Question about childhood hunger in America

[mommymilkies]

 

Being from Iowa, PRIME farm land, I found it strange that we didn't have gleaning programs. And then I realized - WE DON'T ACTUALLY GROW FOOD IN IOWA.

 

No, we grow corn. We grow soybeans. In other words, we grow fillers, gasoline, unhealthy animal foods. (Cows shouldn't be fed grain - or at least not their whole lives, hence the increase of e.coli. You can read more at Iowa State University Ag Ext. They are doing a lot of research on the impact of feeding grain to cows.)

 

Field after field of grain that we mostly export. It's not corn like you could harvest and eat. There's a lot of confusion about this from people who don't farm. This is field corn - it's made for ethanol and it's made for feeding animals, but it's not made for human consumption unless you count corn corn meal/flour (useable, btw) and corn syrup, but that's not actually for human consumption either. :glare:

 

Then you have soy. I'll stop there on that little soapbox. :glare: :glare:

 

Then you could discuss cows. And you could talk about how inefficient cows are to feed compared to something like goats and how cows require prime pasture while goats can fluorish off scrub and eat far less and their feed:meat conversion is WAY higher than cows, but I won't. I'll just not.

 

So, you see... We could feed far more people IN THIS COUNTRY.

But we don't.

 

Why don't we?

 

Because certain crops are heavily subsidized. My parents are soybean farmers. They are corn farmers. They are pig farmers. Those are SAFE crops. Why? They are insured (for example the drought this year.) They are subsidized. They are protected by the government. You aren't going to lose the family farm over a bad corn year unless you somehow mismanaged because the government will keep you afloat, especially if you had insurance. My parents had 120 acres planted to corn that requires an insane amount of pesticides and herbicides and rapes the ground of nutrients. Almost all of it died. They're still okay and they have hogs to feed.

 

The farming system is jacked up.

We NEED our farmers.

But we also NEED them to use prime land to grow food. Real food. SUSTAINABLE food.

 

You know what amazed us when we moved out here to Oregon?

 

Beyond the amazing views, lol, and all the TREES! The CROPS! We'd never in our lives seen such varieties. In the back of our heads I guess we knew someone had to be growing cabbage, broccoli, mustard, squash, apples, cherries, peaches, hazelnuts, etc. But we'd never seen it. Just fields and fields of soybean and corn and the occasional field of alfalfa.

 

It blew us away.

Amen on all of your post, and especially the bit about food grown in Iowa. We're in Illinois and it is exactly the same, word for word. None of the corn here goes for food. It's terrible to be surrounded by fields growing, and yet have nothing actually fresh in stores and such a tiny farmer's market of all backyard farmers.

[mommymilkies]

My grandparents who had their kids in the 60's tell stories of only having $10-$15 for food per paycheck. They grew their own food to supplement and they hunted for meats. When my grandfather was a boy they had no indoor plumbing and ate off the land. Fast forward to my childhood. My parents divorced while I was young and my father never had much $ for food. I ate squirrel, deer, rabbit, ect. I understand that people living in cities can't go out and hunt or something, but I feel like we have come so far from our roots that *some* people wouldn't have the slightest how to care for themselves and their family without being given prepared food. I agree it's sad that even here in America we have childhood hunger.

 

I never ate hunted meat (no one in my family hunts), but my family is from deep in the hills of Kentucky. I was largely raised by my Grandmother who had a 3rd grade education and was dirt poor. But I'll be darned if she didn't learn how to provide, even in the city. She lived in a fairly dangerous suburb, but had enough of a yard to grow Concord Grapes on her porch trellis and had walnut trees. We spent weeks doing nothing but cracking walnuts. Other than that we ate pork, white flour biscuits, fried Macintosh apples, and white cornmeal. No joke. Other than about once a month as a treat, that is what we subsisted on. Sometimes I'm amazed she made it this long, but if you look back in history or even at the Little House books, that wasn't too uncommon. Unhealthy? Yes. But nobody went completely without. We need to make gardening more accessible for those without land and teach those with land how to use it! I am sickened by all of the wasted crops and empty yards around here. Sure, it's their "rit", but when they complain about the price of food while mowing their acre of pristine grass, or let an apple tree drop all of it's apples on the ground while people go hungry, it still makes me mad.

