Talk:Hunger in the United States

Template:Findsourcesnotice Template:WAP assignment This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Peer reviewers: Khanzar. This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Haitham18 (article contribs). This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 24 June 2019 and 16 August 2019. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Agreenhoke (article contribs). This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 27 August 2019 and 6 December 2019. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Hollygozinsky12345 (article contribs). Peer reviewers: Carolashley, Natalieterrone, Rachelbernstein, Kellyg86.

Proposed Revisions

The last sentence of the first paragraph is quite misleading: ``In 2011, a report presented in the New York Times found ... commissioned by DuPont [found] ... It give primacy to the first, while the second is far more rigorous. The sentence should be updated to more accurately portray the weight of these two... e.g. it should explicitly note that the NYT statistics was a single question on a questionnaire.

24.5.86.35 (talk) 04:05, 14 April 2019 (UTC) Dan Oblinger

I am an undergraduate student at Rice University who has decided to revise this page in order to raise the article’s status and improve the content. I know the article does not currently have a rating for both quality and importance, but I hope my work will earn the article a GA rating and draw attention to the fact this article should be of high importance. Hunger in America affects millions of people; therefore, I believe the page should reflect the relevance of this social issue in the United States. Currently, the article as minimal information and does not provide readers a comprehensive view on hunger in the United States.

I plan to edit and modify the current sections as well as add new sections. Overall I want to fact check the page and add more current data. For the existing sections, I want to eliminate “21st century” and “20th century” because both provide historical information that can be organized under the section “History.” Also, I want to reduce the length of the page’s historical portion because I don’t think it should be the predominate feature of the article.

My revision to “Hunger in the United States” will mainly focus on adding multiple sections that reflect a holistic approach to discussing the topic. I plan to create a “Causes” section that highlights the believed influences or theories for the prevalence of hunger in the country. Also in a new “Effects” section,” I want to include subsections (geographical region, ethnicity, and children) that focus on hunger’s impact on the most effected social groups. I want to include a “Fighting hunger” section that is broken into two topics, governmental and private. Currently, the article does address the hunger relief options in America, but there is minimal information and the organization is not logical. I feel the topic of hunger relief deserves its own section instead of falling under the “21 century” section. This portion of the page would go in depth on sharing the various hunger relief options as well as highlight what programs have been the most and least successful. I believe the page would benefit from a “Challenges to alleviating hunger” section that addresses the obstacles in conquering this social issue because the United States continually struggles to eliminate (or severely reduce) hunger. Finally, I think I can easily expand the “See also” and “External links” sections because such a broad topic like hunger connects to countless social issue topics and organizations.

I see there is no activity on this Talk page, but I would appreciate any feedback on my proposed revision to the article. I am open to all suggestions, so please share with me your thoughts. Does this seem like a reasonable plan? MBouchein (talk) 22:57, 2 October 2014 (UTC)

Hello there. For the most part this seems an excellent plan!

I do though strongly object to any deletion of content from the history section. Those sections are the distillation of several lengthy books covering this subject, and contain lots of useful information. For readers who want to contribute to future hunger relief, understanding the historical forces at work can help them sense effective ways to contribute. I also think the “21st century” and “20th century” sections should remain, though you could certainly move some of the info out into the new sections you are proposing.

I agree it would be best for the historical sections to become less dominant, but if you proceed with your plan to expand the article with new sections, this should happen automatically, without needing any deletion of existing content.

A 'Causes' section could indeed be useful, but you might find it problematic if you focused on the present. One of the advantages of the historical section is that its easy to give a NPOV coverage that reflects fairly well on the whole political spectrum. For hunger in the US as its existed since the 1980s, most good academic analyses I aware of blames the causes entirely on the political right and on free market thinking. So its hard to write accurately on the contemporary causes without creating what many on the right would perceive as politically biased coverage. When that happens, all sorts of annoying and time wasting edit warring and contention can occur. There may be ways for you to avoid this, or right winger POV warriors may not even notice, just something to be aware of.

Another thing to be aware of is that we have guidelines for external links and See also -  :Wikipedia:External links and WP:also. As you say it would be easy for you to find plenty of entries to add, but it might be best to chose only the best 10 or so for ELs, and only the most relevant 20 or so for See also. What you've just added is of course fine.

