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Holding Hands Against Hunger: How Americans Were Conned
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10200 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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Date : |
8 / 1986 |
3,658 Words |
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S. Anna Kondratas
S. Anna Kondratas is a Schultz senior policy analyst at the
Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., specializing in
welfare issues. |
Americans joined hands across the continent on May 25 to draw attention to what the sponsors of the event referred to as the problem of "millions" going hungry in this country. It has been suggested that there may be as many as 20 million "hungry" Americans. The organizers of Hands Across America even claimed on network television that "there is widespread hunger and famine in America."
There are no facts to substantiate this assertion. To the contrary, in the late 1970s scientific studies reported that hunger and malnutrition because of lack of income were not a problem in the United States; only isolated cases of it remained. Since then, federal spending on food programs has gone up, not down. A greater proportion of the poverty population is receiving food stamps today than ever before. Indeed, one in 10 Americans is a food stamp recipient. Supplementary private-sector food assistance also is expanding rapidly. And food costs comprise a smaller proportion of personal income than five years ago, while per capita caloric consumption is up.
So what would explain rising hunger? Nothing. The truth is that problem is any worse now than it was in the late 1970s, and the likelihood is that it has improved. Moreover, the degree of hunger in the United States is comparatively tiny, and persistent hunger is related more to dietary ignorance than to lack of federal assistance. The perception of widespread hunger is rooted in subjective, anecdotal impression, based on isolated and unrepresentative cases.
The methodologies of the much-publicized studies that purported to "find" 20 million hungry Americans and to identify 150 "Hunger Counties" have
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