Social Science - Sociology Assignment 2

2

Sociology Assignment 1

WEEK 2 SOCIAL PROBLEM

University

Dr.

December 7, 2025

Food insecurity is a grave and contemporary societal issue in the United States, as it undermines health, education, and family welfare and supports historical disparities. Food insecurity is a condition in which households in a certain region cannot afford food because the food is unaffordable. In the most recent national federal reporting, food insecurity was 13.5 percent in U.S. households with 5.1 percent. Having extremely low food security it is characterized by interrupted food habits and diminished food intake at least one time of the year (U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service, 2024). This is not a fringe issue. It is an institutional policy flop that has cannon fodder.

Low-income households, households with children, single-parent households, households with Black and Hispanic households, elderly individuals with limited income, people with disabilities, and communities with high housing and healthcare costs as compared to earnings are the most susceptible groups (U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service, 2024). The children of food-insecure families are at high risk of adverse physical and mental health conditions and worse academic achievements, and it is impossible to consider the issue as a temporary inconvenience. It is a risk factor that may predetermine the life trajectories (Mande, 2023).

Lack of food in the United States is an issue that has been recognized by historians for decades and has typically come to the forefront during economic recessions and social emergencies. The Great Depression also led to increased federal responses, which took the form of long-term food support. In 1946, the National School Lunch Program was enacted, based on the concept of child nutrition as a national interest matter and a welfare issue (U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service, 2024).The program was institutionalized in the 1960s under the name of Food Stamp Program and renamed to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. This shift is the transition to emergency aid to institutional and state assistance, but the sufficiency of benefits and their availability has been a controversial issue over the years (U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service, 2024).

The problem of food insecurity has become more visible and contextualized and it is a problem of a particular population. Although the issue of poverty has been the focus now, the contemporary environment is being defined by stagnant wages in low-paid jobs, precarious work as a gig worker or a service worker, increasing living costs, and expanding regional inequalities. The resultant effect is that food insecurity can be considered to be linked to employment and not necessarily a product of unemployment. That fact is not palatable to policymakers, as it reveals that work on its own is not a sufficient factor to ensure basic well-being. Another study on food insecurity establishes a correlation between food insecurity and a lower quality of diet, as well as an increased risk of developing chronic diseases. It attests to the fact that hunger is a social welfare issue as an issue of health equity (Odoms-Young, 2023).

This issue does not align with the values and ethics of social work, as chronic hunger threatens the dignity, significance of human relationships, service, and social justice that are at the core of the profession. When families need to make constant decisions between food, rent, utilities, and medicine, they are, in a way, condoning the deprivation of groups that are already structurally disadvantaged. A framing of individual responsibility is not simply weak reasoning. It is morally unfavorable and empirically incongruent to the evidence that the accessibility to food in the household is a result of the massive-scale economic and policy situations (Odoms-Young, 2023; U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service, 2024).

Disciplined and targeted steps should be followed to identify a policy response, rather than open and rhetorical ones. To begin with, I would specify the population and place to reach a better picture of the prevalence of the issue: I would select a specific state or metropolitan area, and use national and local prevalence estimates to delimit the scope and pattern of need (Feeding America, 2024; U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service, 2024). Second, I would map the root drivers in such environment, and differentiate the affordability factor, on the one hand, and the access and administrative load, on the other hand. Third, I would implement some evidence-based options, including SNAP benefit adequacy, simplified enrollment and recertification, expanded or universal school meal models, and improved integration between social services and healthcare, with screening and referral being reliable in assessing risk (Mande, 2023; U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service, 2024). Fourth, I would analyze the political and fiscal feasibility, and anticipate unintended outcomes especially of mixed-status families and neighborhoods that have always been underserved by safety net systems. Finally, I would establish measurable evaluations of outcomes, including changes in household food security, child nutrition outcomes, program enrolment and maladaptive coping outcomes.

An opportunity to develop a valid social change project on food insecurity in the United States should lead to the formulation of a policy that is specific, evidence-based, and accountable. There is no dearth of instruments in the United States. It is not as determined to make sure that those tools are adequate, available, and in line with the realities that confront the families at the risk of the highest priority.

References

Feeding America. (2024). Map the Meal Gap 2024.

Mande, J. (2023). The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program as a health intervention. Current Opinion in Pediatrics, 35(1).

Odoms-Young, A. (2023). Food insecurity and health equity in the United States. Annual Review of Public Health, 44.

U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service. (2024). Household food security in the United States in 2023.

U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service. (2024). A short history of SNAP.

