Read a post from our blog writer, Giuliana Lawrence, for a recap on our meeting on August 24th, 2020. This meeting started the conversation about food insecurity and we were able to discuss how this specifically impacted the community in Madison, Wisconsin. Monday’s meeting was about food insecurity which is defined as the “disruption of food intake or eating patterns because of lack of money and other resources” (ODPHP). The resources we discussed over the past two weeks were from “Food Insecurity” from the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP), “Food Insecurity During Childhood: Markers for Disparities in Healthy Growth and Development” from the Pediatrics Journal and “Rethink Zero” from the Zero Hunger Challenge supported by the UN. We also discussed an article more specifically geared towards the Madison area: “Hunger & Food Insecurity in Wisconsin and Dane County”. There were several important points mentioned from the articles and video. The first was that black and Hispanic households are nearly two times more likely to be food insecure than the national average (ODPHP). Also, food insecure adults may be at an increased risk for obesity (Pediatrics, 2019). While these statistics may be concerning, there have been food assistance programs put in place (such as NSLP and WIC) in order to try and eliminate these disparities. Since “food insecurity is associated with greater consumption of low-cost, high-energy-dense foods,” it is especially concerning during early childhood (Pediatrics, 2019). With this greater consumption of unhealthy foods, there is an increased effect on feeding practices and patterns that contribute to early child obesity and other chronic health conditions. Other daunting statistics include “over 800 million people go hungry every day” and “one in three children are hungry” in the world according to 2019 statistics (Pediatrics, 2019). There were several highlights from Monday’s discussion concerning these articles and members contributing from personal experiences. One was the idea of how food insecurity could be alleviated through food regulation. Brooke Wilczewski acknowledged how vastly different school lunches look in different countries. Greece, which has school meals plentiful in fresh food and lean meats, is different from the United States’ highly processed, fast lunches. This idea that fast foods are more cost effective and efficient, from a young age, contribute to how eating habits are viewed, and patterns are created. Brock Hermes proposed an interesting question asking, “how would food insecurity between different races in the same place look like?.” From this question stemmed an interesting conversation about welfare benefits and how they differ from nationwide and the benefits and drawbacks within these policies. It is also important to note that disabled people in the Madison area are at a higher risk to be food insecure. Especially with the COVID-19 pandemic, disabled individuals may be even more disproportionally affected because of proximity to grocery stores and quality of transportation. Monday’s meeting was a great start to the conversation on food insecurity and it was important to see how this is specifically impacting the Madison area. We look forward to all the conversations to come. Sources:
AuthorGiuliana Lawrence is a sophomore from Chicago, Illinois double majoring in Neurobiology and Spanish with the intent of going to medical school to become a physician in the future. Comments are closed.
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aboutThis blog is composed by students who attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Beyond Symptoms Organization. This blog serves to educate the public on disparities in healthcare. Categories |