The meaning of hunger for some who dont know

a. A strong desire or need for food.

b. The discomfort, weakness, or pain caused by a prolonged lack of food.

2. A strong desire or craving

Hunger and Poverty among Latinos

Hunger and poverty rates among Latinos are higher than in the general population. More than one in four Latino households—26.9 percent—struggles to put food on the table, compared to 14.6 percent of all households. Similarly, one in four Latinos lives in poverty, compared to one in seven for the overall population. In the United States, 15.8 percent of the population, Or 48.4 million people identify as Latino. As expected, increased rates of hunger and Poverty correlate with decreased economic opportunity in the Latino community. But race, hunger, and poverty also correlate with social factors such as education and family structure, weaving a web of roadblocks and reduced outcomes that reinforce racial disparity in the United States. This analysis highlights how increased rates of hunger and poverty affect Latinos’ economic, health, educational, and family lives.

How to End Hunger in the U.S.

We live in the world's wealthiest nation. Yet 14.6 percent of U.S. households—more than 49 million Americans, including 16.7 million children—struggle to put food on the table. The fastest, most direct way to reduce hunger is through the national nutrition programs. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP (formerly food stamps), is the country's first line of defense against hunger.School lunch and breakfast programs provide free- and reduced-price meals to millions of low-income children so they can focus on learning.

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) provides nutritious food packages to low-income pregnant and nursing womena nd young children so our country's most vulnerable infants and toddlers get the nutrients they need for healthy development.

Our national nutrition programs protect millions of American families from hunger. By strengthening existing programs, we could do much more to reduce Hunger in the U.S.

Causes of Hunger in the U.S.

In the United States, hunger is not caused by a scarcity of food. There is more than enough food to feed everyone. We have the infrastructure to deliver it. There is a network of interstate highways and a trucking industry ready to move mountains of food daily wherever it needs to go. The supermarket store shelves are stocked to the ceiling. But none of this matters if customers have no money in their pockets. Poverty spoils every meal.

Poverty in the United States has been measured for decades; measuring hunger, or what the U.S. government is more comfortable calling food insecurity, is a more recent phenomenon. Once annual food insecurity data was collected, beginning in 1995, it became clear that the ups and downs in food insecurity line up closely with the changes in poverty. The United States has done a much better job fighting hunger than it has poverty. Hunger is a simpler issue in some ways. The Food Stamp Program, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), the National School Lunch Program, and 12 other nutrition programs run by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA) serve millions of U.S. residents every day. All of these resources are needed, and when government programs are not enough, there is also a robust network of emergency food providers to fill the gaps.

The ancient Chinese maxim still rings true: Feed a man a fish and he eats for a day—teach him to fish and he eats for a lifetime. Families become hunger-free when they can provide for themselves. The solution is simple: jobs that pay enough for a family to live on

Effects of Poverty on Health

Around one-third of the total number of deaths in the world - which roughly amounts to 18 million people every year, are attributed to the diseases of poverty. This and other such facts about poverty highlight the relationship between poverty and poor health very well. A newly coined term, the 'diseases of poverty' refers to various diseases which are more likely to affect poor people as compared to their affluent counterparts. It also encompasses those diseases which can result in poverty for people. Some of the most prominent examples of diseases which are more likely to affect people below the poverty line include AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, measles, pneumonia etc. Most of these diseases are attributed to lack of basic health care facilities. On the other hand, those diseases which can result in poverty for the individual include a range of mental illnesses which tend to hinder the ability of a person to work.

Effects of Poverty on Education

I thought came to mind about the effects of poverty on education because while those children are living in absolute poverty cannot afford basic education, those in relative poverty are forced to dropout half way into their elementary or middle schooling. There may be many reasons for dropout, ranging from inability to pay fees for further education to shouldering family responsibilities. The relationship between poverty and education also works the other way round, with lack of education being one of the most important causes of poverty in the world. In the United States itself, the average income for a high school dropout is far less as compared to the same for a graduate. The effects of poverty on child development are also seen in the classroom, most often in form of low self-esteem. The fact that children from well-to-do families dress better or have more resources can result in a feeling of inferiority in children living in poverty, which may eventually cause the child to withdraw from the learning environment and indulge in anti-social behavior - thus making poverty one of the most serious social issues we are facing today.

If you are of the opinion that these effects of poverty are only restricted to the developing or under developed nations of the world, the compilation of statistics on effects of poverty in America has a totally different tale to tell. For instance, the statistics on homelessness in America puts the figure of homeless people in the country to somewhere between 700,000 to 2 million. That isn't quite surprising if you take into consideration the fact that the rate of poverty in the United States increased from 13.2 percent to 15 percent between 2008 and 2009. Going by the current trends (and rise in the causes of poverty,) it wouldn't be surprising to see these numbers soar in near future. That being said, the need of this hour is to concentrate on identifying the solutions for poverty related problems and implementing them.

