Food Insecurity In The United States

This trend of schools providing more meals for students positively impacts children on many levels. With 51% of students coming from low income families and 32% of students living in poverty (Bello), food scarcity is a major issue across the nation. However, this issue has built more awareness building into the 2000s. While children living in food insufficiency are living their lives hungry, and their health and education are greatly impacted. Therefore schools are beginning to provide more meals for students, creating a food haven, in order to improve the general brain development, academic performance, and sociological behaviors of children. Children living in food insufficiency conditions do not receive the proper nutrition necessary

As stated in an article by Drew Desilver on the Pew Research Center, the United States ranks in the middle of the pack in regards to math, reading and science scores (2). This trend between academic performance and awareness in regards to food insecurity creates an alarming connection. As a developed country, the United States offers public education to all children and has federal law to regulate the education system, meaning that the institutions should provide students with a solid foundation of knowledge. With this said, the underlying issue involves the conditions outside of the education system, such as the rising epidemic of food insecurity. Therefore, the government and schools should be more apt to take action to increase not only the amount of food children receive, but also the educational potential for

Again, this food scarcity creates issues including brain underdevelopment, weak academic performance, and poor social behaviors. As a brief recap, the following chart summarizes the impact that food scarcity has on children in age groups six to eleven and twelve to sixteen both academically and socially (Alaimo, Olson, Frongillo). Under the academic outcomes sections, arithmetic mean scores show that the 6-11 age category, children living in food insufficient conditions received a 7.1 compared to the children living in food sufficient conditions who received an 8.7 (Alaimo, Olson, Frongillo). This trend is consistent throughout the academic section of the chart. Additionally, on the social side, 76.8% of students living in food sufficient conditions have no difficulty getting along with others, compared to the 59.8% of students in food insufficient conditions (Alaimo, Olson, Frongillo). This chart stresses the impact that food scarcity has on children, and why schools are working toward a solution to combat the problem. With the awareness for the problem of food scarcity on the rise in the twenty-first century, schools are working to become a food haven to provide where lower income families are unable