Hunger problem challenges U.S.

This week, Congress considers new food stamp rules that would allow people to receive more aid.

from the December 11, 2007 edition

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Surveys among school nutritionists in Appalachia show that, in some districts, children come to school in the fall weighing 10 percent less than they did when they left school for the summer. "These aren't small groups of people going hungry. These are big groups of people," says Christine Olson, a human ecology professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.

The varied reasons of those who admit to going hungry are difficult to package neatly into a lobbying call.

David Gilman, an out-of-work auto mechanic plucking a half-empty can of cat food out of a garbage can near downtown Atlanta, says he's gone hungry "many times" in the past 15 years. What does hunger feel like? "It's like when you're sent to bed without dinner as a kid if you misbehaved," says Mr. Gilman, who says he struggles with drug addiction.

New research also shows that food deprivation has a powerful psychological impact – a key reason why poorer Americans are more often overweight than wealthier ones. Those who don't always know where their next meal is coming from tend to eat cheaper, more calorie-dense, and less nutritious foods when they do have a meal in front of them, according to recent surveys by Cornell University.

But some analysts disagree. "Whether it's the elderly or families with young kids, people in trouble in this country, they get taken care of, and they're not just left to starve in the street," says Lew Rockwell, president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, a libertarian think tank in Auburn, Ala.

Some states, however, are seeking to educate others and help solve the problem. In Rhode Island, advocates play "Food Stamp Bingo" with groups of elderly to break down the stigma around the program, and in Georgia, a "Hunger 101" curriculum published by a local food bank uses the board game "Feast or Famine" to engage young people. Illinois is using church members, not bureaucrats, to sign people up for food stamps. In upstate New York, the United Way plans to hand out backpacks stuffed with food to students who aren't getting enough to eat at home.

Such efforts, some experts say, indicate that the hunger problem is spreading into middle-class America.

"The nature of the people that we are feeding through our food banks is changing dramatically," says Bill Bolling, CEO of the Atlanta Community Food Bank. "The majority of people who are coming and asking for food are working. They have a job, and that's not the image most people have of the hungry."

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