HUNGRY

Diaspora USA

AMERICA
The recession is taking a heavy toll on the US, with over 35 million
people finding it difficult to put food on the table. Even as the country
spends billions on the Pentagon’s silver bullets, the number of
Americans going hungry, sometimes for days, is rising

by Rakesh K. Simha

50 INDIA EMPIRE March 2009

 CASE STUDY
Name: Gloria Muniz
State: New York
Dependents: 10

Can’t work because

she has to care for

S
small children. Relies
on social security and
food stamps. After all
bills are paid, she has
$20 left each month to
spend on food and
other essentials for her
children.

herry Byrum, 48, works full time at a day care centre recent crises have been truly life altering for
in Spokane Valley, Washington, earning about $9 an Americans, with one in eight people struggling
hour. She and her husband live in a 30-year old mobile with hunger.
home and get groceries at a local food bank. Sometimes These are official figures and experts say
the couple goes several days without eating. “We’ve got the numbers could be higher. “The numbers

[ ]
to pay our bills,” Byrum says. “I can’t buy us the things have been provided by the US Department of
we should eat because of our diabetes. There are some Agriculture,” says Ross Fraser of Feeding
times I go to bed in tears thinking I just can’t do it all.” America, the nation's leading domestic hunger-
Wyoming resident Mary sets out from her home relief charity that provides food assistance to
everyday to collect discarded wooden pallets. Despite more than 25 million low-income people fac-
debilitating pain from spinal arthritis, she then uses an ing hunger in the US.
axe to chop them into firewood. Like many senior citi- Over the years, the number of people
zens across the country, Mary’s social security payments showing up hungry at food pantries and soup
do not cover her medical expenses, or her household and kitchens in the US has surged, with more than
fuel expenses. She visits a thousand operating
the Salvation Army Food
Pantry in Casper for a
WHO ARE THE HUNGRY? in New York alone.
Requests are so high
food box. 40% are white that some food centres
Gloria Muniz, 45, 38% are African American nationwide are turning
from New York, is a sin- away the hungry.
gle mother struggling to
17% are Hispanic What makes the
provide for her eight chil- 5% are American Indian, Alaskan demand so striking is
dren and two nephews, all not only the sudden-
under the age of 16. Unable to work, Muniz relies on ness but also the demographic that is seeking
social security, public assistance and food stamps to get help. For instance, most of the newcomers that
by. After all the bills are paid, she has about $20 left show up at Feeding America’s centres have
in her purse each month to spend on food and other been employed and have managed to survive
essentials such as school supplies for her children. “But dips in the job market. Many of them are cou-
they don’t last me very long, says Muniz.” The upshot: ples and single parents who had managed with-
the family often goes hungry. out handouts.
Hunger is a significant problem, according
Like the unfortunate families mentioned to annual reports issued by the United States
above, there are over 35 million Americans — Department of Agriculture. Around 11 per cent
nearly as many as live in California — who of people live in households where they may
don’t know where their next meal will come not have enough money to put adequate food
from. Job losses, home foreclosures, and other on the table – that’s 35.5 million Americans.

INDIA EMPIRE March 2009

39
 CASE STUDY
Name: Mary
State: Wyoming
Dependents: None

Suffers from spinal

arthritis and dia-
betes. Social security
not enough to pay
for medical, house-
hold and fuel
expenses. Salvation
Army gives her sta-
ples like rice, beans,
milk and flour.

Among them are 11 million who say their sit- Deaths caused by malnutrition and plain
uation is so grim they sometimes don’t eat for an hunger are passed off by hospitals and coroners
entire day because they can’t afford to. Worse, as “natural causes” or “failure of bodily organs”.
hunger is an everyday reality for 12 million Also, the US has been loath to admit to such
American children. gaping holes in its socio-economic fabric. As

[ ]
“We soon will have the most food stamps many 7.3 million Americans reportedly died of
recipients in the history of our country,” says Jim starvation during the Great Depression, a fact
Weill, president of the Food Research and Action that lies buried in US census data, but which the
Center. All across the country, from LA to government has airbrushed out of official
Detroit to New York, it seems the soup kitchen records. Here is what a child wrote during those
lines getting longer. "Right now they are really years: “We changed our usual food for something
fighting for their lives," says global economic ana- more available. We used to eat bush leaves instead
lyst Alan Bragman. of cabbage. We ate frogs too. My mother and my
A recent USDA report says more than a third older sister died in a year.”
of these households "had very low food securi- Americans aren’t that desperate yet, but things
ty—meaning that the could worsen. The esti-
food intake of one or QUICK FACTS mates are for the period
more adults was reduced before the recession
and their eating patterns 43,544,867,520 kilos of food kicked in. With millions
were disrupted at times wasted annually in the US more having lost their
during the year because $350mn is the price of one F-22 livelihood since then, the
the household lacked number of the hungry
money and other
12 mn is the number of American and starving is likely to be
resources for food". children facing hunger every day higher. The latest figures
So why does a coun- do not include the esti-
try that spends more on its military than the next mated 750,000 Americans who are homeless on
11 nations combined, have so many people in any given day. That’s not counting people living
such dire straits? How can so many starve in a under bridges—in Miami, for instance, criminals
country that spends $350 million each on 185 F- live under a highway with the state’s grudging
22 stealth fighters? approval because an ordinance intended to keep
According to a USDA official, hunger is very predators away makes it nearly impossible for
much a hidden problem. "When you walk by peo- them to find housing.
ple who may be hungry, it's not necessarily evi- The scary part is that as food prices spiral out
dent they're hungry. "This is something that low- of control, Americans are not just competing
income people don't talk about a great deal." with each other for food and resources. In the
Worse, the US government does not want to midst of an economic downturn, keeping in step
talk about this nagging problem. What most peo- with a billion Indians and a billion Chinese in the
ple would describe as going hungry, the USDA global marketplace is going to be an extremely
couches it in the euphemism “food insecure.” tall order. ❐

38 INDIA EMPIRE October 2007