Category: Uncategorized

What We Get Wrong About the Root Causes of Hunger

When a new client first comes into my food pantry, many feel compelled to explain why they are here. Many of our shoppers have experienced a chain of challenges that has left them without the money to buy food, such as a job loss, medical emergency, housing crisis, or other disaster.

Based on the “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” mentality that is engrained into our American psyches, it’s easy to internalize the idea that people have arrived at this position due to their own choices. Somehow, they brought those crises on themselves. We assume that people lack the education, the experience, or sound decision-making abilities that could keep them from needing the help of a food pantry. Nothing could be further from the truth. If hunger were an individual problem, then we’d be able to solve it on the individual level.

Here are the two main ways we frame hunger as an individual failure rather than a systemic problem:

1. Nutrition Education

It’s easy to believe that people wouldn’t be hungry if only they knew how to cook and eat a little more responsibly. If someone had taught them how to prepare lentils, or buy in bulk, or create a meal plan, then they wouldn’t be at risk of food insecurity.

 Nutrition education as a root cause of hunger is a popular misconception because it also addresses the high rates of diet-related disease experienced by people living in poverty. Although it is very clearly documented that low income individuals eat unhealthy foods because they are the most affordable and accessible, we assume that people choose to eat this way because they don’t know any better.

In a society that glorifies willpower as the primary determinant of health, it’s too easy to accept the misconception that food insecurity is fueled by poor eating choices that can be solved with cooking classes and nutritional posters.

At my food pantry, it is very clear that our clients are eager for fresh produce and other healthy options. Everyone knows the basics of how to eat healthy.

The barriers preventing people from eating more whole foods and scratch cooking are numerous and complex. Many food pantry clients live in public housing, transitional housing, retirement units, or other facilities which offer inadequate or nonexistent kitchens. Many of my clients only have access to a microwave. They may have a tiny refrigerator, which they often share with other residents. Cooking is challenging or impossible with these limited resources.

Many food pantry clients work more than one job, often in addition to serving as a caregiver for children or aging relatives. As all of us know, it’s hard enough to find the time to cook healthy meals when we’re only responsible for ourselves. Preparing a healthy meal while providing for others with special needs is a daunting and exhausting responsibility when you barely have enough money to get by.

Ignorance of cultural differences can also color our judgements about how others’ food choices. Our pantry currently serves many Russian and Ukrainian families, who have informed me that beans are not a part of their traditional diet. These families are eager to take bags and bags of potatoes, cabbage, and other fresh produce, but dry beans, often praised as one of the healthiest budget food options, don’t play a role in their cuisine. Blaming poverty on cultural differences like this is ridiculous and disrespectful.

Our clients are eager to eat healthy foods. Fresh produce flies off our shelves. We were surprised to observe the immense popularity of eggplant. I didn’t know that our community vastly prefers green over purple cabbage. Things like sliced fruit and berries rarely make it to the fridge before being snapped up, and you’re likely to see a small child munching on an apple or banana while their parents’ shop.

While we are certainly more comfortable assigning individual blame, I have learned that food pantry clients know how they should eat and would love the opportunity to do so if only they were able. Cooking classes and nutrition resources are powerful resources for building skills, having fun, and improving quality of life, but they are an individual resource that acts as only the tiniest band aid for a systemic problem.

2. Financial Literacy

Our cultural biases in America make us particularly likely to assume that people are hungry because of poor financial decisions. We judge the quality of their car, the way they’re dressed, or the age of the phone they carry, and speculate that if they hadn’t made such frivolous purchases, they probably wouldn’t be hungry.

In reality, most of our food pantry clients have very few opportunities to change their financial situation. Employment opportunities are restricted by skillset, but also transportation, caregiving duties, and scheduling around second and third jobs. Responsibilities like this make it incredibly hard to change jobs or careers while ensuring the household gets the care it needs.

It is easy to make judgements about personal spending and think about how we would have behaved differently if we were in that situation.

We may condemn someone for the purchase of a new phone, recognizing that it may represent several days’ worth of food, but it’s also important to remember that the price of that little luxury will not extract anyone from poverty.

This decision has nothing to do with needing financial education.

Everyone needs a certain level of financial literacy, and, in particular, women are often denied it (and then shamed for their lack of knowledge). Financial literacy classes are an important and useful tool for helping people succeed. But naming financial education as the cause of poverty and hunger demonstrates a blatant misunderstanding of what hunger really looks like.

