Understanding Food Insecurity in America
Access to healthy food is a cornerstone for wellness. According to Feeding America, 1 in 9 people struggle with food insecurity. Typically, food insecurity goes hand-in-hand with housing insecurity; many families are faced with the choice of either eating or losing their home. The US manufactures enough food to feed 10 billion people, the US alone has a population around 330 million, according the US Census. Some state laws mandate supermarkets to throw out their unbought food.
Just a few weeks ago, I opened up TikTok to see a video of a woman collecting food from a Whole Foods’ trash bin. She collected all types of food, including packaged fruits and vegetables, supplements, and bread. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated case. Big chain supermarkets are known to throw away their food when they are passed their “bought by” date regardless of if it the food is actually spoiled or not. In fact, each year 108 billion pounds of food is wasted in the US and nearly 40% of all food in the country is thrown out. While there are programs that help people with food insecurity, such as SNAP, better known as “food stamps,” or TEFAP or WIC, not everyone qualifies. There are also known food pantries, like FoodBank of NY, or churches that donate food to people with low income, however some of those places only donate monthly.
In New York City alone the number of homeless sleeping each night in a municipal shelter is 39 percent higher than it was 10 years ago and the number of homeless single adults is 112 percent higher than it was 10 years ago, according to Coalition for the Homeless. In fact, inflation has been at an all time high in New York City. The cost of living is 38% higher than the state average and 80% higher than the national average.
The other day, I met with close friend who shared her own struggles with purchasing food. For this article we will call her Tess–Tess has been a nurse for the past 8 years and lives in a beautiful one bedroom apartment in Forest Hills, Queens. Anytime someone comes into her apartment, she politely asks them to leave their shoes by the door. “Things have been hard for me lately. You would think that being single with a nurse’s salary things would be easy but a box of eggs cost $10! It seems ridicules to me,” she told me as we sat on her sofa, “I try not to eat out so much anymore and make all of my food at home to cut costs, but groceries alone take a chunk of my money.” Tess is one of the many Americans that struggles to buy food while maintaining a full-time job. “I’m lucky because I can afford my food–struggling nonetheless–but what about the people who have kids or have to take care of family members? I am sure they are not buying 2 boxes of $10 eggs.”
30 years ago, NYC was a different place, one could rent a one-bedroom apartment for $700 and the MTA fare was $1.50. Today, a coffee and a pastry runs you $11, the Sunday NYT goes for $6, and the MTA fare is $2.75–with talks of increasing the fare. With price gouging on food and a high cost of living it seems that this city is evolving into a place reserved only for those fortunate enough to afford the cost of living. Especially when the starting salary of an entry-level job is approx. $45,000 and rent average is $4,000 for a one-bedroom.