I especially like your suggestions for new sections on “Fighting hunger” , “Challenges to alleviating hunger” and hunger relief.

Im possibly the only active editor who has contributed substantially to this page, so let me say my personal preference if for bold editing direct to the article, mostly only using the talk page for queries for for disagreements that can't be resolved by simple edit summaries. While I can't speak for others, I can't see myself disagreeing with any expansions you'd want to make.

Im so glad you've chosen to work on this article, and can't wait to see how you improve it! FeydHuxtable (talk) 13:50, 19 October 2014 (UTC)

Thank you for your support. I want to first say I apologize if I offended you. I did not mean to "slam" the article. I just simply wanted to share my thoughts and ideas for the article. Please note I am in the process of working on it, so if you see something that is not perfect please do not automatically delete a large portion my work. However, please feel free to share any suggestions or thoughts you have regarding my changes. I would appreciate any and all feedback. MBouchein (talk) 04:33, 20 October 2014 (UTC)MBouchein

You're most welcome. I wasn't seriously offended. It was because I was so impressed with your plan and the holistic vision you seem to have for this topic, that I took the time to try to explain why its often important to couple good planning with good diplomacy.

I think your Effects section is good by any standards, and for a new editor it's stunningly good. The way you've wrote the Causes section nicely dodges the risk of politicizing the article. The section could do with more references. The last paragraph in the Causes section is perfectly clear and correct, but I think it might be a little confusing for someone without a background in social science. FeydHuxtable (talk) 18:22, 20 October 2014 (UTC)

Recommendations

Hello, MBouchein. I think that neutrality would improve this article. It would be interesting as a reader to know the minority views since they are so often left out of the discussion of hunger. Additionally, content would also be a good source of improvement. I think a place where content could especially be added is something along the lines of hunger today. This would be good content for those that are interested in hunger in the United States today and how that is affecting people today. On a somewhat unrelated topic, your article could be linked to GMOs since they are often seen as a solution to hunger. Nnlpz (talk) 06:32, 6 November 2014 (UTC)

MBouchein, your contribution has been very sound and logically argued. I specifically like your "Effects of hunger" section, the information there is well referenced and reflects exactly those who have been effected. The entire article is very comprehensive and the flow works very well. Great contribution! Benito103910 (talk) 21:46, 10 November 2014 (UTC)

Hunger or "food insecurity"?

This article seems to be entirely about food insecurity, rather than hunger. Statements specifically addressing "hunger" are generally not cited, or address the general effects of hunger. Missing are citations on the actual incidence of hunger in the US. Specifically, this article contains information on the number of those who are classified as food insecure, which the USDA defines as having "limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods or limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways", and the use programs that subsidize or donate food (SNAP, free lunch program, meals on wheels, etc). This article needs to address the question: How many people go hungry in the US? And on the topic of cause, we must be clear that poverty, by itself, doesn't cause hunger: if food assistance successfully prevents at-risk persons from going hungry, they don't go hungry. This article needs to be much clearer in addressing both the need for food assistance, the kinds of assistance available, and to what extent food assistance is successful in preventing hunger. Spacepotatoes (talk) 20:23, 26 March 2016 (UTC)

Apparently unsourced statements in article lead

Where's the source for these statements in the article lead "Research from the Food Safety and Inspection Service found that 14.9% of American households were food insecure during 2011, with 5.7% suffering from very low food security. Journalists and charity workers have reported further increased demand for emergency food aid during 2012 and 2013."?

It's very important that statements like this which are important enough to go in an article lead be sourced. I don't think they need to be in the article if no reliable source can be cited to support them. loupgarous (talk) 18:58, 29 May 2016 (UTC)

Thanks for catching that. Looks like someone introduced a minor error while copy editing the lede. I fixed and put a cite for the claim. Don't normally like to have cites in the lede, but I guess it's ok as there are already other cites there, and it can be rectified properly later on when someone gets round to updating the article. FeydHuxtable (talk) 17:17, 2 August 2016 (UTC)

Proposed Revisions (Shivani Raman)

