The Strong Bond between Poverty and Childhood Hunger

When I think about child hunger, the first thing that comes to mind are the sketchy PSAs (Public Service Announcements) that are always collecting donations for malnourished children in foreign countries (see commercial by clicking on link below).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwThgRYMJJw

And as I tune into commercials like the one above, the only thought that runs through my mind is...

However, once I started researching the topic of "Child Hunger", I realized that the problem of food insecurities is not always just a scam that helps the rich get richer, it is actually a HUGE ordeal. An ordeal that is not only common overseas in foreign countries, but an ordeal that hits very close to home (America).  While I surfed through the numerous crannies of the internet, I found out that there are over 17 million children, nationwide, that suffer from the constant pains of hunger.  These children are the victims of households that fail to acquire the proper resources that are necessary to  fight food insecurities due to insufficient funds or other circumstances that has led them to food impairment.

As shown on the chart above, 42% of the children with families who were food insecure, earn somewhere around $17,000 a year (for a family of three) which is below the poverty line. 10% earned around $22,000 a year (for a family of three) which puts them between 100%-130% of the poverty line. 6% earned about $32,000 a year (for a family of three) which placed them 130%-185% of the federal poverty line. And 21% earned an income above 185% of the poverty line which is also still around $32,000 a year (for a family of three).

As you can see most of the families do not make very much money but due to the outdated formula that our government uses to calculate the poverty line, most of these families are considered to be "wealthy" in the eyes of our government.  The outdated formula that is used to configure the poverty line is based on food prices alone, it doesn't add up other expenses that most of us encounter today such as housing, health care, child care, gas, transportation, and the list goes on and on and on.  So due to this outdated system, most Americans live in poor, food insecure conditions that lead to OUR children (as a country) going without food (See Picture Below).