America's Child Hunger Crisis (Script & Sources)

Good morning, bad news - millions of infants and children are starving in the United States, which has the worst food security of any economically comparable nation.

During the pandemic, the number of children living in food-insecure households rose by 6 million so now 17 million kids are unsure if they’ll have enough to eat. That’s 1 in 4 families in states like Louisiana, Arkansas, Kentucky, Maryland, and Oklahoma.

We’re going to talk about how the richest country in the world, where billionaires added 1.3 trillion dollars to their net worth during the pandemic, is also seemingly incapable of making sure that the children living in it have enough food.

Food insecurity is defined as a lack of consistent access to enough food for every person in a household to live an active, healthy life. While there are federal programs designed to provide food for those below the poverty line - in the United States, the poverty line is fake. As we’ve covered in a previous video, about 100 million Americans live in poverty, but above the poverty line, and don’t qualify for programs like food assistance.

Ironically, the investment in making sure American citizens and their children have enough to eat, more than pays for itself, just like all social programs targeted towards lower and middle-income families.

The national budget is a balance - there is more than plenty enough money to feed every single child and support a society that helps people live more comfortable lives. But, then we’d not have the ability to give tax cuts that allow the ultra-wealthy to pay a lower overall tax rate than the middle class, or absolutely zero in taxes for people like Elon Musk. Who by the way, in one day, saw his net worth increase by the exact amount necessary to end hunger in the United States.

Seriously, that’s not an exaggeration, it costs 25 billion dollars in higher purchasing power to end hunger, and Elon Musk made 25 billion dollars in one day on March 9th, 2021. Like… yes, those are real numbers, it’s actually that absurd. And to be clear, we’re not asking Elon Musk to solve hunger, although he can and should: we’re asking, how did we end up with such an embarrassingly broken system?

Well, you don’t get any points for guessing because it’s the same answer every time: Ronald Regan. Pause for boos. In the 1960 and 70s, a huge effort to eliminate hunger in the United States inspired by the Black Panthers Free Breakfast for Children program led to the rise of food assistance programs, like WIC, which is specifically designed to provide food to women, infants, and children. And by the time Reagan was elected, hunger had almost been eradicated in the United States. But as soon as he was in office, Reagan literally doubled defense spending, and made massive cuts to social programs to pay for it, specifically food assistance programs. Unsurprisingly, food insecurity among children has steadily increased since Regan was in office, as has the defense budget.

The picture of food insecurity has been poorly painted since the 80s - we now know the issue significantly impacts the lives of BIPOC folks, the elderly, people with disabilities & veterans - but the majority of SNAP recipients are white women with at least one child. There is a direct correlation between food insecurity and issues like infant mortality and domestic violence. But when efforts are made to improve food security, along with safe sleeping programs, and drug and alcohol rehabilitation, as was tried in Baltimore, Maryland, infant mortality rates fell to their lowest point ever.

Frankly, food insecurity is way more expensive to deal with, than it is to fix. A study by Feeding America found that food insecurity is linked to  $53 billion in excess healthcare expenditures that drive up the cost of healthcare for everyone. Children's physical, intellectual and emotional development is impaired, women are more likely to stay with an abusive partner, young adults are not prepared to perform effectively in the workforce and in veteran populations - food insecurity is a direct contributor to higher rates of depression, suicide, homelessness and substance abuse.

Even within a dystopian capitalist model, designed to create the most productive worker at the lowest cost; not providing children with the food they need is a net loss. It is embarrassing and frankly, baffling that there is a hunger crisis in the richest country in the entire world, where one single person makes enough money in one day to end that crisis forever. Maybe that’s a problem.