What Does Cause Hunger?

Food pantry users don’t have access to enough money. Gender and/or racial discrimination keeps wages low and limits employment opportunities. Outrageous costs of living suck up income. Medical or student debt curtails financial freedom.  Caregiving responsibilities consume all time and energy outside of work. While both nutrition education and financial literacy are certainly skills that everyone should have, it is important to remember that they are not root causes of hunger. They are minor strategies we can use to empower people experiencing hunger, but truly effective solutions recognize that hunger is a systemic problem, and effective solutions will not address it on an individual level.  

How My Body Taught Me That Food Choices Matter

To honor my holiday vacation, I’m reposting this blog from April, 2023.

Eight years ago in mid-December, I checked myself into the ER. It turned out that my appendix had burst approximately three months prior, with all the complications that accompany a life-threatening infection. I spent 12 days in the hospital and had two surgeries before moving in with my mom for an additional month because I was too weak to take care of myself on my own.

I endured a year of slow recovery before something triggered my system that suddenly gave me near-debilitating arthritis and an increased sensitivity to foods. Over the next six months I slowly just stopped eating because being hungry was preferable to the pain, depression and fatigue that accompanied digestion.

Some foods hurt me worse than others, and I eventually reached the point where I ate little besides cabbage and avocados. I felt like I was dragging my body through the heaviest mud imaginable, and nothing could lighten the weight.  

I tried every diet I could find, was dismissed and mistreated by numerous doctors, penalized at work for talking to HR about taking medical leave, and was starting to panic that the future I envisioned might never materialize as my body continued to fail.

Through random chance, someone recommended a diet plan that excluded foods containing the lectin protein in seeds that are hard on sensitive digestive systems. It proposed eliminating all grains, fruits, and grain-fed animal products along with any preservatives. Within four days of starting this new plan, I began to feel better. I’ve now been following this diet for five years and in many ways have been able to return to the life I hoped for.

I became an anti-hunger advocate and food justice champion long before I got sick. I was already committed to making food a fun and communal experience rather than just a vehicle for nutrition.

But over the last five years of learning how sensitive my body is to my food choices, my understanding of food insecurity has changed dramatically.

My quality of life is entirely determined by my diet- how well I sleep, how much energy I have, my focus at work, and my capacity to manage emotional burdens. And my understanding of my nutritional needs is constantly changing and evolving.

I’m lucky to have always been able to afford and prepare the food I need. I could buy artichokes, sardines, and radicchio, all foods which at one time held an important role in my recovery.

But I know that if I was dependent on a food pantry or SNAP benefits for my nutrition, I would still be miserably sick. My diet would be determined by the options available, rather than by what my body needed.

I know that if I allowed someone else to determine what foods I eat- even someone well-educated in nutrition- they would not get it right. Everyone knows their own needs best, and my role working in food pantries is to facilitate that as best as I can.

Many people experiencing food insecurity have never had the opportunity to make intuitive food choices before. The food they eat is determined by what they can afford or what the food pantry is able to give them. I don’t want anyone else to ever be as sick as I was, so I am committed to ensuring that people facing food insecurity can choose what and how much they want to eat.

There are still times where I rage about the things my illness has taken from me- the freedom to eat out at a restaurant without scrutinizing the menu, the enjoyment of a good whiskey, or eating pizza with my partner.

But upon reflection, I also see that it has given me invaluable experience and the tools I need for being a better anti-hunger advocate and helping my food pantry always do better for the people we serve.

The opinions expressed here are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my employer.

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What You Believe About Food Pantries: Is Any of it True?

When the Covid lockdown first began, the government recognized that millions of workplaces shutting down would astronomically increase hunger rates across the U.S. Accompanying the literally miles-long lines of cars at drive-through food bank distributions, the USDA provided extra dollars to SNAP benefits (formerly known as Food Stamps) which have been essential for keeping millions of families fed over the past three years. On March 1, the last of these additional benefits will expire. The end of this program will reduce the amount of money for food by approximately $95 per person per month. (Citation)

Facing rising costs of living and devastating inflation, more people than ever have no other option than to visit their neighborhood food pantry to keep their family fed. Hunger assistance programs are bracing themselves for massively increased attendance, especially among first-time clients.