[Carol in Cal.]

What is truly sickening is that the focus on cash crops in third world countries has fed widespread starvation. It goes beyond irony.

 

Furthermore, I wish that we had a functioning gleaning program where I live. This was once one of the most fertile valleys in the world, and during my lifetime it has basically been paved over. There are still a lot of vestigal orchard trees left in backyards; most of them largely unharvested. Having pickers go around and scrounge this awesome organic produce would be great for everyone.

 

Those of you in CA, plant fruit trees! You will not believe how easy it is to get loads of amazing food that way! We do this every year on Easter. We have two lemons, an apricot (best tree in the yard), persimmon (has not born any fruit yet; if it holds off two more years I'm pulling it out), fruit basket peach, orange, lime, kumquat, and mandarin. I hope to add a pomegranite one of these years. We don't get loads of fruit from any of these, but we get a healthy, usable amount and some to share.

[Arcadia]

Furthermore, I wish that we had a functioning gleaning program where I live. This was once one of the most fertile valleys in the world, and during my lifetime it has basically been paved over.

 

My kids are so happy to go apple picking, cherry picking and strawberry picking during U-pick seasons. At least they know where the fruits come from.

 

There are some farms at Saratoga near the city library and Cherry Orchard farm is still around.

[fairfarmhand]

That's awesome. Flat out awesome.

 

I was raised by a depression era grandmother. We ate everything from scratch and always had a garden. She taught me to sew, crochet, and I finally figured out knitting (though I come from a family of knitters). I'm teaching my kids the same way.

 

Thanksgiving is all from scratch, even me making cornbread so that I can make stuffing out of it.

 

It is *crazy* to me that people love my food--how much they love it, and it's nothing special, it's just all from scratch. People are so used to fake food, that they have no idea what real food tastes like. It is rare that a bakery is even better than my family's baking.

 

I was exceptionally tired this morning, so the 10 yo is making eggs over and toast for everyone. It's not rocket science, you just have to teach them.

 

this is how I cook, and people rave about how incredible my cooking is. The funny thing is, is that it is not that complicated. I don't feel that I am an amazing cook, I just cook from scratch with REAL ingredients.

 

 

The only place that I have ever eaten that I can't top the food from my own kitchen was New Orleans....but I am going to learn to cook Cajun food.

 

It's funny, my goal when I started baking bread was to make rolls as good as OCharley's rolls. Now I my rolls are BETTER than theirs. :)

[Lovedtodeath]

Here's an interesting thing:

 

Oregon has a "gleaning program." This means they allow foundations to come through the fields and do all the clean-up and second pickings for free.

 

So, an example:

 

This year we've been on ten harvests so far with the association we work with.

 

Broccoli - The main crop (the good, marketable one) picked all the heads. But, broccoli grows a second crop - offshoots. WOW! That was AWESOME picking.

 

Apples - Backyard trees gone to waste because someone can't (old folks) or won't pick them.

 

Walnuts - Older gentleman, can't pick them and do the work to harvest

 

And so on and so forth. All of this food would have gone to waste!

What does the person/farm get? A 10% of their total crop production ($$) tax deduction.

 

Who does it go to? Half of the produce goes to the "army" of pickers. The other half is donated to food banks, food programs, women's shelters, etc.

 

HOW MUCH FOOD WOULD HAVE GONE TO WASTE?

 

In our county so far we have picked 110,000+ POUNDS of food this season.

 

And this is fresh produce - stuff the poor needs, but frankly, it's hard to come by and folks don't donate that kind of stuff.

 

For the second part of the observation:

 

Being from Iowa, PRIME farm land, I found it strange that we didn't have gleaning programs. And then I realized - WE DON'T ACTUALLY GROW FOOD IN IOWA.

