Real Hunger Games

Updated 18 May 2024; original 26 August 2019

Globally, the UN reports over 800M people live with hunger, that is 1 person in every 9 on this planet. According to FeedingAmerica, in 2014, 1 in 7 Americans relied on a food bank. The item that is so horrifying is that FeastMedia reports that 1 in 6 children are hungry. FeedingAmerica writes that 89% of families with children were food insecure; and that 84% of those families report buying cheap fast food to meet their children’s food needs.

A Personal Story

Herstory

At one point in my life, when I was young (~8 years of age), my family was in the USA and consisted of five children, and just our mother. Without getting into much detail, some of which I still do not know, some of which I will not share, our father or extended family were not present.

Of the kids, I was the oldest, and we were all ~2 years apart so our ages were 8, 6, 4, 2, and a baby; so you can easily see we were a very young and large family. My mother was a German immigrant to this country and had by then become a citizen. However, she had limited english skills, limited education, no car, no home, and no real work experience. We had nothing left from her marriage but our suitcases of clothes, healthy bodies, and my mothers survival attitude.

With help, my mother, signed up for governmental assistance to cover rent, food stamps, medical coverage, and other programs. Obviously, that governmental assistance was not nearly enough for such a young and large family. But we survived, thanks to my mother’s food decisions and knowledge, and because of help from others. At times my mother and I would skimp on ourselves, so that the younger children would have more to eat. Unfortunately, this story continues to be shared by many families today who experience food insecurity.

This brief glimpse into a part of my past is meant to provide legitimacy; I know what it means to worry about food. I have experienced hunger. But my experience is also why I am truly horrified to read families taking their children to fast food joints. The answer to food insecurity is multi-faceted, but a critical part, is to learn how to maximize existing food sources.

Without a doubt, children need to be fed nutritious foods, otherwise they do poorly in school and poor nutrition affects their short and long-term health. (We are also learning that it will also effect their children’s childrens health as well.) I know it can be done because we did it. But it really does “take a village” to meet the need, because food insecurity is rarely just about food. There are other issues involved like family history and dynamics, mental health, etc.

Stores Role

Americans have a tendency to eat the same things over and again, and have limited knowledge about the various veggies that exist or how to use them fully. A good example is, how many people actually know how to cook a rutabaga, parsnips, kohlrabi, and so on. Yet, those foods were inexpensive to buy, you just had to know what to do with them.

In Europe, there was a tendency to eat food in season, so we learned how to use various veggies and fruit. Because my mother knew how to cook using these foods, and they were always cheaper than the usual veggies, we ate better than others in our situation. She had also been raised during WWII in Munich, from which she learned about food scarcity herself, and how to feed oneself. So she made deals with the local produce people, and would buy the “ugly” or “older” looking produce they could not put on the shelves. She would buy dented cans, or slightly out of date foods. Essentially, she managed to get great discounts on these foods because people were willing to help and she was willing to barter.

Farmers + Butchers Roles

During this time, we were also lucky that we lived in an area that had many military families, and as a result, there was a large German community. Using German connections, my mother hooked up with some German butchers and farmers who would sell direct to us. The farmers, for example, would provide 100# bags of potatoes at wholesale, that is cheaper than retail cost; and since we knew how to properly store these foods, we had them available all the time.

The butchers would sell us the portions of the cow Americans would not eat, or would consider the lesser cuts of meat. An example is beef tongue, animal innards, pig cheeks, etc. The butcher/farmer would sometimes throw in some boy-chickens, often too skinny for the Americans to buy. The result was that with my mother’s knowledge of food, and spending wisely, she was able to feed five growing kids.

Children‘s Roles

Feeding us was a family affair, not just my mother’s responsibility. My siblings and I worked primarily blueberry and strawberry farms in the summer to bring in money. I was nearly 6’ tall when I was ~ten years old so could also babysit as everyone thought I was older. We would all dutifully come home and give our mother the money we had made, which was pooled to fund food, but also cover our school necessities. (Were we sometimes pissy about giving her the money? Regretfully yes, I have to admit, since I earned it I wanted to spend it.)

