HUNGER IS A SIGNIFICANT BUT SOLVABLE PROBLEM, BOTH IN THE UNITED STATES AND INTERNATIONALLY

Creating a world in which all people have the nourishment they need to live active, healthy lives requires partnership and collaboration between individuals, communities, non-profits, businesses, and government.

Specifically, it requires leadership and a commitment from our President and Congress.

Vote to End Hunger is mobilizing grassroots supporters and influencers to urge candidates to focus on ending hunger, alleviating poverty, and creating opportunity in the United States and across the world.

WE HAVE A LOT AT STAKE

  • The impact of hunger reaches far beyond just those families and individuals who experience it. Hunger has a devastating impact in the lives of children. Hunger affects brain development. It makes it harder to learn in school and puts our children at risk of  chronic health issues.
  • Irreversibly harming a child’s cognitive and physical development in turn makes it harder for them to find employment later in life.
  • Hunger burdens our economy with lost productivity and increased, avoidable healthcare costs.
  • Hunger and inadequate nutrition for seniors exacerbates already existing health challenges, accelerates physical impairment, impedes recovery from illness, injury and surgery, and increases risk of chronic disease.

 

In the United States, we have systems in place to help connect people to the food they need. Federal nutrition programs such as SNAP (formerly known as food stamps), Women, Infants, and Children Program (WIC), the school lunch and school breakfast programs, and Meals on Wheels help make sure that low-income families, children, and seniors can get the nourishment and support they need to get back on their feet, grow, and thrive or remain independent and healthy.

However, it’s not enough. Ending hunger requires more than just giving people a meal today; we must also address the root causes of hunger, alleviating poverty and creating opportunity.

We have the momentum. Until very recently, the world has seen steady but slow progress against hunger. World leaders have affirmed their commitment to ending extreme poverty globally by 2030, and to end malnutrition and food insecurity once and for all.

It’s time to reaffirm our commitment to these ideals in the United States. We must not tolerate hunger – and we don’t have to. We have the resources to end hunger in the United States and internationally; we are lacking the political will. This election, we must seize the opportunity to create that will by urging candidates to commit to making hunger, poverty, and opportunity priority issues if elected.

Ending hunger is not a partisan issue and is something we can all support.