Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Op-Ed: “Call Hunger in America … Hunger, Not Very Low Food Security”
Op-Ed: “Call Hunger in America … Hunger, Not Very Low Food Security”
(“My Turn: Yes, There Is Still Hunger in America,” burlingtonfreepress.com, December 21, 2006)
Just before the holiday season, the U.S. Department of Agriculture eliminated the word “hunger” from the terms used in an annual report on hunger and food insecurity statistics to Congress, write Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center, and Robert Dostis, a registered dietitian, executive director of the Vermont Campaign to End Childhood Hunger and a state representative in the Burlington Free Press, Vt. “This way of making ‘hunger’ disappear, unfortunately, does not reflect any change in the actual lives of the hungry – the seniors, parents working at low-wage jobs, disabled persons, children and others forced on a regular basis to skip meals, make the rounds of food pantries, or substitute cheap, low-quality foods for healthier foods. Now, suddenly, these people suffer only from ‘very low food insecurity,’” write Dostis and Weill. This “whitewashing” of language reflects a long-term trend in Washington of insufficient commitment to the issue of hunger and malnutrition in Vermont and nationwide. Hunger is solvable, and strengthening federal nutrition programs like food stamps, school meals, summer meals, and child and adult care meals is the best way to solve it, point out the authors. “Congress now has an opportunity to right the wrongs of a decade of turning its back on the hungry. It’s time for Congress to call hunger in America what it is: hunger, not very low food security” and to “fully support a strengthening of the Food Stamp Program in the 2007 congressional reauthorization of the Farm Bill.”
::Shelley
(“My Turn: Yes, There Is Still Hunger in America,” burlingtonfreepress.com, December 21, 2006)
Just before the holiday season, the U.S. Department of Agriculture eliminated the word “hunger” from the terms used in an annual report on hunger and food insecurity statistics to Congress, write Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center, and Robert Dostis, a registered dietitian, executive director of the Vermont Campaign to End Childhood Hunger and a state representative in the Burlington Free Press, Vt. “This way of making ‘hunger’ disappear, unfortunately, does not reflect any change in the actual lives of the hungry – the seniors, parents working at low-wage jobs, disabled persons, children and others forced on a regular basis to skip meals, make the rounds of food pantries, or substitute cheap, low-quality foods for healthier foods. Now, suddenly, these people suffer only from ‘very low food insecurity,’” write Dostis and Weill. This “whitewashing” of language reflects a long-term trend in Washington of insufficient commitment to the issue of hunger and malnutrition in Vermont and nationwide. Hunger is solvable, and strengthening federal nutrition programs like food stamps, school meals, summer meals, and child and adult care meals is the best way to solve it, point out the authors. “Congress now has an opportunity to right the wrongs of a decade of turning its back on the hungry. It’s time for Congress to call hunger in America what it is: hunger, not very low food security” and to “fully support a strengthening of the Food Stamp Program in the 2007 congressional reauthorization of the Farm Bill.”
::Shelley
