hunger in the united states

Help end hunger in the United States by donating some of your backyard garden produce to a local food bank.

With one simple harvest, backyard gardeners can solve hunger, obesity, and global warming.

RODALE NEWS, EMMUAS, PA—Today is World Food Day, a day sponsored by the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization that's meant to draw attention to hunger and food insecurity around the world.

THE DETAILS: Every day, 1 billion people around the world—15 percent of the world's population—go hungry, and 18,000 children die each day from hunger. But hunger in the United States is also dire. Eleven percent of the U.S. population and 17 percent of all American children live in households considered food-insecure, which the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) defines as "limited or uncertain access to adequate food." Food insecurity is particularly prevalent in households of single women with children, which make up 30 percent of all the food-insecure. Hunger falls into the category of "very low food security," which includes 4 percent of the population and, again, is highest in households of single women with children.

All of this occurs in a country where 32 percent of all adults and 15 percent of children under 11 years old are overweight or obese. Ironically, food insecurity and obesity may go hand in hand. The nonprofit Food Research and Action Center, which works to improve public policies related to hunger, says that food insecurity also encompasses people who skip meals or cut back on the quality or quantity of food they purchase at the stores—essentially, people who live in "food deserts" and have to opt for cheap, processed foods over more expensive, healthier fresh produce. There aren't any statistics on the number of people considered "food-insecure" who are also obese, but all 10 states with the highest rates of food insecurity—Mississippi, New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, Maine, South Carolina, Georgia, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri—also have obesity prevalence rates greater than 25 percent, according to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.