The Problem of Food Insecurity and Obesity in Children

According to the USDA, more than 11 million children in the United States live in "food insecure" homes. Projections show that 18 million children could face hunger this year.

What is Food Insecurity and Why is it a Problem?

Food insecurity can be best defined as having limited availability to safe and nutritional foods. It also consists of the inability to acquire food in a socially acceptable way. There are many health problems that can be associated with child food insecurity including headaches, upper respiratory infections, malnutrition, stomachaches, iron deficiency anemia, and obesity. Food insecure children are ~2 times more likely to have health problems. According to statistics, 1 in 6 children suffer from food insecurity and over 233 million schoolchildren are overweight or suffer from obesity in the world. Food insecurity and the problems associated can be correlated with people who are living in poverty and cannot afford the healthier nutritional foods. These families usually have to resort to fast food restaurants that offer very unhealthy food for low prices. Most of these food insecurity problems occur in the continent of Africa, but North America is also right at the top of that list.

Possible Solutions to the Problem

There are a plethora of solutions that can help fight the problem of food insecurity in children. One solution is to donate food to the Feeding America and the local Food Banks. A donation of $25 to Feeding America can provide meals to one hungry child for 3 months. The Food Bank is a way to help your local community that suffers from food insecurities. Those options are viable solutions, but do not directly correlate to becoming a social entrepreneur. Another solution that would show more of a social entrepreneurial mindset would be to create a food drive that gives nutritional and healthy food to local children in need. This solution could consist of asking family, friends, and other individuals at school to help give back to the community. Creating a food drive is easy and simple and there is also an organization called "Move For Hunger" that can help get a food drive started. Campbell provides volunteer opportunities at the campus kitchen and offers students the ability to create a student organization to help fight food insecurity. The last solution would be to try contacting a local government authority and persuading them to help.

My Research Plan to Learn First Hand About Food Insecurity

Conducting research about anything can be a daunting task, but it is essential to fully understand the problem you want to solve before action is taken. I plan to initially research the problem of food insecurity by reading articles that relate to the problem and watching videos/documentaries about how food insecurities are affecting Americans. To help solve the problem locally, I could contact someone that works for the county school system and get a list or area of children that are in need of healthy and nutritional foods. Reviewing the key factors that cause food insecurity, like poverty, can help me develop a scope for my solution. The video below gives facts and information about the problem of food insecurity and how it affects individuals. As a social entrepreneur, it is essential to listen to what experts and others say about a problem and use that information to conduct research and act on a feasible solution. Throughout my initial research, I found some statistics of food insecurity in Harnett County according to the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina. In Harnett County, 19,350 (15%) people are food insecure and 7,210 (20.7%) of them people are children under the age of 18.

My Problem Statement on Food Insecurity

Food insecurity in North America has become a serious problem and is steadily increasing all the time. This problem is affecting children at a high rate and causes them to develop many medical conditions including malnutrition and obesity. Families that are living in poverty are affected more than wealthy families and this is due to healthier foods being more expensive for people to buy. There are many organizations who are attempting to solve this problem including Feeding America, Food Banks, WhyHunger, and Wholesome Wave. WhyHunger and Wholesome Wave are organizations that make healthy food more affordable for families that do not have sufficient amounts of money. I would like to focus on helping schoolchildren in my local community that are affected by food insecurity. If food insecurity is not solved, child obesity is estimated to increase by 35 million by 2025. The consequences of this problem going unsolved would be a possible increased mortality rate in children and an abundance of patients at healthcare facilities. My objective is to help at least 1 child in the community and hopefully expand to help many children in the area. I have always wanted to do something impactful for children in need. If you are interested in donating to help children in our local community, then donate goods and try to volunteer whenever possible. I cannot wait to make an impact on children that are starving because of the economic situations that their parents are in.