Child hunger and poverty has become one of America's leading problems. It is a problem that affects a large number of children all over the country. There are many causes of child poverty and hunger. These causes are all directly or indirectly a result of people, whether it be the rich or the poor. This problem is recognized all over the world. The government has set up many programs to try to help, including The Second Harvest and the NCCP.
Child hunger and poverty is a social problem. Not all problems are social; in order for a problem to be social it must first meet certain criteria. A social problem must affect a large number of people. Child hunger and poverty affects nearly sixteen million children under the age of eighteen.(NCCP) In November 2001, America's Second Harvest, a program that solicits donated food and grocery products from the nation's food and grocery industry and distributes it to hungry people across America, released its third hunger study: Hunger in America 2001. They researched some interesting facts and statistics on child hunger. Among all members of client households, 18.4% of kitchen clients stated that their child/children had skipped meals within the last twelve months because there was not enough money for food. Over 22.2% of shelter clients indicated that their child/children was/were hungry at least once during the previous twelve months but could not afford more food. (Second Harvest) A more conclusive study of Hunger in America 2001can be found on the Second Harvest website.
The second criterion of a social problem is that is must be socially caused or caused by the actions of people. There are many reasons why there is poverty. The major is reason is because of disparities between rich and poor. Fewer people are becoming wealthy, but a disproportionately larger population is becoming poor, which leads to an increase in poverty. Poor people are not necessarily poor due to their own bad decisions, although in some cases this may prove to be true.