My name is Shivani and I am a sophomore at Rice University majoring in Cognitive Sciences and minoring in Poverty, Justice, and Human Capabilities on a pre-med track. I am passionate about poverty alleviation, sustainable development, and public health issues. As part of a class I am taking called SOCI 394: Human Development, I am interested in adding to this article. I plan to add to the section titled “Causes,” as the existing article only discusses poverty as the cause of hunger and fails to mention the political and environmental factors that influence food availability and access. I also plan to add to the “Fighting hunger” section to include more indirect solutions (e.g. improving transportation infrastructure), as the existing article only provides solutions that are directly targeted at hunger (e.g. SNAP, School Lunch Program, etc.).Sraman195 (talk) 00:48, 25 January 2017 (UTC)

I plan to expand upon the article titled "Hunger in the United States." My reasoning for doing so is the following:

Insubstantial discussion of political/economic causes of hunger/food insecurity:

The “Causes” section of this article begins with the lines “Hunger in the United States is caused by a complex combination of factors. There is not a single cause attributed to the hunger and there is much debate over who or what is responsible for the prevalence of hunger in the United States.” Thus, while this section acknowledges that the issue is multidimensional, it merely goes on to describe the correlation between hunger and poverty. I will improve this section by discussing the political and economic factors that influence food availability, access, and affordability, including the subsidization of certain crops and the construction of groceries in low-income neighborhoods. Adding this information will improve the article by providing a more comprehensive analysis of the causes of hunger and food insecurity.

Insubstantial discussion of environmental causes of hunger/food insecurity:

The “Causes” section of this article also fails to mention the environmental factors that contribute to hunger and food insecurity. I will further expand this section by discussing factors such as transportation infrastructure, which I will introduce directly after I describe the political factors that influence the construction of grocery stores. I believe this information is important to include because even if agricultural policies or the number of grocery stores in low-income neighborhoods remain unchanged, enhancing transportation infrastructure can greatly improve individuals’ access to healthy food options. Adding this information will once again provide a more comprehensive analysis of the causes of hunger/food insecurity.

Insubstantial discussion of indirect approaches to mitigating hunger/food insecurity:

The “Fighting hunger” section of the existing article only provides solutions that are directly targeted at hunger (e.g. SNAP, School Lunch Program, etc.). I will expand this section by providing more indirect solutions (modifying agricultural policies, modifying policies that regulate grocery store construction, improving transportation infrastructure, etc.). Offering a broader range of potential solutions will improve this section by making it more comprehensive/well-rounded.

Detailed Proposal

[A] 1. Causes

I will first add information about the political/economic causes of hunger/food insecurity. My additions will focus on agricultural policies that subsidize the production of certain crops such as corn and soybeans. I will make the claim that subsidization of these crops results in the food industry producing a surplus of highly-processed, packaged goods. Using simple economic principles of supply/demand, I will go on to show that a surplus of these food items results in them being sold at a disproportionately lower price than fresh produce (fruits and vegetables). This makes these food items more financially accessible to low-income populations, thereby confirming the link between hunger and poverty. I will also discuss the political and economic forces that result in a scarcity of grocery stores in low-income neighborhoods. Specifically, I will describe grocery stores’ goal of profit maximization and the aspects of low-income neighborhoods that hinder the long-term sustainability of businesses (employees require more training, insurance and security are costlier, etc.).

References:

Acemoglu, Daron, and James A. Robinson. Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty. New York: Crown Publishers, 2012.

Burchi, Francesco, and Pasquale De Muro. "A Human Development and Capability Approach to Food Security: Conceptual Framework and Informational Basis." United Nations Development Programme (2012): n. pag. Web.

Fields, Scott. "The Fat of the Land: Do Agricultural Subsidies Foster Poor Health?" Environmental Health Perspectives 112.14 (2004): n. pag. Web.

Gundersen, Craig. "The Economics of Food Insecurity in the United States." Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy 33.3 (2011): 281-303. Web.

Nussbaum, Martha Craven. Creating Capabilities: The Human Development Approach. 2011.

Walker, Renee E., Christopher R. Keane, and Jessica G. Burke. "Disparities and Access to Healthy Food in the United States: A Review of Food Deserts Literature." Health & Place 16.5 (2010): 876-84. Web.

