decline of the Secular University. Those who study the history of American academia are familiar with the story of the secularization of universities as recounted expertly by Christian scholars such as George Marsden (The Soul of the American University) and James Burtchaell (The Dying of the Light), who decry the shunting of religion from...
Beyond Black and White: New Realities of Race In America – BUMPED: Video now available
Anthony Bradley delivers his remarks last Wednesday The 2006 Acton Lecture Series continued today with Anthony Bradley’s presentation of Beyond Black and White: New Realities of Race In America. Mr. Bradley is an Acton research fellow and assistant professor of Apologetics and Systematic Theology at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri. His lecture describes the new market trends which reflect the changing demographics in America. With a decline in population amongst whites, a stagnated black population, and the ever-increasing...
More on Secularism and Universities
Just a brief note addition to Kevin’s post: the free article from May’s Touchstone magazine is Terence O. Moore’s feature, “Not Harvard Bound.” A key quote: The elite schools no mand the reverence and deference of red-state America. The parents and students of “flyover country” are starting to put their money where their morals are or where they believe truth is. There’s a discussion of Moore’s article at Touchstone‘s reader discussion site, Treaders. HT: Mere Comments ...
Potty-Mouthed President
The amount of media attention over the past week’s devoted to President Bush’s utterance of a “naughty” word has been incredible. Maureen Dowd uses it as just one more bit of proof supporting her depiction of the president as a frat-boy, who “has enshrined his immaturity and insularity, turning every environment he inhabits — no matter how decorous or serious — into fortable frat house.” She writes, “No matter what the trappings or the ceremonies require of the leader of...
Seek Dignity? Then, “You Gotta Shake Your MoneyMaker”
The Super MoneyMaker Pressure Pump No, we’re not talking about Elmore James’ Blues hit covered by the likes of George Thorogood, Fleetwood Mac and The Black Crowes nor its racy subject matter. Rather, it’s how members of the other oldest profession in Kenya and Tanzania power the irrigation pumps that extend both their growing season and range of crops. This foot-powered move beyond subsistence farming to much more profitable harvests, such as vegetables, is facilitated by the aptly named MoneyMaker series...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved