Food Pantries Offering Nutrition Classes, Fighting The Fast Food Diet

Children are going hungry in America. It's becoming irrefutable based on recent studies by government agencies and anti-hunger groups. These groups estimate that 3.5 million children under the age of five are "food insecure" at some point during a given year.

The trouble in tackling this problem is another irrefutable fact. Our children are obese. As NPR's recent series on child hunger in America described, a family living on $600 in food stamps a month often has no choice but to choose a cheap source of calories like McDonald's over fresh fruits and vegetables.

"A gallon of milk is $3-something. A bottle of orange soda is 89 cents," [food pantry manager Elaine Livas] says. "Do the math."

Livas says low-income families might know milk is better for their kids, but when it comes to filling a hungry stomach, a cheaper high-calorie option can look pretty good.

To counteract this trend, many food pantries, including Livas' Project SHARE, is providing nutrition classes in addition to quality meals.

The problem is, as always, funding. The Obama administration has asked for another billion dollars to make changes to school lunches and subsidize meals, but as NPR explains, there are those who oppose these measures and don't fully understand why hunger can often equal obesity, as evidenced by this quote from Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-LA):

"I have no doubt there are kids that go to school hungry," he said. "But I have to admit, every time I hear that we have an obesity problem and everybody's going hungry, how do you reconcile the two?"

Despite being told that less money for food usually influences poor nutritional choices, Cassidy explained that he didn't quite follow the reasoning.

Project SHARE and other food pantries are making efforts to do more than simply provide food at their locations, and children are the focus. Project SHARE provides cooking classes for children, and volunteers pick fresh produce from local farms every week.

The Food Bank of Central Louisiana has spent the summer preparing backpacks of food to send with children to school on Fridays at the beginning of the school year.

TheTownTalk.com reports:

Many participating schools have a high percent of free-and-reduce meal plans, which means students qualify because they are experiencing significant poverty. In Central Louisiana, more than 41,047 children are eligible for free and reduced meals, according to The Food Bank.

Though many of the backpacks are prepared in advance, they're mostly filled with healthy snacks such as nuts and canned fruit.

The following video from TED.com shares Ellen Gustafson's view on how obesity and hunger are linked internationally, and what we can do to change this trend. Gustafson is the co-creator of FEED bags, which use money to feed hungry kids around the world for one year per donation.

WATCH:

Comments

[riversideliberal]

02:40 PM on 07/26/2010

Imagine yourself without running water, pots and pans, spices and spoons, an oven and stove, and a refrigerator and tupperware.

Then imagine feeding your family healthy and affordable meals day after day.

[riversideliberal]

02:24 PM on 07/26/2010

Cheap food is fattening.

I volunteer at a soup kitchen, and we have to stretch a dollar pretty far. We mix diced ham into potatoes au gratin. We serve hot dogs and beans. We make mac and cheese with huge cans of industrial-strength cheese. The salad is bags of iceberg lettuce. Dessert is day-old muffins from Costco.

We do what we can with limited funds and a growing population of hungry families.

And yes, the hungry and homeless are not thin. Their diet makes them fat and depressed, and their depression makes them crave junk food. And not having access to a kitchen or refrigeration means they can't save money, can't make a stew and re-heat it all week, can't even buy mayo and tuna and whole-wheat bread and milk. They are forced to hit fast food restaurants and day-old bread outlets.

Diets low in protein don't let the body make enough serotonin. The diet of poverty is a diet of depression and passivity, a self-perpetuating system.

We're killing ourselves, and we're poisoning the poor.

[Laughlines]

08:54 PM on 07/25/2010

How about a little personal/parental responsibility. I wouldn't blame the government for my bad eating habits any more than I would blame them for my lack of exercise. Soda may be cheaper than milk but water is free (lots of health experts believe milk, with all it's hormones, is bad for us anyway) ... so is going for a walk around the block. Portion control and genetics also play a part in obesity.

Bravo to the food pantries for teaching people how to take responsibility for their own eating habits!!

[dshare]

10:48 AM on 07/24/2010

We live in a society that protects profits over the health of their citizens. One potential solution in the right direction would be to make processed food just as expensive as organic healthy food by raising the taxes on these purchased items and subsidize the healthy organic foods with it. If this happens, I would say we are back on track in how society values humanity where right is right and wrong is wrong.

[heroine addict]

10:44 AM on 07/24/2010

I'd prefer "working-class" to "lower class"....

[angrymanspokane]

03:12 PM on 07/23/2010

People don't get fast food because it's cheap, they get it because they're lazy. Buying and preparing basic, healthy food is not more expensive than junk food, but it takes time and effort. It's much easier to waddle up to the the BK and let someone else do the work.

[Laughlines]

08:36 PM on 07/25/2010

This is true at home and in school. Schools serve cheap, easy, processed foods, for breakfast and lunch, to children all across our country. French fries are considered a serving of vegetables. It's a national disgrace.

[kondo85]

01:06 PM on 07/26/2010

I agree with this to an extent (I'm all for the "slow food" movement). In food deserts in metropolitan areas, however, produce can get ridiculously expensive. Thankfully, where I live now, our local CSA ships produce into areas of the city that normally wouldn't have cheap access to fresh produce. I'd suggest that the expansion of such programs and people becoming more willing to make their own food would improve the health-quality of what people eat dramatically.

[Biendiosa]

02:12 PM on 07/23/2010

Here in New Mexico, we have the dubious distinction of being one of the states with the highest rate of 'Food insecurity'. I volunteer twice a month with food distributions and we have never gotten junk food: it's usually veggies, fruits, whole grain breads and meats. Thanks to all the people who support our source, Road Runner, we help families stretch their food budget so that they can eat every day of the month, and eat well.

[sj user1]

10:36 AM on 07/23/2010

When people are starving they have no choice but to take handouts or turn to crime. No amount of guns will be enough to protect the haves from the havenots who just want to feed their children.

[Unshriven]

12:38 PM on 07/22/2010

I'd like to see coupons for vegetables available to everybody.
We subsidize farming and yet we can't afford our produce.

[azdisabledsci]

06:50 PM on 07/21/2010

I live on less than $600 a month for SSI & all of my teeth are rotting out. I am slowly going paralyzed from a spinal cord injury. I get $200 a month in food stamps & would buy healthier foods if I could chew them. I am only 50, yet what quality of life can I have. I will be homeless in 10 days if I cannot find a roommate. The republicans ared dems both are totally uncaring toward the truly ill. I am losing hope. I dream about working. I wish with all of my heart I could make enough money to get off of aid. It is a horrible trap.

[tbone99]

11:42 AM on 07/22/2010

Your blaming goverment aid for trapping you!?
Imagine the alternative.
No aid ,no jobs,no food stamps ...., would you then consider yourself liberated ?
I suggest you discontinue them pronto , after all if self sufficiency is your goal start today .

Sugestion as to getting healthy food down - use a blender to make shakes , soups , and to purree food to the consistency you can manage.

[Biendiosa]

02:14 PM on 07/23/2010

Nice post, except for the sarcasm.
Try being in this lady's shoes before you judge.

[organicconnect]

04:07 PM on 07/21/2010

This is a major problem that is starting to get attention. Low income families are not the only people effected by poor "free" foods. This is an issue for the homeless even more so. A soup kitchen in Santa Barbara has addressed this by using all organic ingredients in the foods they serve to help the homeless in their area: http://organicconnectmag.com/wp/2010/07/helping-the-homeless-survive-the-organic-soup-kitchen/

[1Woman4Obama]

03:43 PM on 07/21/2010

I'm confused by a family with $600 of food stamps a month needing to go to McDonalds -- you can't use food stamps at McDonalds. And you should be able to prepare a meal for a family cheaper than meals would cost at McDonalds. And $600 of food stamps should be able to buy more than enough groceries for an averaged sized family for a month... (Then again, a gallon of milk does not cost over $3 in Los Angeles (one of the most expensive cities in the country -- milk is closer to $2 a gallon).)

I understand that there are serious issues here -- but this isn't simply a numbers game. In other words, increasing food stamp allotment will not fix this cultural problem.

[trikkegirl]

03:47 PM on 07/21/2010

The food stamps have too many bad limitations on them. They only allow the purchase of processed, packaged foods and condiments for the most part. Those guidelines need to change. I actually saw a mother with a bag of fruit at the register PUT IT BACK when the cashier said that was not allowed on the FS program. I was appalled.

[1Woman4Obama]

03:51 PM on 07/21/2010

That may be true -- but it isn't about the amount of money. I could easily and healthily feed my family of 3 for a month on about half that. We wouldn't eat what we wanted every night but it can be done.

[tbone99]

11:44 AM on 07/22/2010

Absolutely NOT true - although in many poor neighborhoods that may be all that is available at the convenience stores that are often the only choice to buy from

[textynn]

11:02 PM on 07/20/2010

Food pantries give ya sugary food like crazy. Mostly pastry, cereal, sugary processed cookies and stuff. If you are forced to eat from them ya start to hate the stuff.

[Cherie King]

10:42 PM on 07/20/2010

Its quite interesting to view paintings from the greats that show the wealthy as pudgy and fat, the poor thin and skeletal. But now because of cost and effect; it is now the opposite. The blame is very much that of our own government, with their processed cheese and loaded carbs and the limitations of Food Stamps. At the same time how easy it is to buy bad food on Food Stamps. Maybe we should eliminate WIC and combine it with Food Stamps, my mom made a comment that what she sees as WIC approved still is the processed crap. So maybe another idea is to give a small discount for those on Food Stamps when they purchase fresh fruit, vegetables, meat and seafood. But NOT on processed crap. I know I know on Food Stamps you generally don't pay sales tax, but we want to encourage better eating habits.

[Funhouse1970]

10:39 PM on 07/20/2010

I worked in Huntington Park, CA. for number of years and there was no descent super markets in the area. All they had was Food for less and Super saver.