 

No, we grow corn. We grow soybeans. In other words, we grow fillers, gasoline, unhealthy animal foods. (Cows shouldn't be fed grain - or at least not their whole lives, hence the increase of e.coli. You can read more at Iowa State University Ag Ext. They are doing a lot of research on the impact of feeding grain to cows.)

 

Field after field of grain that we mostly export. It's not corn like you could harvest and eat. There's a lot of confusion about this from people who don't farm. This is field corn - it's made for ethanol and it's made for feeding animals, but it's not made for human consumption unless you count corn corn meal/flour (useable, btw) and corn syrup, but that's not actually for human consumption either. :glare:

 

Then you have soy. I'll stop there on that little soapbox. :glare: :glare:

 

Then you could discuss cows. And you could talk about how inefficient cows are to feed compared to something like goats and how cows require prime pasture while goats can fluorish off scrub and eat far less and their feed:meat conversion is WAY higher than cows, but I won't. I'll just not.

 

So, you see... We could feed far more people IN THIS COUNTRY.

But we don't.

 

Why don't we?

 

Because certain crops are heavily subsidized. My parents are soybean farmers. They are corn farmers. They are pig farmers. Those are SAFE crops. Why? They are insured (for example the drought this year.) They are subsidized. They are protected by the government. You aren't going to lose the family farm over a bad corn year unless you somehow mismanaged because the government will keep you afloat, especially if you had insurance. My parents had 120 acres planted to corn that requires an insane amount of pesticides and herbicides and rapes the ground of nutrients. Almost all of it died. They're still okay and they have hogs to feed.

 

The farming system is jacked up.

We NEED our farmers.

But we also NEED them to use prime land to grow food. Real food. SUSTAINABLE food.

 

You know what amazed us when we moved out here to Oregon?

 

Beyond the amazing views, lol, and all the TREES! The CROPS! We'd never in our lives seen such varieties. In the back of our heads I guess we knew someone had to be growing cabbage, broccoli, mustard, squash, apples, cherries, peaches, hazelnuts, etc. But we'd never seen it. Just fields and fields of soybean and corn and the occasional field of alfalfa.

 

It blew us away.

That gleening program sounds amazing and AMEN about the farming.

[Bluegoat]

People have always worked hard yet had to find the gumption to feed themselves and their children at the end of the day.

 

There was this teeny tiny slice of history in the western world where people could buy boxes and tins that they opened and dumped onto a plate, but that was only for 50 years and now we can't because those boxes and tins are full of chemicals and starch.

 

Before that, since the dawn of time and everywhere in the world, people have to kill, plant, harvest, forage, or beg for edibles, and then spend the time cleaning, preparing, and storing the food.

 

For most of history, Mom didn't get to say, "I work really hard all day and I'm tired, plus I don't like to cook, so I won't. I don't have to. There's always canned ravioli." Nope. The tired Mom cooked the food for as many decades as she could and then she died.

 

Working. Sleeping. Exercising. Practicing good hygiene. Caring for those weaker than yourself. Obtaining and utilizing fuel, food, and water. Life is that struggle. You get out of from under those obligations by dying.

 

If our country has declined to the point where we can't give a starving woman dry oats and fresh green beans for her child because she is too intimidated to cook them (not speaking here of the woman who has no stovetop or water), then we must have home ec in school again. We must do something to return the feeding of children to the parents as their responsibility and their child's birthright, or we'll all watch generations of children suffer from malnutrition. That will be a horrible sight.

 

Yes, I really agree with this.

 

People have lost the collective knowledge for really feeding themselves.

 

I have a relative with small kids who is on a very tight budget. She manages to make her food budget really stretch. She has a garden, she goes and collects fruit from trees around the neighbourhood and cans what they don't eat fresh, and she can make a lot of higher quality foods more economically from simple ones - things like a farmer's cheese.

