Essay: Carrie Cohen
Essay: Oliver Crawford
ESSAY: OLIVER CRAWFORD SECOND HARVEST FOOD BANK OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE For many Americans, their most significant worries are something as small as what to wear to work or what to pick up from the store. However, the reality is much scarier for 13.7% of the country. For these individuals, finding their next meal clouds over any other items in their daily routine. Not knowing where your next meal may come from can be a frightening proposition and one that many deals with daily. When a household does not have enough food to provide for every resident, this is known as food insecurity. Thankfully, numerous foundations and organizations fighting hunger are poised to help as many people as possible. Through organizations and foundations, methods to reduce food waste, and the kindness of neighbors, the battle against hunger continues to gain pace and strength. In 2019, the number of food-insecure people surpassed 35 million in the United States, including 11 million children (Feeding America). Tennessee is no exception to the staggering numbers regarding hunger. Within Tennessee, 1 in 8 people faces food insecurity, increasing to 1 in 6 for children (Hunger in Tennessee). When putting that number into context, the results are astonishing. Breaking the numbers down further, Tennessee’s percentage of food-insecure families is 15.1%, up from the national average of 13.7%. This number translates to over 400,000 households and 1,016,420 million people (Cabera). 19% of children in Tennessee live in food-insecure households. These numbers are daunting and represent a section of the community that needs aid as soon as possible. While the numbers are large, there are still ways to help. Families are struggling all across the country and depend on government programs as well as food banks for meals every day. In many households across Nashville and America, finding food for one person is hard enough, but providing for a family is an intimidating task. Food-insecure children consume most of their meals at school, where lunch and breakfast are provided. This dependence on school-provided meals can become dangerous during the weekends and other school-related breaks. During the COVID-19 pandemic, children with food insecurity had few places to turn to for their next meal. For some, online school meant no meals throughout the week. With the pandemic, many organizations that fight against hunger were left understaffed or closed, exhausting further opportunities for families to acquire meals. At the peak of the pandemic, in late 2020, only 15% of children from lowincome families who qualified for free or reduced-price school meals were receiving them (Rodriguez). More than 30 million children rely on school-provided food or government programs to stay fed (Rodriguez). The process for picking up food over summer breaks was introduced earlier, in March of 2020, to help children obtain school meals. However, due to staffing shortages and other COVID-related issues, the number of meals being picked up reduced dramatically. In some places, like Fulton County, GA, the number of meals bring collected by families went from 60,000 a day to 70,000 a week (Rodriguez). Once parents returned to work and children remained away from school, it was challenging for families to clear time to pick up food from their children’s schools. This severe reduction
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