Hunger and the Weakness of the Social Fabric of America

As the economic crisis intensifies, weaknesses in the social fabric of the United States will be come increasingly apparent. One of these holes appears at the intersection of wealth disparity, employment, racism, physical communities, and food insecurity. An amazing panel discussion hosted by the Center for American Progress entitled “All You Can Eat? How Hungry is America in Good Times versus Recession?” took place on February 6, 2009.


The main thrust of the talk is on food programs, but speakers prodigiously bridge concerns of hypocrisy, stresses, and stigma of social support programs; health impacts of community, housing, and wealth disparities; the insensibility of focusing on downstream issues such as healthy choices and obesity; the importance of early childhood wellness; the cost savings of universalizing means-testing programs; and the true incentives of social equalization programs.

Panelists include Joel Berg, director of the NYC Coalition Against Hunger (NYCCAH) and author of All You Can Eat? How Hungry is America; Judith Bell, President of PolicyLink who studies disparities of access to food in poor and minority communities; and Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC).

Excerpt from Joel Berg on the admonitions of those who advocate changes in the food preparation habits of poor, overweight Americans:

“I remind them that we’ve lectured low-income people that they should be working, and now only 10% of the people in poverty are on public assistance in America. They are working 2, 3, 4 jobs. They don’t have nannies for their kids. And now we’re saying they should spend 5 hours to cook their beans to be responsible.”

Most importantly, the panelists discuss the real possibility of and propose solutions to eliminate hunger and disparities during this opportune time.

---

On an unrelated note, two perspectives on of the Horatio Alger Myth (or, “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps”) in the United States:

A Political Science Perspective: The Horatio Alger Myth in the American Political Mind

A Literary Perspective: Gimme A Break! Mark Twain Lampoons the Horatio Alger Myth