[B] 3.1. Public sector hunger relief

I will add information that discusses indirect solutions to hunger/food insecurity, such as policy changes in the agricultural/food industry and investment in transportation infrastructure. For each of these solutions, I will discuss the advantages of implementing such changes as well as the practical limitations. For example, in regard to policy changes in the food industry, I will propose that reducing the subsidization of crops such as corn and soybeans and providing more subsidies for the production of fruits and vegetables can substantially increase the supply and decrease the cost of healthful food options, making them more accessible to low-income populations. After this, however, I will mention that such changes are limited by the fact that the agricultural industry is an oligopoly in which a few big corporations dominate/heavily influence the food supply. In regard to transportation, I will propose that improving infrastructure can greatly increase low-income individuals’ access to healthful food options. After this, however, I will make the claim that the efficacy of this solution is hindered by growing population sizes, the limited time of low-income populations (due to work, kids, and other obligations), and the fact that the issue of inequity between neighborhoods remains unaddressed. Offering additional solutions will make the article more comprehensive, and including the limitations of these solutions will ensure that my article remains neutral and well-balanced.

References:

Acemoglu, Daron, and James A. Robinson. Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty. New York: Crown Publishers, 2012.

Burchi, Francesco, and Pasquale De Muro. "A Human Development and Capability Approach to Food Security: Conceptual Framework and Informational Basis." United Nations Development Programme (2012): n. pag. Web.

Collier, Paul. "The Politics of Hunger: How Illusion and Greed Fan the Food Crisis." Foreign Affairs 87.6 (2008): 67-79. Web.

Fairris, David, and Michael Reich. "The Impacts of Living Wage Policies: Introduction to the Special Issue*." Industrial Relations 44.1 (2005): 1-13. Web.

Fields, Scott. "The Fat of the Land: Do Agricultural Subsidies Foster Poor Health?" Environmental Health Perspectives 112.14 (2004): n. pag. Web.

Fitchen, Janet M. "Hunger, Malnutrition, and Poverty in the Contemporary United States: Some Observations on Their Social and Cultural Context." Food and Foodways 2.1 (1987): 309-33. Web.

Gundersen, Craig. "The Economics of Food Insecurity in the United States." Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy 33.3 (2011): 281-303. Web.

Nussbaum, Martha Craven. Creating Capabilities: The Human Development Approach. 2011.

Ratcliffe, C., S.-M. Mckernan, and S. Zhang. "How Much Does the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Reduce Food Insecurity?" American Journal of Agricultural Economics 93.4 (2011): 1082-098. Web.

Riches, Graham. First World Hunger: Food Security and Welfare Politics. New York, NY: St. Martin's, 1997. Print.

Walker, Renee E., Christopher R. Keane, and Jessica G. Burke. "Disparities and Access to Healthy Food in the United States: A Review of Food Deserts Literature." Health & Place 16.5 (2010): 876-84. Web.Sraman195 (talk) 19:27, 15 February 2017 (UTC)

Outstanding! This sounds even more promising than the first class work good MBouchein did for us back in 2014. And that's saying something as they were oustanding too. If only all students were like you guys at Rice!

My one piece of advise is beware of making the article overly long. If you do that 1) People won't read it (this may sound strange, but take it from someone who has been active in this field for over 20 years, the type of folk who have decision making power to address these issues large scale often don't like to read long reports and articles. 2) There would be a risk that after a while a deletionist will see the article, and decide to "trim" your work, so much of it may eventually go to waste. If you did want to go into great detail , see WP:Split and consider creating sub articles, e.g. United Sates public policy on domestic hunger. Great to have you working on this! FeydHuxtable (talk) 19:44, 15 February 2017 (UTC)

Thank you very much, FeydHuxtable! I appreciate your support and I will take your suggestions into account as I work on this article. Sraman195 (talk) 02:20, 24 February 2017 (UTC)

Hi, Sraman195! I think your contributions so far have been a great addition to the article. You're doing an excellent job maintaining neutrality while presenting a nuanced view of the issue. I would echo FeydHuxtable in being cautious of making the article overly long. A suggestion to help keep things readable as you keep working: add subheadings! You might also want to delve into the politics of hunger in the U.S. and update the article to reflect changes since 2013 in political attitudes towards hunger relief programs (if you have the space and time). I look forward to reading your future contributions! Khanzar (talk) 02:54, 7 March 2017 (UTC)

Adding a Section About College Students

Hello everyone. Since there is not an existing section about college students, I aim to include how hunger affects community college, undergraduate, and graduate students.