 

Those are pretty great basic skills to have available for anyone, but especially if you are low income or have an unstable income.

 

There would still be other problems to solve, like facilities to do the work in (maybe community kitchens for example?) but knowledge is the first barrier.

 

(Incidentally, I have heard that it is increasingly common for people to not even have the most basic cooking skills, like heating up frozen veg. Cookbooks are having to include more and more basic information.)

 

TEaching in schools is one way to do something about this.

 

As far as weather domestic skills rather than academic skills belong in school - well, neither has to be done in school and arguable school isn't always the best place for any of them. But both job skills and skills like gardening, cooking, preserving food, and so on, are part of being able to support yourself. In a family, if at least one adult is able to run a tight domestic economy, it can make the difference between someone requiring a really high paying job or two jobs, or two adults working rather than one, or maybe even having two part time workers who can both spend a fair bit of time at home.

[Carol in Cal.]

My kids are so happy to go apple picking, cherry picking and strawberry picking during U-pick seasons. At least they know where the fruits come from.

 

There are some farms at Saratoga near the city library and Cherry Orchard farm is still around.

 

Oh sure. But gleaning is different. With a gleaning system, there is a registry for pickers and one for owners. Owners can call to say that they have a tree full of ripe apples, and the pickers call back and they select a date or a couple of dates for harvesting. Then the pickers come out and strip the tree, giving 10% to the owner, and sometimes keep 10% for themselves, and giving the rest to the Second Harvest Food Bank. We used to have a system like that around here, and I don't know what happened to it. It is frustrating to see huge trees heavy with fruit that ends up rotting and falling off, when so many are in need.

[Arcadia]

We used to have a system like that around here, and I don't know what happened to it. It is frustrating to see huge trees heavy with fruit that ends up rotting and falling off, when so many are in need.

 

I found this UCSC website on gleaning, but there were no updates since 2009.

 

I see rotting fruits (pumpkins, tomatoes, lemons) even in school gardens. It is really sad no one harvest them before school closes.

[Arcadia]

Just thought it so coincidental that I got this in my email today

 

" REI — Zombie Preparedness - Surviving a Zombie Apocalypse"

[stripe]

 

Being from Iowa, PRIME farm land, I found it strange that we didn't have gleaning programs. And then I realized - WE DON'T ACTUALLY GROW FOOD IN IOWA.

 

 

I heard a radio report on produce in Central California. Despite the fact that it is grown there, many people who actually live there have had little access to it! And residents with horrible health problems. But it is changing.

 

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106061080

[Murphy101]

Lol

 

The CDC even has a how to prepare for a zombie apocalypse blog!

 

http://blogs.cdc.gov/publichealthmatters/2011/05/preparedness-101-zombie-apocalypse/

[SKL]

After embarking on my MBA, I decided that everyone on the planet should get an MBA because the knowledge is so important. Look at all the people who are unable to think enough ahead about finances to ever be able to make ends meet or to effectively deal with a temporary financial crisis.

 

However, I doubt the folks on this forum would agree that anyone without an MBA is doomed or foolish, as some seem to think of folks who oppose mandatory cooking courses.

[Lovedtodeath]

[Bluegoat]

After embarking on my MBA, I decided that everyone on the planet should get an MBA because the knowledge is so important. Look at all the people who are unable to think enough ahead about finances to ever be able to make ends meet or to effectively deal with a temporary financial crisis.

 

However, I doubt the folks on this forum would agree that anyone without an MBA is doomed or foolish, as some seem to think of folks who oppose mandatory cooking courses.

 

Actually I think many people said they thought that information on basic management of one's finances would also be a good thing to include in a home economics program.

 

Saying everyone needs an MBA would be more like saying everyone needs to become qualified as a professional chef.

[mommymilkies]

I am blaming this thread for my dreams last night of searching for food during a zombie apocalypse. :lol:

[LucyStoner]

I think it's a bit of both. You can eat better on a budget if you can cook, but yes I do think real food costs more. I can think of tons of fake food cheap meals that I couldn't make cheaper.