One of my brothers would pick neighbors fruit trees and offer to mow their yards, for a negotiated price of some of the fruit from their trees. My mother knew how to can, so we were able to utilize all the food he brought in by making jam and canning fruits or vegetables.

Another brother would fish in a local lake, and then my mother and he would clean the fish and put them in the freezer for use when needed. (My mom did not really like fish, so it was our meat of last resort, but thankfully it was there for us to use.) Everyone of “working” age did their part to help bring in money or bartered food. This story is common in immigrant families and it can unify or tear apart families just from the pressure.

• But now in 2024, with bad policy, picking fruit or vegetables as child farm labor has been twisted into allowing children to work in meat packing plants. These are much more dangerous for children and results in injuries, loss of education, and can absolutely ruin families or children’s lives.

Religious + Non-Profit Community Roles

Local people who had no family relationship or ethnic connection to us would help us because of their religious beliefs. A Mormon family, who canned and stored years worth of food in their cellar, would give us their older home-canned goods. This would occur if they had canned too much and needed to rotate out the older food. They would arrive and give my mother sacks of jarred food. And we were careful to always clean those jars and return them for reuse.

Non-profit groups would help with clothing, Christmas trees, and holiday gifts for when we could not afford much. Food banks would also provided food which was always appreciated.

Government‘s Role

The government helped by providing food stamps that my mother would use very wisely to buy raw foods. The only processed foods she did buy, that I remember, were boxes of mac-n-cheese; which you could get 4 for $1 when on special. (This was the only cheesy thing I remember us eating.) She would buy milk, oatmeal, peanut butter, beans, and rice. I do not remember her baking anything other than cookies and some quick-loafs, so she must have bought bread too. Later she would also buy big bags of generic morning cereal.

School‘s Role

The school would help by subsidizing lunch. We would get a daily pint of milk with a hot school lunch. It cost us five cents a day and we paid it with our “berry money.” Not the best looking food, but hot and consistent, so my mother did not have to provide lunch. It was therefore important we went to school every day, skipping school could have meant no lunch that day.

• But also, back then schools still taught “home economics” which taught people how to cook and sew among other household skills. These skills are no longer taught which is a shame for it would help make our citizens more self sufficient in primary survival skills.

In Summary

We were helped by many people in our larger community. It allowed us to meet our food needs during a period of time when we absolutely needed the help. Our circumstances changed dramatically when I was ~11 and my mother met a man she would later marry. And what he brought was the financial ability to buy a house, one with a yard to grow food, with a walnut, cherry and other fruit trees, a garden space to grow our own, and wild rhubarb. Housing and food were no longer issues; our berry picking money become funds we saved and used for school clothes and supplies.

Conclusion

In California, over 4.3M people or 11% of the population experience food insecurity. In my county alone, for 2017 the count was over 113k. In reality, hunger is everywhere in this “land of plenty.” You cannot tell who is hungry just by just looking at the people around you. Hunger’s face is a student, a child, an elderly person, families, and single people of our age.

What can we do locally?

• Support local food markets
• Support community gardens and grow your own
• Donate food or money to food banks and shelters
• Support food drives with money and products
• If working at a food business convince them to donate
• Be an advocate for fair wages
• Support school meal programs and school gardens
• Sponsor a food drive at your place of work
• Support those who work on this issue

What can we do globally?

• Support programs like Heifer
• Shop ethically
• Urge the USA to be a global partner in the fight against hunger

–Patty

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_{While this post was revised, no statistics were changed so it still reflects earlier data. What I did was reformat and clean up the text so it flowed better. 2024 comments are noted in italic and placed as a bullet point to help distinguish my narrative-relevant changes or comments.}