So, it would look something like this: Hunger in the United States --> Impact of hunger --> College Students.

Please see my references below. I appreciate any feedback regarding my selected references. Thank you. Kgarrie (talk) 06:52, 2 March 2017 (UTC)

References:

1. What Factors Increase Risk for Food Insecurity Among College Students?
2. Factors Related to the High Rates of Food Insecurity among Diverse, Urban College Freshmen
3. Prevalence of Food Insecurity and Associated Health Behaviors among College Freshmen
4. Fighting Food Insecurity on Campus
5. The College and University Food Bank Alliance (CUFBA)
6. The Challenge of Food Insecurity for College Students

Kgarrie (talk) 06:52, 2 March 2017 (UTC)

Hi there. A short section on colledge students would be a valuable addition and as you say would fit nicely in the 'Impact' section after 'Children'. I can't access the San Diego university sources though I exspect they'd be fine, and the other three references looks fine for the sort of information which I'd guess you plan to add. Look forward to seeing how you improve the article, thanks for chosing to work on it. FeydHuxtable (talk) 20:42, 10 March 2017 (UTC)

Hi FeydHuxtable, thank you for your feedback. I appreciate it!

I plan to use the following sources to add to this article in two weeks. Please let me know what you all think. I have provided alternative links and citations.

1. Oregon: http://www.sciencedirect.com.libproxy.sdsu.edu/science/article/pii/S1499404613007070
   • Alternative link: http://www.jneb.org/article/S1499-4046(13)00707-0/abstract
2. Illinois: http://www.sciencedirect.com.libproxy.sdsu.edu/science/article/pii/S1499404616300586
   • Alternative link: http://www.jneb.org/article/S1499-4046(16)30058-6/abstract
3. College Freshmen in Dorms: http://www.sciencedirect.com.libproxy.sdsu.edu/science/article/pii/S2212267216301162
   • Alternative link: http://www.andjrnl.org/article/S2212-2672(16)30116-2/abstract
4. Literature Review: http://search.proquest.com.libproxy.sdsu.edu/docview/1702665064?accountid=13758
   • Citation: Cady, C. L. (2014). Food insecurity as a student issue. Journal of College and Character, 15(4), 265-272.
5. Study similar to national average: http://search.proquest.com.libproxy.sdsu.edu/docview/1546202035/87A90E17BA144194PQ/5?accountid=13758
   • Citation: Gaines, A., Robb, C. A., Knol, L. L., & Sickler, S. (2014). Examining the role of financial  factors, resources and skills in predicting food security status among college students. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 38(4), 374-384.
6. Hawaii: https://www-cambridge-org.libproxy.sdsu.edu/core/journals/public-health-nutrition/article/div-classtitlefood-insecurity-prevalence-among-college-students-at-the-university-of-hawaii-at-mnoadiv/21D2F99685FB0C06061003AB6B9DEE62
   • Citation: Chaparro, M. P., Zaghloul, S. S., Holck, P., & Dobbs, J. (2009). Food insecurity prevalence  among college students at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. Public health nutrition, 12(11), 2097-2103.

Blurb: I feel that by integrating these sources will help provide context given the limited data on this topic. Since there are not many comphrensive studies available, the existing journal articles and few comparative studies will help provide more information about this topic to provide an understanding of the prevalence of college students experiencing hunger.

Kgarrie (talk) 02:13, 23 April 2017 (UTC)

Peer Review

Hi Shivani, I just wanted to say that I had a great time reading your contributions to this article! I feel like before your contributions there must have been a lot missing! Things that I really liked were the illustrations, the great use of citations, and how in depth your research clearly went. I think some things to work on would be making sure it reads like an article and not a research paper and maybe looking at the order of the article. Most Wikipedia articles start with the history section first, then causes, then solutions. But, overall a really great job with room for just a few little improvements to make it awesome!! Kmwebber (talk) 02:18, 28 March 2017 (UTC)Kmwebber

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