I found the Nov. 19 editorial entitled, “Food insecure should be considered this holiday” degenerately uninformative and unaware of the socio-economic complexities involved in the manifestation and exacerbation of food insecurity in the United States.
Food insecurity is a serious domestic and global crisis that affects individuals in different ways; be it physical (i.e., malnutrition) or psychological (i.e., anxiety over the obtainment of their next meal) and incorporates issues of accessibility (physical and economic), availability, nutrition and dietary preference (World Food Summit, 1996). For your editorial to suggest that, “we shouldn’t spend more money on welfare or anti-hunger initiatives such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or the National School Lunch Program” when the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that nearly 17.4 million households were “food insecure” at some time in 2009 is obscene. School lunch programs in some instances; provide a child with their only daily meal. To take away food from our most vulnerable populations would aggravate not alleviate the problem. In this time of economic crisis social safety nets are needed so that working class families will not fall further into abject poverty.
Food insecurity and poverty are interwoven and complicated issues, to suggest that giving someone your leftovers or purchasing an item of the dollar menu is highly offensive and will not solve food crisis in U.S. households.
Throwing the dog a bone or in this case the person on the side of the road a doggie bag is not the solution for solving food insecurity!
-Annette Quintero, graduate student in geography
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