We as a society recognize that hunger is a global issue. However, what we often fail to recognize is it is also a national problem. That’s right, people are starving here in the U.S. In fact, a recent study claims that 41 million people struggle to feed themselves in the U.S. and out of those, 13 million are children. In 2015 it found that 4 million senior citizens struggled to find food. As one of the most, and arguably the most, influential and industrial world power it is unforgivable that so many go to bed hungry when their is more than enough food. This is all coming from Feeding America.
Do you ever look around at how much food you throw away at a resturant, at school or food you buy at the store? That all could fill some empty bellies instead of your garbage cans. This is a crisis that can be improved and hopefully fixed in our nation because we do have enough food. A lot of the food we buy we throw away. Food at restaurants, from stores, in dining halls, how much do you actually eat? A lot of that food ends up in a trash dump rotting instead of being fed to someone who needs it.
There are ways to help. Donating money to buy food, donating canned and boxed food to local shelter, and just giving your time to others while helping pass out food at food shelters. These are all little ways we can make a change to help stop hunger in our nation. Amazon recently has started a campaign to help end hunger worldwide. Ending national hunger is something we all have to work together to stop, but it can start small, and hopefully grow to end hunger everywhere.
Lauren Sheil is a freshman studying strategic communication at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. Do you suffer from food insecurity? Let Lauren know by tweeting her @laurensheil101.
