Hunger and Poverty

1. Hunger and Poverty 50.1 million Americans struggle to put food on the table. www.dosomething.org

2. Learning Targets and Game Plan • Conduct research to answer a question • Read to infer/interpret ideas and cite text evidence • Analyze how the author’s choice of words, text structure, and point of view, shape the meaning, tone, and style of a text. • Classroom notes • Small group inquiry • Independent writing assignment

3. Myths about Hunger • People are hungry because there isn’t enough food. • More than enough food to feed everyone in the world • People are hungry because there is an unequal distribution of food • To “be hungry” means a person is starving. • In the United States, starvation accounts for less than 10% of hunger-related mortality

4. Definitions • Hunger • A condition in which people do not get enough food to provide the nutrients for healthy lifestyles • Malnourished • A condition resulting from inadequate consumption of nutrients that can impair physical and mental health • Food insecure • A situation in which families are forced to adopt coping strategies to survive • Food security • Access by all people at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life

5. Hunger and Ohio • 30 percent of Ohioans now live at or below the income guidelines to receive emergency food assistance • Food banks, food pantries, soup kitchens and homeless shelters combined have seen a 51 percent increase in demand over the last four years

6. Federal Food and Nutrition Programs • Programs developed to protect people who are vulnerable to the harmful effects of hunger • Includes programs such as SNAP (formerly the Food Stamp Program), WIC, and the School Lunch Program

7. Federal Food and Nutrition Programs • Small Group Inquiry Assignment • Research and report on one Federal Food and Nutrition Program. • Evaluate how the program might have served the Walls family (in The Glass Castle) and/or the Johnson family (in God Bless the Child). • Resources • USDA Food and Nutrition Servicehttp://www.nutrition.gov/food-assistance-programs • Food and Research Action Center http://frac.org/federal-foodnutrition-programs/ • Cleveland Foodbank www.clevelandfoodbank.org

8. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) • Provides low or no income families and individuals with food assistance via an EBT card that allots a specific amount of money to purchase food products. • The pilot program began in 1961, and the Food Stamp Act was passed into law in 1964. • 15% of the US population uses SNAP benefits. • According to the USDA, each $1 SNAP investment results in $1.84 of economic activity.

9. Women, Infants, and Children Program (WIC) • Provides low income women (pregnant and/or new mothers) and their child up to age 5 with nutritious food packages, nutrition education, and access to health care. • Healthy foods (i.e. fruits, veggies, protein) and infant formula • Benefits 9.1 million Americans each month

10. National School Lunch Program • Federally funded program that allows for school age children to get a nutritional balanced lunch daily • Participating schools (which includes all public schools) must follow dietary guidelines in order to receive subsidies

11. Summer Food Program USDA program for school-aged children to access food/snacks during the summer months Same students that are eligible for the School Lunch program are eligible for this program Local food banks (including the Cleveland Food Bank) provide the food in a safe environment (local libraries, YMCA’s, recreation centers, etc). The program feeds over 20 million children each summer.

12. Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) • Nutritious meals and snacks for eligible children in daycare, after school programs, etc as well and adults (over age 60) in programs including seniors centers, homeless shelters, etc

13. BackPack for Kids Program • For children living below poverty level • Participants receive a backpack and can opener on Friday with 6 meals • Administered by local foodbanks in cooperation with local schools

14. The Glass Castle • We kids usually kept our hunger to ourselves, but we were always thinking of food and how to get our hands on it. During recess at school, I’d slip back into the classroom and find something in some other kid’s lunch bag that wouldn’t be missed – a package of crackers, an apple – and I’d gulp it down so quickly I would barely be able to taste it (68). • What is the tone of this excerpt? What does it reveal to us about the author and her experience? • How can the Walls’ family become more food secure?

15. The Glass Castle Throughout their youth, the Walls’ children experienced recurring bouts of food insecurity. Even in their elementary school years, Jeannette and her siblings were forced to adopt coping strategies, which included sneaking produce from the iceberg lettuce farm and pilfering food from various friends’ houses (, in order to ensure their survival. In one notable incident, the author recalls “slip[ping] back into the classroom and find[ing] something in some other kid’s lunch bag (68).” Her hunger was so intense that she was “barely able to taste” the food that she quickly devoured (68). Walls language suggests the shame and trauma she experienced due to hunger. Words such as “slip” and “gulp” hint at the embarrassment and desperation brought on by the family’s food insecurity, and the notion that “we kids usually kept our hunger to ourselves” only serves to reinforce the psychological effects of hunger. Fortunately, programs including National School Lunch Program and SNAP now exist throughout the country, and seek to ensure that other kids do not experience those physical and emotional effects of hunger and malnutrition. Rather than being compelled to steal from classmates’ lunch bags, students in even the most desperate circumstances will ideally have access to nutritionally balanced low cost or free lunches during the school day.

16. The Glass Castle – Writing Assignment • Find one specific selection in the text that deals with food and/or hunger. First, write out the passage exactly as it appears in the text, and cite appropriately. Then, in two developed paragraphs, construct a response to the questions below. • What is the tone of the excerpt, and what does it reveal ? • How does this excerpt connect to our understanding of food security?