Final Project

Hunger in America

Hunger in America

In America, more than one in every five children is at the risk of hunger. Hunger and food security know no boundaries. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) outlines that food security is the lack of access to enough food for all the embers in the household. On the other hand, hunger denotes the weakness, discomfort or illnesses associated with long-term lack of food. In the recent years, there is a significant increase in the number of families that are food insecure. The above is because the crippling economy of the United States is invigorating high rates in unemployment, homelessness, and hunger. A plethora of evidence and research findings suggest that the trends of food security in America correspond to the national poverty levels which indicate the food security and hunger has a significant correlation to income (Lundeen et al., 2017). The topic of hunger is essential because food prices, hunger, and poverty have an inextricable connection. Millions of individuals in the global paradigm live with hunger since they do not have the financial capacity to purchase food. The value of service learning in effecting positive change for hunger is that it provides a basal framework that it empowers communities by strengthening their self-reliance and encourages individuals to establish food banks at the community level. Service learning is creating an essential and solid foundation that incentivizes the community to develop self-reliant, sustainable and hunger-free communities.

Community organization alludes to the process of individuals coming together in tackling and addressing core issues that are affecting them. Simply put, community organization undertakes a set of activities at the community level with the cardinal intent of spearheading the attainment of the desired improvements and changes to the social wellbeing of groups and individuals. In the context of America, community organizations are instrumental in providing real and community-oriented solutions to poverty and hunger. A significant populace in America struggles to cater for their basic needs. A majority of the families are not only experiencing hunger, but they also have to struggle with unemployment, homelessness and health issues. The aforestated affirms that the prevalent issue of hunger does not exist in isolation. According to the research study by Hunger in America 2014, 57% of the respondents suggested that they have to choose between paying rent and purchasing food and 69% have to choose between buying foods and paying utilities (Thomson, 2017). The above is the core reason why community organizations spearhead for the adoption of self-reliant and sustainable approaches that bring all the stakeholders together with the aim of solving the complex and interconnected issue of hunger.

Community partnerships provide a framework that engages entities and community agencies such as Feeding America in engaging families in a productive way and motivating the families to assume the proactive role of eradicating hunger in their communities. Feeding America encourages community partnership by incentivizing volunteers and other agencies to provide food banks and other resources that improve the community-based outcomes (Goodall, 2016). Consequently, one of the most exciting aspects of service learning in enhancing community partnership is by encouraging the communities and various stakeholders to adopt an outcome-focused approach in addressing the issue of hunger. It stimulates communities to undertake a comprehensive needs evaluation and the identification of the most effective ways of engaging individuals in the society. The approach increases community partnership as it encourages individuals to dive deep and come up with cogent solutions that would bring about long-lasting impacts to the community.

In the recent past, cross-cultural management policymakers and scholars are researching on the factors that are essential and can ensure food supply as well as distribution in the most efficient manner in both the community, regional and international levels. The combined knowledge of cultures interactions, cultural intelligence, and cultural differences enhances the effective integration of community-level knowledge into a national process that will bring about long-lasting impacts (Thomson, 2017). However, lack of cultural understanding is the significant cross-cultural challenge. Since Feeding America is purely a volunteer organization with members from disparate communities and cultural backgrounds the lack of cultural understanding poses critical communication challenges when dealing with communities from different cultural backgrounds such as Hispanics or African American. Additionally, the challenge is evident in the food production and distribution approaches used for donations. There is the potency for having miscommunication concerning food when engaging African Americas and Hispanic groups based on their innate beliefs and cultures about food.

Humanitarian considerations aim at increasing the participation and consultation of people to improve the quality of humanitarian assistance and increase accountability. Also, the activities of all the stakeholders and community organization in addressing the issue of hunger recognize the right of the affected populace to self-determination. Eradication of hunger is the core humanitarian consideration since it leads to malnutrition, poor health, and suffering (Lundeen et al., 2017). The humanitarian food assistance of Feeding America seeks to provide nutritious food and other significant resources. Additionally, they engage in other complementary programs that aims at addressing the underlying causes of hunger and building self-reliance as well as the resilience of the affected communities.

Feeding America is a volunteer network with the innate mission of feeding the hungry in America through their nationwide network of volunteers and members foodbanks as well as engaging the community in the eradicating hunger. The organization provides numerous for volunteering opportunities to individuals. Notably, the volunteer programs provided by the entity are essential for university students as it provides them with extensive knowledge of some of the underlying issues affecting the society such as hunger and poverty (Goodall, 2016). Besides, it creates platforms for sharing ideas and working with the vulnerable communities in designing specialized an innovative program tailored to meet the social need of such communities.

The vision of Feeding America subsumes a different objective aimed towards helping the vulnerable Americans through community-based organizations. Also, the organization aims at providing a framework that engages the communities to mitigate and obliterate hunger in America. Passion is a significant aspect of the vision of the organization. Feeding America capitalizes on the disposition of commitment, passion, and enthusiasm to help vulnerable individuals and encourage them to actualize their inherent potential. Second, the organization seeks to provide the communities with hope by cultivating positive attitudes and perspectives (Feeding America, 2014). Lastly, the organization engrosses the aspect of stewardship to further the realization of their mission. Stewardship enables donors and other stakeholders to have a sense of belonging as the organization involves them in decision making by enhancing transparency and accountability.

Financing and lack of adequate personnel pose significant challenges to the mission and vision of Feeding America. Feeding America has inadequate funds to solve the pertinent issue of hunger in America comprehensively. The dilapidating economic conditions characterized by higher rates of unemployment, homelessness and rising food prices are exacerbating the condition. The aforestated factors exert immense stress on the available resources making it strenuous to address the issue of hunger ecumenically. A burgeoning body of evidence is highlighting the systematic increase in the number of families that are facing hunger (Thomson, 2017). The above precedent outlines that there is the ever-growing demand for food supplies which staining the existing financial budget and resources of Feeding America. Consequently, there is a lack of adequate personnel to handle the increasing demand for food emergency services.

Following an exegetic and detailed assessment of the challenges faced by the community organization in addressing the issue of hunger, it is evident that the organization need to improve on some aspects. The organization needs to come up with income generating activities such as sewing projects which will enable people in the community to have an income enables them to be self-reliant (Goodall, 2016). Additionally, they should empower stakeholders and other individuals at the local level to manage their foodbanks. Individuals in the community should provide storage for excess food resources that will help individuals facing food insecurities.

Conclusively, Service learning is fundamental as it spearheads for the creation of an indispensable and solid foundation that incentivizes the community to develop self-reliant, sustainable and hunger-free communities. Feeding America along with community organizations spearheads for the adoption of self-reliant and sustainable approaches that bring all the stakeholders together with the aim of eradicating hunger. However, lack of cultural understanding, inadequate finances and lack of adequate personal pose significant challenges to the attainment of the vision mentioned above. Some of the salient improvements that offset the above challenges include the provision of income generating activities and empowering the community to take the initiative in addressing the issue of hunger.

References Feeding America. (2014). Hunger in America. Goodall, K. (2016, January 29). Finding real community-focused solutions to hunger and poverty. Retrieved from http://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-blog/finding-real-hunger-soluntions.html Lundeen, E., Siegel, K., Calhoun, H., Garcia, S., Hoeting, N., & Harris, D. (2017). Peer Reviewed: Clinical-Community Partnerships to Identify Patients With Food Insecurity and Address Food Needs. Preventing chronic disease. Thomson, G. (2017). Food Date Labels and Hunger in America. Concordia L. Rev.