I head the Hunger Free America Initiative (HFAI). HFAI is an organization that works hand in hand with the U.S agricultural department in ensuring that low income earners get the SNAP/ Food stamp program. The organizations main role is to conduct research and studies that establish the families that require the food stamp provide. The research is continuous but the reports are only reauthorized after 5 years by the congress. This reauthorization is to ensure that all those that benefit from the program require it. The last reauthorization was on September 2013 where the congress approved the report we had helped compile recommending the families that required the food program. Below is a related research on how hunger has increased in America and is slowly turning into a national crisis. The research paper will be submitted to head of research at the U.S agricultural department.

America is a great nation. A nation that is full of great people. The American heritage is a legacy that we have managed to sustain for a long time making as a super power amongst all other nations of the world. However, the unity of the people is at stake due to a looming hunger crisis in the country. Food is evidently the most fundamental need and every person should be able to access it at all times. Food is an absolute necessity for sustaining the nation as the economy’s labor can only be achieved through a well-fed nation. America, as a Nation, is doomed if there is no food security in the country.

Over the past few years, groceries have become a luxury to many American citizens. The crisis has resulted from increasing poverty level in the nation. Millions of families continue struggling for food everyday and often sleep hungry as the little earning they make do not cover the cost children can have food to eat. In the families that are further down the poverty ladder both the parents and their children have had to sleep hungry. It is estimated that one of the four American children does not have enough food to eat. This translates to quite a huge number of hungry children in the nation. The great recession has had a place in escalating the hunger crisis in the country. The recession led to laying off of otherwise productive and responsible people including heads of families. With the head of the family unemployed, it was obvious that the food would not be as available as before. Food insecurity has also been propagated by high levels of unemployment. Small wages have also been a major contribution to food shortages. Many low-income earning families are faced with critical decisions as whether to buy groceries or pay the bills. These families often decide to pay their bills to avoid inconveniences thereby sacrificing food in the process. To those Americans it is either they sleep hungry, or they do not have a place to live at all.

A study by Feeding America has found out that every single county in the U.S suffers from food insecurity albeit in varying levels. About 50 million of Americans are affected by food insecurity. This is about 14.7% of American households. 17 million of these food-deprived citizens are children. These children are expected to attend school every morning on hungry stomachs and compete with children that have unlimited access to food. Fellow Americans, looking at this you will realize that inequality in our schools is also caused by hunger.

Hungry children are less likely attentive in class than their classmates who have access to quality food. These hungry children do not have equal opportunities and are less likely to develop into productive adults. It is also obvious to all that these children suffer from numerous illnesses resulting from malnutrition. Hungry adults, on the other hand, have reduced their performance in the work place, as they do not possess sufficient energy to exploit their full potential. Lack of individual maximum performance translates to reduced economic activity in relation to labor hence the nations collective performance is impaired. Food insecurity among us Americans is, therefore, a critical issue, and every citizen should take the initiative to ensure he/she helps in the fighting of this vice threatening to weaken our beloved Nation.

I tremble when I think of that poor woman in the streets with her toddler and having nothing to eat or feed to her tiny child. I find it hard to nurse the thoughts of that child struggling to suckle from her mother’s breast with nothing coming into her mouth. I hate to think of that child trying to suckle repeatedly until she realizes that it is just effortless and starts crying; tears that fill her mother with grief. It must be quite painful for that parent to watch their child starve to death.

Brothers and Sisters, we must not take the hunger lightly as it affects each one of us as a Nation. Your relative, workmate, friend, or even neighbor could be suffering from hunger and food insecurity as we speak. Acts of humanities and kindness have been eroded from our dictionaries, as we do not practice them anymore. As an Americans and as a sign of our loyalty to this country we must take hunger as an enemy of our sovereignty and fight in unison towards eradicating it. Obviously, we the Americans, have adapted a slogan stating that every person should take care of his/her own welfare but this should not be the case anymore. As much as everyone has their own responsibilities that weigh us down, we should also show concern to fellow citizens and show acts of humanity. Humanity refers to treating each other as equals irrespective of their gender, race, social or economic class. The American spirit should always be demonstrated in how we treat other people and how we respond collectively as a nation toward crisis. Hunger and food insecurity are not exceptions and should be treated as national crises by every citizen, to ensure that we work a strategy toward eradicating it.

I urge all of us to never take for granted our infamous ‘God Bless America’ unifying phrase that brings us together as a nation. It points us to the fact that among all the nations of the world, God chose to Bless Americans exceptionally and has always continued to do so. We must not allow the blessings to pass us by not sharing them by our brothers and sisters who are underprivileged. Not all of us can be custodians of blessing and therefore God uses a few of us bestowing upon us the moral obligation to distribute the blessings to other people. I, therefore, challenge every American to undertake this process of eliminating food insecurity among us. It starts from sharing meals with the less fortunate in the neighborhood. Various organizations such as Feeding America, World Health Organization (WHO) have come up with noble initiatives to fight hunger and I would urge the whole nation to join in the efforts. We can do this through making donations and volunteering in the numerous programs that these organizations have set up. These efforts must seem simple but ii ought to give us a path to counter hunger and rid Americans off hunger in the end.

The government has a mandate to ensure that each of its citizens has food security and should, therefore, work towards achieving this. In the past, there was use of food stamps that subsidized food prices for the poor but this program has been reduced. The government should re-introduce this program, as it should be a stepping-stone in eradicating hunger. I also urge the government to review minimum salaries and wages so that the salaries can be able to cover up the rise in food prices and overall cost of living in America. It is also essential to separate the issue of hunger with politics and the government should not handle it as apolitical matter. In addition, it is important that the government fund the projects that are aimed at eradicating hunger to safeguard its people’s interest.

Fellow citizens, Let us all unite and fight hunger. Our children must go to school with full satisfied, our workforce must go to work satisfied, and our nation must be a well-fed nation. Let us all unite and Kick Hunger out of America!