August 6, 2002
The United States has never grown so much food. Scarcity is down, food is cheap, and enough food is produced to provide for every woman, man, and child. Yet, in the world's richest nation, more than 36 million people, including 14 million children, experience hunger. (1)
The United States Department of Agriculture (U.S.D.A.) reports that in 2000, twelve percent of all American households were "food insecure." (2) In other words, 1 in 10 households could not lead active, healthy lives because they did not have enough to eat. Of these families, 4.2 million households (8.5 million people) had to skip or reduce their meals. (3)
Who Goes Hungry in the U.S.?
Not surprisingly, those most likely to face hunger are the most vulnerable in our society: families with poverty-level incomes, single mothers and children, and the elderly.
The U.S.D.A. reports that in 2000, nearly 1 in 5 children (10 million) went hungry. (4) Almost 3 million kids endured a more severe form of hunger-they ate less or skipped meals.
Proportionally, African-American and Latino households suffered from hunger more often than the national average. Some 7.7 million African-American families and over 8 million Latino families worried about food. (5)
The greatest number of Americans going hungry were Caucasians. In 2000, over 16 million Caucasian Americans did not have enough to eat, and 4.5 million skipped meals or reduced portions.
America's Disappeared
The unprecedented economic growth of the 1990s should have lifted all boats, but studies reveal that the boom economy only lifted yachts.
In 2000, over 11 percent of the U.S. population, 34 million people lived in poverty. (6) The average person fell deeper below the poverty line that year than ever before on record. (7) Sixteen percent of all children live in poverty in the U.S. In 2000, the federal government's official poverty level for a family of four was $17,463-an egregiously inadequate amount a family needs to survive. There's no rocket science to why the number of people living in poverty parallels the number of people going hungry. Without enough money to eat, people will go hungry.
Since the late 1960s, the gulf between the haves and have-nots has been widening in America. Data from the 1990s showed that the richest 1 percent of the U.S. population owned 40 percent of the nation's wealth. The late 1990s had historic lows in unemployment levels, but the working poor in the U.S. still did not earn enough income to make ends meet. And why? The 2000 U.S. Census Bureau reveals that 50 percent of the total income earned in the U.S. went to the pocketbooks of the wealthiest 20 percent of U.S. households. (8)
Safety Net in Tatters, Charities in Crisis
And how has the U.S. government responded to growing poverty and hunger in America? With a welfare reform law that erased a vital safety net for people experiencing financial hardship. Studies have shown that even full-time working families who left welfare do not earn enough in wages to move out of poverty. (9)
Today, approximately 8.4 million people are unemployed. (10) Some 2.2 million people are still on welfare, and cash assistance expires this year. (11)
What happens when there are few jobs available and the government safety net no longer exists? President Bush thinks charities can compensate for cuts in government services, but charities today can barely meet the burgeoning needs of those seeking their help.
Second Harvest, the nation's largest network of emergency food providers, reports that in 2001, 23.3 million poor and working people across the country sought emergency food. But even working families did not earn enough to buy food: 40 percent had at least one working adult in their household. (12)
Who Needs Food?
Of the 23.3 million seeking emergency food, more than a third were children under the age of 18. Of these children, 9 percent were 5 years old and younger, and 11 percent were the elderly. Similar to national hunger statistics, the majority of people needing food were Caucasian, 35 percent African-American, and 17 percent Latino. (13)
In a survey of cities, The U.S. Conference of Mayors found that requests for emergency food assistance increased by 17 percent in 2001, but 13 percent of those seeking food had to be turned away. (14) Food banks reported that they had to either reduce bags of food or turn people away.
Leading causes of hunger was low-paying jobs, followed by unemployment, the high cost of housing, and changes in the food stamp program, according to the U.S. Conference study. Forty-five percent of clients had to choose between paying for food or utilities, 35 percent had to choose between paying for food or rent, and 30 percent had to choose between paying for food or medical care.
Health consequences
Hunger and malnutrition affect individual health, particularly that of young children. In 1996, there were 7.3 deaths per 1,000 live births, with black infants dying at double the rate of white infants. (15) Infant mortality is closely linked with malnutrition due to a lack of nutritious food. (16)
Hungry children suffer from two to four times as many individual health problems (such as fatigue, headaches, irritability, inability to concentrate, and frequent colds). Children who go to school on an empty stomach do not have the ability to learn in school because they cannot concentrate or excel on tasks they need to perform to learn the basics. This in turn leads to lost knowledge, brainpower, and productivity for our nation today and in the future. Hunger afflicts not only poor children and their families-it threatens the future of the U.S.
To End Hunger in the U.S., We Should Subscribe to Universal Standards of Minimal Human Rights
When we think of "human rights" in the U.S., we often think of protecting individual rights. But we may be the only country in the world that blames the individual for being too poor to eat. It is time to address the core problems of hunger and poverty, instead of denying the existence of political solutions to economic injustice. Over the past thirty years, we have, as a nation, tolerated wider income disparities and deeper levels of hunger and poverty than any other developed nation. For our children's sake, this must stop.
Over 50 years ago, world governments, led by the U.S., signed onto the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) committing to guaranteeing a full range of human rights, including economic rights, to ensure a base minimum to lead a life with dignity. The following passage from the UDHR speaks to why this is the most visionary statement of common goals toward which all nations strive:
Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing, medical care, and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age, or other lack of livelihood circumstances beyond his control-Article 25
In 1977, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter signed the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), a global treaty that would hold governments accountable to uphold these inalienable human rights. Its twin agreement, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, was also signed by Carter and later ratified by the U.S. Senate in 1992.
The ICESCR, ratified by 145 nations, is by far the most comprehensive human rights treaty addressing economic and social rights. Today, the ICESCR awaits Senate ratification, which is pivotal in ensuring that the U.S. government fulfills its obligations to honor the economic and social rights of all Americans.
Right now, the millionaires in the Senate decide who gets to eat in the U.S. We can be a nation that allows our children to skip meals, or we can be a nation that prides itself on ensuring that everyone, regardless of their lot in life, has the right to be free from hunger.
Hunger is a measuring stick to judge the extent to which societies meet the needs of their people. With 36 million suffering from hunger, the U.S. is failing on its commitments to upholding the universal human rights of Americans.
Let's be consistent in our support of human rights by supporting the most basic human right of all here at home. In the wealthiest nation in the world, it's a shame 36 million Americans go hungry.
Take action now by joining this important human rights campaign to press for Senate ratification of the ICESCR. Rights don't come on a silver platter. Only when we stand for our rights can they become realized.
Join the movement for economic and social human rights in the U.S.! Visit our website at
www.foodfirst.org/progs/humanrts/index.html for information on the ICESCR and how to pass a human rights resolution in your city. Or send us an email at foodfirst@foodfirst.org or a letter to The Institute for Food and Development Policy, 638 60th Street, Oakland, CA 94610. Let's raise our voices together to let our policymakers know that American Needs Human Rights Now!
