Anti-hunger programs: recent research
The Government Accountability Office has analyzed the current status of food assistance programs in a recent report, “Domestic Food Assistance: Complex System Benefits Millions, but Additional Efforts Could Address Potential Inefficiency and Overlap among Smaller Programs” (GAO-10-346, April 15, 2010).
The GAO says that the prevalence of food insecurity rose to nearly 15 percent (or about 17 million households) in 2008, and that the federal government spent more than $62.5 billion on 18 different food and nutrition assistance programs that year.
Although the programs are poorly coordinated and often overlap, streamlining them is not easy and involves trade offs. The GAO recommends that USDA:
identify and develop methods for addressing potential inefficiencies among food assistance programs and reducing unnecessary overlap among the smaller programs while ensuring that those who are eligible receive the assistance they need. Approaches may include conducting a study; convening a group of experts…considering which of the lesser-studied programs need further research; or piloting proposed changes.
More research needed!
Fortunately, we have some. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has studied the question of whether food insecurity is linked to obesity. Past research suggested that it is.
Foundation researchers reviewed studies examining a possible relationship between food insecurity and obesity, and those examining links between federal nutrition assistance programs and an increased risk of obesity.
The report, “Food Insecurity and Risk for Obesity Among Children and Families: Is There a Relationship?, finds no evidence of a direct relationship between food insecurity and obesity. It also does not find a direct relationship of use of food assistance to obesity.
Food insecurity is linked to a host of physical and mental health problems and it is difficult to distinguish the effects of lack of reliable food from those due to the lack of money, education, transportation, stable housing, and health care also common among low-income households.
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Your final paragraph sums it up. Food/nutrition problems are multi-pronged and entrenched problems. It seems that only an equally multi-pronged and persistent strategy will help. Hopefully, the study period can be shortened by taking advantage of existing data. Please don’t reinvent the wheel!
Food security is an issue. Either we provide people nutrition education and healthy food or pay their medical bills. All Americans should have the right to sow, reap and eat healthy foods and right now food corporations decide what a majority of people buy and eat. The right to plough for healthier foods is more important than the right to bear arms after all agriculture precede war. Food security is home and family security.
Americans have the right to know what they are eating. Knowledge stems from education. How can we expect such a large country to make wise choices if we do not educate them on the topic of nutrition. Nutrition education, started in elementary school plants the seeds for lifelong health. Since as a country we are now consuming much more food outside of our homes, we are not as knowledge about what is in these products. Children and adults must learn how to interpret basic nutrition labels, understand healthy eating and partake in physical activity on a daily basis so that they can make smart food choices and have the background information to know why they choose what they do. Instructing our youth that a healthy lifestyle is the norm rather than the exception could be the best long-term way to curb the obesity epidemic.