With perhaps the biggest belly-filling holiday of the year on our plates tomorrow, we might want to stop to consider those who are food deprived all year long. A TC Daily Planet commentary about hunger in Minnesota claims that, “Last year, 2008, 17 million households, or 14.6 percent, were food insecure… The 2008 figures represent the highest level observed since USDA’s food security surveys were initiated in 1995.” What does this mean locally? “One of every ten Minnesota families experienced food insecurity in 2008.” One in ten! That’s outrageous!
Want to try to do something to change this? Thousands of people will be meeting at the Mall of America tomorrow morning, before turkey, for the Second Annual Walk to End Hunger.
Of course, if that doesn’t rock your boat, you can always do some nice (wasteful) turkey bowling this afternoon in the courtyard of the Chambers Hotel. To be fair, proceeds from the event go to the Emergency Foodshelf Network, so it will still help fight hunger.
Another option? Just check out this planetdan post. It’s bound to ruin your appetite altogether. Perhaps it will motivate you to donate your Thanksgiving dinner to a family in need.
If you insist on eating turkey still (and who wouldn’t), Minnetonkascenes offers some turkey cooking advice.
13 Reader Comments
7:06 am
Mrs. Lungs and I did the walk at MOA lasy year. It was a nice event, and it drew a lot of people. On-site donations of food are welcome, too.
I bought a couple bags of food for my local food shelf last week. It’s a habit I need to get into, especially after the Holidays.
7:22 am
Is “food insecurity” the same as hunger? There have been times in my life when it’s just me, a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter, but I never considered myself to be on the same level as someone who had nothing, or nowhere, to eat.
8:27 am
Hard to tell from scanning some of the USDA stuff, ‘Nood. But the cynic In Me (who is not only In Me, but is usually the Chairman of the Board of all the people/traits that are In Me) says you would probably rolled into the statistics because that’s the way huge bureaucracies count things.
8:53 am
It’s the problem I have with the phraseology that prompts my question. “Food insecurity” does sound like one of those bureaucratic terms someone thought up so as not to offend anyone.
9:07 am
I think it was coined to count those who are living on the edge of going hungry, noodle. Those who have a real concern about having enough left over for groceries after the other bills are paid.
While I lived on a pretty meger income as a young man (lots of ramen noodles and mac & cheese), I always had my parents as an emergency fallback if things got too bad. I think the people who really feel the “food insecurity” are low-income parents, and seniors and/or disabled folk living on fixed (and low) incomes.
9:07 am
I think food insecurity is a phrase used to describe not knowing if a meal will be eaten on any given day. That is, something comes up and the money that was supposed to go to food went to whatever it was that came up. It is an inclusive term to include a wide variety of situations. However, someone could be “food insecure” and still eat every day…
9:15 am
I want to say thank you for bringing these great events to our attention.. CC you are always thinking of other
people and that is one of the reasons I like you so much:) Happy Thanksgiving to you and all of yours…
fondly,
Melly
9:24 am
One of the most wonderful things about Minneapolis and St. Paul is that no one goes hungry if they are knowledgeable of the resources available. We here in Minnesota do a great job of providing free meals to people through food banks and soup kitchens. Each day anyone can show up at a rotating group of churches and shelters and get a free meal morning, noon and night.
I’m thankful for the generosity of Minnesotans in events like those above, involvement in Loaves and Fishes and other programs, and giving to our hunger resources.
10:35 am
And then, of course, there’s Gobble Gait.
11:01 am
Oh, F-M students collected 97 tons of food (and $96,000) in their 3rd annual “Fill the Dome” in Fargo.
Their goal had been 75 tons, $75,000, and 7,500 signatures on a hunger petition to be presented to the ND state leg. They are still short on the signature goal.
9:28 pm
The Daily Beast published an article this weekend titled The New Blue-Collar Hungry.
They refer to the uncertainties associated with disproportionate food pantry scarcities as “food anxiety,” which IMHO is a better description than “food insecurity.”
A link within the article pointed to another listing the 10 states with the highest levels of disproportionate hunger.
1:05 pm
Food insecurity: The USDA’s Economic Research Service’s technical definition of hunger or not having access to enough food for active, healthy lives for all household members; hunger or risk of hunger.
So you might be food insecure if you only eat PB&J and ramen, but only if you eat it because it’s the only food you have access to. Food insecurity includes the more conventional definition of hunger, but it’s not just another, nicer word for hunger–it broadens to include those who may be able to find something to fill their stomachs but still have nowhere near the nutrition they need to function in their daily lives.
1:15 pm
whoops, sorry…I should mention that I took the definition of food insecurity in the first paragraph from http://www.hungersolutions.org.