Hunger not the same as nutrition, panelists say
October 28, 2013 | 01:36 PM
NEW YORK CITY — How does anyone know if someone else is hungry and whether someone is getting proper nutrition? And what approach would lead the government and society in general to make sure people get food?
Experts on hunger, food insecurity and nutrition at the James Beard Foundation Food Conference here last week struggled with those questions as they discussed “Hunger in Our Backyard.”
Jan Poppendieck
“Cervantes said ‘hunger is the best sauce in the world,’ and Mom said ‘don’t spoil your dinner,’ ” Jan Poppendieck, the co-founder and policy director of the New York City Food Policy Center at Hunter College said.
Noting “it is also important physiologically to be hungry,” she said “it is confusing that we use the same word for the personal [hunger before eating] as well as for the society.”
“If hunger is occasional it won’t necessarily do you any harm,” Poppendieck said, but hunger becomes important when it interferes with the optimal development of an infant, when it thwarts education and when it makes people vulnerable to disease.
“If a person has eaten a big meal at a soup kitchen, or if a high school senior skips lunch to achieve model slimness or a kid just above the poverty line or rich kid doesn’t eat properly — are all these people hungry?” she asked.
Asking people whether they are hungry doesn’t work because “it induces shame,” Poppendieck said, adding that modern knowledge of people’s need for food became much clearer when the government began asking people about specifics such as “Did you in the last 12 months cut your food budget for something else?”
If a mother shows up at a grocery story near midnight on the 31st of the month so that she can pay as soon as she gets her a new installment of food stamp benefits, “you know that woman is out of food,” she said. “People going to food banks wouldn’t go if they were not hungry.”
National food insecurity statistics are released annually, Poppendieck noted, but “they don’t move us much anymore.”
Mariana Chilton
Mariana Chilton, the director of the Center for Hunger-Free Communities and a professor at Drexel University in Philadelphia, said food stamps have “eradicated” American children “starving and dying,” but that children are still “truncated” due to food insecurity and poor nutrition.
Chilton said she believes “it is extremely important to think about the quality of food as well as the access to food,” but that some of her anti-hunger colleagues criticize her for talking about the quality of school lunch and breakfast.
But when a representative of Edelman, the public relations firm, suggested that “nutrition security” might be a better term than hunger or food insecurity, Chilton said that if nutrition security is added to the debate, “people will fall asleep on the second syllable.”
Nikki Johnson-Huston, an attorney who was raised on food stamps, said “I wish somebody had talked to me about the issues related to nutrition when people were trying to help us. There was the idea that you couldn’t ask for what you wanted. I learned a lot of bad habits I have had to overcome as an adult.”
Both Chilton and Poppendieck said they view hunger and food insecurity as part of a larger issue of poverty.
Chilton urged the attendees to “get more involved in your community. Stop the denial about hunger and poverty. Work with people who are low income to make sure they can be heard. Make sure they can talk to people.”
And she added that activists should “take some joy in it. There is lots of light and happiness at the end.”
Poppendieck said she believes that programs to fight hunger are more popular than cash welfare and other programs because “the biological root that we were all hungry once has given hunger in the society more appeal than other forms of poverty.”
There are 10 times as many people on food stamps — about 47 million — as on cash welfare because “of that ability to identify that root,” Poppendieck said, but added she has mixed feelings about the success of the anti-hunger movement while other welfare programs languish.
“Hunger obscures the underlying problem of the mounting inequality and the concentration of political power in the hands of people who share almost nothing,” Poppendieck said. “I have developed a serious appetite for campaign finance reform.”
Experts on hunger, food insecurity and nutrition at the James Beard Foundation Food Conference here last week struggled with those questions as they discussed “Hunger in Our Backyard.”
Jan Poppendieck
“Cervantes said ‘hunger is the best sauce in the world,’ and Mom said ‘don’t spoil your dinner,’ ” Jan Poppendieck, the co-founder and policy director of the New York City Food Policy Center at Hunter College said.
Noting “it is also important physiologically to be hungry,” she said “it is confusing that we use the same word for the personal [hunger before eating] as well as for the society.”
“If hunger is occasional it won’t necessarily do you any harm,” Poppendieck said, but hunger becomes important when it interferes with the optimal development of an infant, when it thwarts education and when it makes people vulnerable to disease.
“If a person has eaten a big meal at a soup kitchen, or if a high school senior skips lunch to achieve model slimness or a kid just above the poverty line or rich kid doesn’t eat properly — are all these people hungry?” she asked.
Asking people whether they are hungry doesn’t work because “it induces shame,” Poppendieck said, adding that modern knowledge of people’s need for food became much clearer when the government began asking people about specifics such as “Did you in the last 12 months cut your food budget for something else?”
If a mother shows up at a grocery story near midnight on the 31st of the month so that she can pay as soon as she gets her a new installment of food stamp benefits, “you know that woman is out of food,” she said. “People going to food banks wouldn’t go if they were not hungry.”
National food insecurity statistics are released annually, Poppendieck noted, but “they don’t move us much anymore.”
Mariana Chilton
Mariana Chilton, the director of the Center for Hunger-Free Communities and a professor at Drexel University in Philadelphia, said food stamps have “eradicated” American children “starving and dying,” but that children are still “truncated” due to food insecurity and poor nutrition.
Chilton said she believes “it is extremely important to think about the quality of food as well as the access to food,” but that some of her anti-hunger colleagues criticize her for talking about the quality of school lunch and breakfast.
But when a representative of Edelman, the public relations firm, suggested that “nutrition security” might be a better term than hunger or food insecurity, Chilton said that if nutrition security is added to the debate, “people will fall asleep on the second syllable.”
Nikki Johnson-Huston, an attorney who was raised on food stamps, said “I wish somebody had talked to me about the issues related to nutrition when people were trying to help us. There was the idea that you couldn’t ask for what you wanted. I learned a lot of bad habits I have had to overcome as an adult.”
Both Chilton and Poppendieck said they view hunger and food insecurity as part of a larger issue of poverty.
Chilton urged the attendees to “get more involved in your community. Stop the denial about hunger and poverty. Work with people who are low income to make sure they can be heard. Make sure they can talk to people.”
And she added that activists should “take some joy in it. There is lots of light and happiness at the end.”
Poppendieck said she believes that programs to fight hunger are more popular than cash welfare and other programs because “the biological root that we were all hungry once has given hunger in the society more appeal than other forms of poverty.”
There are 10 times as many people on food stamps — about 47 million — as on cash welfare because “of that ability to identify that root,” Poppendieck said, but added she has mixed feelings about the success of the anti-hunger movement while other welfare programs languish.
“Hunger obscures the underlying problem of the mounting inequality and the concentration of political power in the hands of people who share almost nothing,” Poppendieck said. “I have developed a serious appetite for campaign finance reform.”