2

Sociology Assignment 1

WEEK 2 SOCIAL PROBLEM

University

Dr.

December 7, 2025

Food insecurity is a grave and contemporary societal issue in the United States, as it undermines health, education, and family welfare and supports historical disparities. Food insecurity is a condition in which households in a certain region cannot afford food because the food is unaffordable. In the most recent national federal reporting, food insecurity was 13.5 percent in U.S. households with 5.1 percent. Having extremely low food security it is characterized by interrupted food habits and diminished food intake at least one time of the year (U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service, 2024). This is not a fringe issue. It is an institutional policy flop that has cannon fodder.

Low-income households, households with children, single-parent households, households with Black and Hispanic households, elderly individuals with limited income, people with disabilities, and communities with high housing and healthcare costs as compared to earnings are the most susceptible groups (U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service, 2024). The children of food-insecure families are at high risk of adverse physical and mental health conditions and worse academic achievements, and it is impossible to consider the issue as a temporary inconvenience. It is a risk factor that may predetermine the life trajectories (Mande, 2023).

Lack of food in the United States is an issue that has been recognized by historians for decades and has typically come to the forefront during economic recessions and social emergencies. The Great Depression also led to increased federal responses, which took the form of long-term food support. In 1946, the National School Lunch Program was enacted, based on the concept of child nutrition as a national interest matter and a welfare issue (U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service, 2024).The program was institutionalized in the 1960s under the name of Food Stamp Program and renamed to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. This shift is the transition to emergency aid to institutional and state assistance, but the sufficiency of benefits and their availability has been a controversial issue over the years (U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service, 2024).

The problem of food insecurity has become more visible and contextualized and it is a problem of a particular population. Although the issue of poverty has been the focus now, the contemporary environment is being defined by stagnant wages in low-paid jobs, precarious work as a gig worker or a service worker, increasing living costs, and expanding regional inequalities. The resultant effect is that food insecurity can be considered to be linked to employment and not necessarily a product of unemployment. That fact is not palatable to policymakers, as it reveals that work on its own is not a sufficient factor to ensure basic well-being. Another study on food insecurity establishes a correlation between food insecurity and a lower quality of diet, as well as an increased risk of developing chronic diseases. It attests to the fact that hunger is a social welfare issue as an issue of health equity (Odoms-Young, 2023).

This issue does not align with the values and ethics of social work, as chronic hunger threatens the dignity, significance of human relationships, service, and social justice that are at the core of the profession. When families need to make constant decisions between food, rent, utilities, and medicine, they are, in a way, condoning the deprivation of groups that are already structurally disadvantaged. A framing of individual responsibility is not simply weak reasoning. It is morally unfavorable and empirically incongruent to the evidence that the accessibility to food in the household is a result of the massive-scale economic and policy situations (Odoms-Young, 2023; U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service, 2024).

Disciplined and targeted steps should be followed to identify a policy response, rather than open and rhetorical ones. To begin with, I would specify the population and place to reach a better picture of the prevalence of the issue: I would select a specific state or metropolitan area, and use national and local prevalence estimates to delimit the scope and pattern of need (Feeding America, 2024; U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service, 2024). Second, I would map the root drivers in such environment, and differentiate the affordability factor, on the one hand, and the access and administrative load, on the other hand. Third, I would implement some evidence-based options, including SNAP benefit adequacy, simplified enrollment and recertification, expanded or universal school meal models, and improved integration between social services and healthcare, with screening and referral being reliable in assessing risk (Mande, 2023; U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service, 2024). Fourth, I would analyze the political and fiscal feasibility, and anticipate unintended outcomes especially of mixed-status families and neighborhoods that have always been underserved by safety net systems. Finally, I would establish measurable evaluations of outcomes, including changes in household food security, child nutrition outcomes, program enrolment and maladaptive coping outcomes.

An opportunity to develop a valid social change project on food insecurity in the United States should lead to the formulation of a policy that is specific, evidence-based, and accountable. There is no dearth of instruments in the United States. It is not as determined to make sure that those tools are adequate, available, and in line with the realities that confront the families at the risk of the highest priority.

References

Feeding America. (2024). Map the Meal Gap 2024.

Mande, J. (2023). The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program as a health intervention. Current Opinion in Pediatrics, 35(1).

Odoms-Young, A. (2023). Food insecurity and health equity in the United States. Annual Review of Public Health, 44.

U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service. (2024). Household food security in the United States in 2023.

U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service. (2024). A short history of SNAP.