The Importance Of Living In Poverty

Populations living in poverty are more vulnerable and therefore at greater risk of heath detriments. Poverty and poor heath are linked due to many factors including: money, having to make difficult decisions just to make ends meet i.e.: food over a doctor’s visit, car repair over food, and poor access to healthcare. My experience on Spent, (SPENT, n.d.), served to remind me, how fragile our lives really are. I did this exercise three times, each with a different job, each time making different decisions. I made it fourteen, nineteen and fifteen days before running out of money. Difficult decisions I had to make included: not attending a relatives funeral, not having money to help pay for my mom’s medications, having to put my dog down because I couldn’t afford vet costs and not having the money to afford the foods I want my children to have. Looking back on my early twenty’s I experienced some similar challenges. Living paycheck to paycheck, eating popcorn and mac and cheese and working several jobs to make ends meet. But I was young and was only responsible for myself, while attending school and hopefully working toward a more stable lifestyle. Many of us at that time were experiencing similar challenges, so we helped each other out when we could. However, if I found myself in a

In 2016, approximately 12.3% of US households identified as food insecure at one point during the year. Families with low food security (7.4%) met their food needs by reducing intake, changing diet, using food shelves or participating in assistance programs. Families with very low food security (4.9%) have had to alter their eating patterns, food intake has had to be reduced. Populations at risk for food insecurity include: children, families with single heads of households, Black and Hispanic households, Families living below the poverty line as defined by the Federal Government, households in metropolitan areas and households located in the South, (Overview,