Alabama has deserts — not the dry, sandy kind found out West, but a more troubling kind. Alabama is home to food deserts.
These deserts occur in Alabama’s poorest areas, like parts of Perry County, where many people can’t afford to buy high-quality, nutritious food. As a result, grocery stores choose not to locate there. The end result is that nutritious food is unavailable, creating a food desert.
These food deserts are found in poor areas throughout the United States. And they are just one of the hunger issues facing the United States today, said Todd Post, editor of the Bread for the World Institute annual hunger report.
The greatest problem of America’s poor is food insecurity, Post said. Though they’re not constantly hungry, some poor Americans don’t have consistent access to adequate food. This food insecurity often plagues working families who must choose between paying bills and buying food.
“You can’t really negotiate your rent; you can’t negotiate the price of gas,” Post said. “But you can make decisions about how much food you have to eat during the month. So your food budget is often the first thing that you compromise on.”
Auburn University’s Claire Zizza agrees.
“As you become more food insecure, you may eat less meals,” said Zizza, assistant professor in the department of nutrition and food sciences at Auburn. When people who are food insecure do eat, they eat larger meals and they snack more often, she noted.
People receiving government assistance through food stamps often struggle with food insecurity. Each month’s food stamps provide enough purchasing power to spend about $1 per meal — a virtually impossible budget. So around halfway through the month, the stamps are gone, and families face the rest of the month without enough food.
According to the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC), 50 percent of Alabamians eligible for food stamps participated in the program — 546,684 — in 2006. The average monthly benefit per person was $90.50.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported that 35.1 million people lived in households considered food insecure in 2005. FRAC reported that 12.3 percent of Alabama households were considered food insecure for the period 2003–2005.
Hunger also manifests itself in unexpected ways in the United States, Post added. “There’s a connection between obesity and hunger that people don’t realize,” he said.
Zizza, who has done extensive research on obesity and Americans’ dietary patterns, said it seems paradoxical, but research is proving the connection to be true. “It is very much an economic issue,” she said. “It has to do with what types of food they have access to.”
When people can’t afford nutritious food, they often buy cheaper, more filling food that also is less nutritious, Post noted. And in food deserts with no grocery stores, people must buy staple foods from convenience stores, which often offer few nutritious choices. As a result, their diets are unbalanced — leading to nutritional deficiencies and, often, obesity and its accompanying issues like Type 2 diabetes.
This is true in Perry County.
“It’s one of the poorest counties in the country and it’s persistently poor; it’s been poor for decades,” Post said. “Not surprisingly, they do have health disparities, and one of those is diabetes.”
Around 25 percent of Perry County’s citizens have the disease, he said. Recently the county lost its only hospital, leaving its citizens to struggle with diabetes and other nutrition-related health problems.
Food insecurity is greatest in the Delta region of the South, the Rio Grande Valley, the Appalachia region, and some parts of the Great Plains. Immigrants and minorities are among the hardest hit.
But children are of the greatest concern when it comes to hunger in the United States, Post said.
“Bad nutrition at an early age can have permanent affects on people so it’s really important to make sure the youngest people of all get good nutrition,” he said.
When children lack proper nutrition, they can become physically and mentally stunted.
Still, the news isn’t all bad. Government-created programs like food stamps and WIC (Women, Infants, and Children), for low-income mothers and children, have reduced severe hunger, said Post.
And the U.S. House version of the 2007 Farm Bill (see page 5) would increase the standard food stamp allotment from $134 a month to $145 a month. It would also remove the limits on dependent-care expense deductions.
Food banks, a phenomenon of the last few decades, also supply a well-organized emergency food network.
“We have over 200 food banks around the country and they provide food to thousands of food pantries and soup kitchens,” Post said. “A lot of these pantries are run in church basements and kitchens. It would be kind of frightening to think what it would be like without them.”
Much work remains, though, to eliminate America’s food insecurity and hunger. Long-term solutions will come through economic development and reducing poverty, the root cause of hunger, Post said. Addressing poverty means offering better schools, better opportunities and better jobs.
Post believes people can make the biggest difference at the political level. On a local level, Post suggests that Christians work at food pantries, participate in walks that fight hunger or volunteer at shelters.
Education important
Zizza added that education will make a difference. “There’s not just one way to solve this,” she said. “We need to address it in many different [ways]. … Research proves that the more education one has, the more healthy the diet.”
Another important thing a Christian can do is to get to know people who are hungry, Post said. “There’s a stereotype that people who are hungry are basically living on the street, but that’s not entirely true,” he said. “Where you find cases of hunger hidden is in working families — people who are struggling to get by because the cost of living is very high. So it’s good for people to go out and actually meet folks.
“What you find is they’re not a whole lot different than you.”
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