We hear a lot about people going hungry, and often images of people who are thin and frail from having nothing to eat for days at a time come to mind. But what about the people who have food most of the time, but what they do have is unhealthy and does not give them the nutrients they need to be healthy? Or what about the people who have access to a grocery store, but can only afford the cheap, processed, empty calories? These may not be the people we picture when we hear about hunger, but they are suffering from what we call food insecurity, which is essentially another term for this less visible hunger.
Food insecurity is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as “the state of being without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food.'' This means that while food may be available, it is often too expensive to purchase items with nutritional value or that the food available lacks nutrients to begin with. Food insecure people are often living in what we call “food deserts” which are places where there is low supermarket access to get fresh fruits and vegetables and the food that is available is often fast-food restaurants and convenience stores offering cheap, calorie dense, and nutrient poor food. A lot of this also has to do with transportation issues, such as people not having a car to be able to travel far to get to a supermarket, leaving them with very few options.
Low socioeconomic status (SES) is often a major factor contributing to food insecurity. When people are not making a lot of money, they have to make the little money that they do have stretch, and often this budget does not allow for fruit and vegetable purchases to occur. Unfortunately, healthy foods tend to be much more expensive, while foods containing a lot of sugar and fat are cheap to produce, sell, and purchase. This leads to a vicious cycle of poor nutrition and health for low-income people, which leads to more chronic diseases. These may cause a person to have to take time off work and also may drive up their medical bills, keeping them in poverty and not allowing them a way out of this cycle.
While this information may sound grim, there are some ways we can work to reduce this problem. First, we need to work together to push for more supermarkets in low-income areas. We also need to educate more people on this topic so that it becomes a bigger conversation and gets people invested in the issue. Lastly, for people at UMass struggling with food insecurity, UMass has a student food pantry located in Bartlett Hall. If you are struggling, please don’t be afraid to reach out for help. If you are willing and able to, please consider donating to this pantry to help your fellow UMass students in need. For more information, please visit the UMass Student Food Pantry Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/umassstudentfoodpantry/
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