The Causes of poverty

While the term 'poverty' may conjure images of destitute people living in deplorable conditions, this very term assumes a new dimension when we speak of proverty in the United States of America. Indeed, there are many impoverished people who have to live in a deprived state, but majority of these 39 million people could have passed as 'well off' about 30 years ago. However, the definition of 'poor' primarily revolves around the purchasing power of an individual. It may not be always related to fulfillment of basic needs such as food, clothing and shelter. In that context, one has to consider the purchasing power of an individual with respect to that of average population. In that case, these 39 million people are deprived of many material, social and welfare needs which majority of the population enjoys.

Just as the definition of poverty changes as per the context, the causes of poverty also differ in that sense. While population explosion, lack of infrastructure, corruption, natural disasters, political instability, war are some causes of poverty in the third world countries, proverty in America is influenced by far different causes. Given below are some factors which contribute to poverty in America.


Working Poor Facts

• Female-headed households were more than twice as likely to be among the working poor as male-headed households in 2008.
• Among families with at least one member working at least half a year, families with children were 4 times more likely than families without children to live in poverty in 2008.iii
• According to a survey on hunger and homelessness conducted by the United States Conference of Mayors, 88.5% of cities participating in the survey cited unemployment as one of three major causes of hunger in their city.
• Thirty-nine percent of all adults served by Feeding America have completed high school or equivalent degree with no further education beyond high school. ii
• 34 percent of all households served by Feeding America have had to choose between paying for food and paying for medicine or medical care. ii
• Sixty-five percent of working families that received SNAP were single-parent families

why is poverty up? And should it be a wake up call?

I don’t know about you but I'm tired of talking about poverty. I'm tired of talking about how black folks fare worse on every measure of wellbeing. I'm tired of talking about how many are unemployed, how many don't go to college, how many are failing in school and how many children live in single-parent homes.

But its other week another entity releases yet another report that quantifies the plight of black America. Today, the U.S. Census Bureau released its annual poverty data. Not surprisingly, given the nation's economic condition and the lack of jobs, the report reveals poverty has increased. Overall, the poverty rate rose to 15.1 percent. Among blacks, 27.4 percent now live in poverty. Median household income fell by 2.3 percent to $49,445. For blacks, the drop was even more precipitous, falling from $33,122, to $32,068, a 3.2 percent decrease. This means that more families are trying to make ends meet with fewer and fewer resources.

The most difficult statistics for me to swallow are about young black Americans, the future of our community. According to the Census, there are 2.5 million black homes where the householder is under the age of 30, 63 percent of which (1.56 million) are heads of young black families.

Forty-five percent of these young black families earn less than $20,000 per year, which is just slightly below the federal poverty line for a family of four. A startling 76 percent are low income -- earning less than $45,000 per year to support themselves and their families.

Youth is supposed to be about promise and possibility -- a time for figuring out what you want to be, establishing a career path, and charting a course for your future. When I was in my early 20s, I saw the world as a stage before me, and I was confident I could play any part, sing any line. But far too many black youth don't have access to opportunities that enable them to have the outlook I had 15 years ago.

So we know the extent of the problem. Actually, we've known the extent of the problem for quite some time. But we are sorely lacking in adequate solutions. Failed schools are part of the reason that young blacks aren't equipped with the tools they need to start adulthood on equal footing. Yet Congress has failed to reform the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to fix problem schools.

More than half of young black males fail to complete high school on time, thereby limiting their prospects for employment and significant income. Yet we are hard pressed to move Congress or the Obama administration to fund comprehensive dropout recovery initiatives. Employment rates for all Americans are troubling and particularly dreadful for black young adults and those with limited education.

But the responses to this employment crisis so far have been tepid and have not made a dent in the jobs problem in communities of color. The president's jobs proposal, the American Jobs Act, does take bold and timely steps to address youth and young adult unemployment by building on what we know works. But the devil, they say, is in the details. So we have to hope that this bill will actually become law.

The increasing number of blacks falling into poverty and out of the middle class means we are not only failing to make progress, we are going backward.

If we want future generations to be better off, we must stop bemoaning the problems of black America in the media, in lengthy research documents, in barber shops, the church parking lot and around the kitchen table. We must be about solutions and press for real change.

The same energy and determination that abolished Jim Crow is the same energy that must be applied to putting pressure on Congress, the Obama administration, state and local leadership to create meaningful policy changes that have a direct, immediate benefit on the lives of black people in America.

Millions of all races are now struggling because they don't make adequate income to support themselves or their families. Increasing poverty indicates opportunities are fewer and farther between or simply do not exist. We need a more fair and just society that allows all people to thrive. But that will only happen if we organize, become a voice in the policy making process, and demand change.

Work cited

http://www.thegrio.com/money/why-new-poverty-numbers-should-be-a-wake-up-call.php