To ensure that everyone feels welcome, we as anti-hunger activists, social justice warriors, and compassionate neighbors need to examine what biases we may carry about hunger that negatively influence our work.

Particularly in America, there is a strong stigma against using welfare, even among those who implement and support essential programs like food assistance. Poverty is a result of inequitable opportunity, but that is an uncomfortable reality for a culture that preaches equality for all. That’s why discourse on welfare and food assistance tends to revolve around who we believe deserves this help instead.

We all need food to survive. When we implement systems or policies based on who we believe deserves access to food, we make a radical statement about who deserves to live- and who doesn’t.

Effective anti-hunger efforts must begin by embracing the idea that everyone deserves to eat, and examining all the ways we can live this ideal. In future posts, I will discuss actionable opportunities for implementing this concept in food pantries, but I want to start by examining what assumptions we may have about individuals who use emergency food assistance.

What are some of the most common biases about food pantry clients?

1. People use food pantries when they don’t need to.

No one waits in line for an hour in January for a couple of grocery bags of discarded food if they don’t have to. No matter how hard we work to make it better, the process of using a food pantry is uncomfortable, humbling, and undignified. No one uses these services unless they must. It’s essential to reflect on whether you or your anti-hunger peers unconsciously believe otherwise, because it may impact how you serve those who come to you for help.

2. People should only use food pantries if they can’t afford their own food.

If hunger were only about food, it would be so much easier to solve! Unfortunately, having money for food is indelibly intertwined with the cost of housing, healthcare, and transportation. Spending on food is more flexible than these fixed costs, which means it is often the first thing to be sacrificed.  Food pantry clients may have money in their bank account- budgeted to pay their rent and utilities, medical prescriptions, fuel costs, or even shoes for their growing children. Just because someone can technically afford to buy food doesn’t mean that they should if our end goal is a healthy, stable community.

3. Food pantries are only for the unemployed.

Most food pantry clients have at least one household member who is employed. However, families are often restricted by childcare responsibilities, disability and health challenges, or transportation limitations which can all make it hard to find a job that pays a living wage. Although unemployment is dropping, too many people are still underemployed and not able to support themselves no matter how hard they work or how many jobs they have.

4. Poverty is static.

I regularly encounter volunteers or donors who are surprised to see a nice car in the parking lot or a client with a new iPhone. The American concept of poverty assumes that if someone experiencing poverty owns something nice or expensive, it must be because they make irresponsible financial decisions. It is none of our business to judge how our clients spend their money, but…

People often experience poverty and hunger in phases throughout their lifetime. All it takes is one medical bill or job loss before someone who considered themselves financially comfortable may require the services of a food pantry. Conversely, a promotion or completion of an educational degree may support a previously struggling household. There are endless possibilities for why someone needs a food pantry, whether it’s a one-time visit or for long-term use.

As anti-hunger advocates, it’s important to recognize these (often unconscious) biases that may impact how we welcome clients, what and how much food we allow them to take, and the dignity of the process.

There are many, many actions steps that food pantries can make to improve the experience for their shoppers, but they all depend on the organization wholeheartedly embracing the idea that everyone deserves to eat.

Overlooked Opportunities for Ending Hunger

There is incredible energy in the anti-hunger movement right now.

New programs and models have blossomed and thrived over the last two years of the pandemic, developing new strategies for helping our neighbors be a little more food secure. Data continues to confirm that policy and systemic change are the most effective strategies for lifting communities out of food insecurity. However, sometimes these big picture visions and idealistic strategies neglect the just-as-essential work that is being done to support individuals.

Food pantries do not often have a positive reputation- they may be degrading to clients, they don’t meet individual needs, or they have such limited capacity that their impact feels negligible. Because of this, the “big picture thinkers” like food banks and policy makers tend to focus their solutions beyond the scope of neighborhood food pantries.

I believe that it is possible to build a food pantry that can be part of the big picture.

As an experienced anti-hunger advocate, I’ve run multiple food pantries, worked with several food banks, and have extensive experience addressing the root causes of hunger. I believe that it’s possible to create a new kind of experience for people facing food insecurity. I have many strategies, techniques and experiences that demonstrate how visiting a food pantry can become a positive experience, where cultural identities are respected, and where individuals can develop a sense of stability. This blog intends to showcase how much potential food pantries have to fight food insecurity and to play a part in the bigger picture of ending hunger.

The opinions expressed here are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my employer.