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Food Insecurity Essay

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Food insecurity is and has been an ongoing issue in the United States for a long time. A quote from the book Voices of Hunger in the United States describes food insecurity in the following words, “The United States is one of the world’s leading agricultural producers and is the world’s largest food exporter. And yet millions of Americans are food insecure” (Thomas 1). The author of this book continues to describe the irony of this situation and the connection between food insecurity and childhood obesity. If the United States can export and provide food to other countries, they should be able to feed their citizens, right? As it turns out, the answer is very complicated. Current food insecurity issues are not being resolved in the programs …show more content…

The first Food Stamp Program was part of the New Deal at the end of the Great Depression. In this program, people bought food stamps which allowed them to buy food. However, these food stamps were taken away as World War Two began and the economy began to thrive. It was until 1961 that President Kennedy signed an executive order for a food distribution program that again existed with food stamps but this time, people could buy more with their stamps (Thomas 2). The Food Stamp Act of 1964 set the baseline and requirements for people who would be able to receive food stamps (Thomas 4). This ensured there was no discrimination and specified which products could be bought with which stamps. Luxury food such as soft drinks, alcohol, and treats were prohibited. Next, in 1977 a bill to reform the mandate was passed to eliminate the requirement for households to purchase the program. It also eliminated restrictions for eligibility and discrimination (Thomas 4). Eventually, in 2008, this program would be renamed the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. According to the author of Voices of Food Insecurity in the United States, the name change was important. “The message is clear: Americans are not supposed to be able to eat on SNAP benefits alone.” The households are supposed to have another way to get food and feed their families because SNAP is a supplemental food program (Thomas 4). Based on the history of food insecurity in the United States, this has been an issue for over 100

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