Food Insecurity

Hunger is a persuasive problem in America. In a country where nearly everyone – ninety-seven percent of the population – has a mobile phone, hunger might seem like an odd topic for discussion. But it is true. The number of Americans facing food insecurity is alarming. In fact, just last year, during the throes of the pandemic, one out of every four households in America were food insecurity. What’s also disheartening is the fact that the most serious impacts of this problem are felt by children. More than 14 million children live in food-insecure households. While that number has seen a decline in recent years, it is still higher than its peaks experienced during the Great Recession. 

According to the USDA, food insecurity can take two forms. First, food insecurity is defined as a disruption to the necessary dietary intake of food due to a lack of financial means or the lack of other resources. This might be the easiest form of insecurity for many people to recognize. Households facing challenges like unemployment or interruptions to their income often pivot their habits to make ends meet, and their spending on food, though vital, could be significantly reduced as a result. 

The second form of food insecurity is defined as a lack of quality foods in a community. In fact, for many communities across America, fresh, nutritious, and desirable foods are not readily available to households and their neighbors without both traveling good distances to acquire them. This is especially true for so many of America’s working and lower-income neighborhoods, which are described as food deserts, owing to the absence of locations to purchase these quality foods.

ASFCP understands this problem, and as an original component of our Healthy Communities First initiative, we have made addressing food insecurity one of our paramount efforts. Just last week, along Fifth Street, in Morgan City, our organization coordinated and participated in a fresh-foods giveaway that benefited more than 600 residents. (It also provided us with an opportunity to activate our youth volunteers in the service of their community.) As the photographs can attest, it was a good time, and we are always honored to do our part to help.

Our organization also knows, though, that giving out food, alone, is not an answer to a daunting problem like hunger. Indeed, giving a man a food today may not address his needs in the days to come. That is why ASFCP goes even further, to incorporate education into our efforts to address this problem. One way we have done so is by hosting events that teach urban-farming techniques to members of the public. Participants learn the skills needs to grow fresh produce in compact settings, even inside of their own homes. We help to dispel the common myths that growing requires land, and that sustainable farming can only be done by farmers. 

No one should go hungry, and no one should have to travel far for quality foods in a country as abundant as our own. The problems posed by food insecurity will take herculean resolve to finally end, for good. They will require us all to exert more effort and resources to raise up our neighbors. It is critical that we begin today. In the meantime, ASFCP will continue to do our part to lessen the pangs of hunger in the communities we serve, by donating, teaching, and advocating for change.