Sep 19, 2020 3 min read

It’s easy to think that hunger is something safely confined to the past, or to countries without the material abundance and natural resources of the United States and its peer countries.

But hunger is not something that’s happening in far-off lands that rarely make headlines. Thousands of Americans can go from day-to-day and week-to-week not quite sure that they’ll have sufficient food to feed themselves or their families. The coronavirus pandemic and the economic dislocations accompanying it have only deepened the problem, in this country and in other parts of the world. You’ve seen the images of vehicles lined up at food distribution points? Many news reports have pointed out that some of the people piloting those cars and trucks have never needed assistance before, and had no way of imagining that they would on Jan. 1, when the economy was humming along, their jobs were secure and the coronavirus was something that was spreading someplace else.

The New York Times recently noted, “The lockdown, with its epic lines at food banks, has revealed what was hidden in plain sight: that the struggle to make food last long enough and to get food that’s healthful – what experts call ‘food insecurity’ – is a persistent one for millions of Americans.”

September is Hunger Action Month. It’s been put together by Feeding America, a national network of food banks. The group hopes that Hunger Action Month will raise awareness about the problem and start a conversation about solutions. Feeding America estimates that 54 million people fall under the classification of “food insecure,” and that number includes 18 million children.

To understand the extent of the problem closer to our homes, in 2018, well before COVID-19 upended all our lives, the Greene County Food Security Partnership reported that more than 13% of the county’s population faced the specter of hunger. Two years ago, that number included more than 1,000 children. Both here and elsewhere, many of the people struggling with food insecurity have jobs, but they don’t pay enough to cover all of the expenses for a family or an individual, or they pay just enough to make them ineligible for benefits like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), more commonly known as food stamps.

What can be done? Of course, food banks and food pantries need support, both in terms of volunteers and monetary donations. Those donations go toward not only food purchases but for safety equipment volunteers can use.

SNAP benefits should be increased until the coronavirus is brought to heel and employment returns to pre-pandemic levels. And increasing the minimum wage would help lift many Americans out of poverty and be a powerful tool in fighting hunger.

John F. Kennedy once said, “So long as freedom from hunger is only half achieved … no citizen, no nation can afford to be satisfied.” That was true in the 1960s, and remains so today.