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By Rikki Borkowski, Rancho Santa Fe
January 10, 2012 (San Diego) -- One in 16 children in the U.S. is suffering from food insecurity, the state of not being able to provide nutritious foods to you, oneself or family. This is a major problem all around the country, even in our own backyard. How can a country so advanced still be living in the 1950s in terms of food insecurity?
This question shows how vulnerable the children of this country have become in families that may not be able to provide food again. We need to protect our newest generation from what the world can harshly bring into the lives of struggling children and raise awareness of the many problems associated with food insecurity.
Fewer and fewer people are remembering just how important the major problem of food insecurity is and how it has impacted so many lives in this country. Tom Vilsak, the U.S. Agricultural Secretary said "These numbers are a wake-up call for the country," referring to the 13 million people who became food insecure within the past years. As food insecurity grows more distant in the eyes of government officials, the amount of children that are affected each day rises. According to Feeding America from, 2006 to 2008, 13,911,774 kids under the age of 18 became food insecure. Also in California alone, 1,757,375 kids were faced with the same problem of becoming a member of the 4.75 million children in the U.S. who are food insecure.
To raise awareness, we can do many things with our communities to tell others about this problem and even take a step towards erasing child hunger. We can donate to food banks, conduct our own food drives and many other effective activities. Personally, I ran in a "Run for the Hungry" which donated your paying money to the food bank. I have also volunteered at the San Diego food bank, and am very excited to return. Doing your part in the community can make a larger difference than what you see on the surface; start raising awareness about child hunger, now. Communities across the nation need the help of their newspapers and other organizations to begin
the journey to create a better tomorrow.
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