 

:iagree:

 

And not knowing how to cook is not a class limited problem. I know low income people who can't cook and low income people who are excellent cooks and the same exists with affluent people.

[LucyStoner]

I am blaming this thread for my dreams last night of searching for food during a zombie apocalypse. :lol:

 

:lol:

[Mrs Mungo]

I think there are too many assumptions being made in this thread. The cw here seems to say that low income/food stamp recipients do not have the knowledge or wisdom to make good food choices or to figure out how to prepare nutritious food if it is given to them. ( Again, not speaking to the womam with a minifridge and microwave.) The answer to that is more requirement for their children, the vast majority of whom are already in failing schools to teach them how to take care of themselves because their parents are too exhausted to boil eggs for their dinner. :confused:

 

That is not what I am saying. I have two uncles who were raised very much in the middle class, have engineering degrees and can't cook at *all*. My dh was raised in a *very* well off home, attended private boarding school for high school and caught a chicken on FIRE when we were in college (truly, I didn't even know you could do that). My kids already can cook more than he can (but, I didn't raise him). I think *everyone* should have a certain amount of basic information about a variety of life skills, to include basic cooking knowledge.

 

Actually I think many people said they thought that information on basic management of one's finances would also be a good thing to include in a home economics program.

 

Saying everyone needs an MBA would be more like saying everyone needs to become qualified as a professional chef.

 

Exactly. Seriously, SKL, you have an MBA, a law degree (? Didn't you say you were a lawyer before?) and cannot make a better analogy than that?

[stripe]

That is not what I am saying. I have two uncles who were raised very much in the middle class, have engineering degrees and can't cook at *all*.

 

When I brought ignorance of cooking up (I think it was me) in post 105, I was very clear that this is a common problem, but being poor puts the non-cooker in a tougher spot. The people featured in Flinn's book were not all in the lower income bracket. But they all had no clue how to cook. I found her discussion of this, and how she got the idea to start teaching people how to cook, to be quite insightful.

 

I also don't think it helps that many people don't know how to cook. I don't mean poor people; I mean, many people in all economic groups. ...

 

Obviously those with fewer food choices, a limited budget, no place to cook, and/or spotty living arrangements have an even harder time cooking their own nutritious meals. But I think honestly not knowing what to do is a big problem. A problem people of older generations did not have.

 

Another book suggestion: The Kitchen Counter Cooking School: How a Few Simple Lessons Transformed Nine Culinary Novices into Fearless Home Cooks, by Kathleen Flinn.

[Caroline]

That is not what I am saying. I have two uncles who were raised very much in the middle class, have engineering degrees and can't cook at *all*. My dh was raised in a *very* well off home, attended private boarding school for high school and caught a chicken on FIRE when we were in college (truly, I didn't even know you could do that).

 

I caught a chicken on fire in middle school home economics class. Yes, I did. I put it out before the teacher knew. I catch things on fire a lot. But I really am a good cook. I have three degrees in materials science with a concentration in ceramics, so I think sometimes I get nostalgic for my days of firing things at 1800C, and I take it out on the food. (Actually, I think I am an absent-minded professor type, and that sometimes shows in my cooking.)

[Carol in Cal.]

(Actually, I think I am an absent-minded professor type, and that sometimes shows in my cooking.)

 

I have the cure for that. Cook things that require constant effort, like Chinese stir fry.

 

I recognize this because I am the same way. I have a really hard time cooking things that you have to just leave alone for a precise but not short time, like steaks that cook for 8 minutes on a side. 10 will ruin them as will 6, but it is just so boring to stand around and wait for them to be done. Whereas stir fry requires you to be chopping or actively stirring all the time, so it is not boring and keeps your attention.

Edited October 24, 2012 by Carol in Cal.

[Carol in Cal.]

Here is a relevant article:

 

http://www.stowetoday.com/waterbury_record/opinion/weekly_editorial/article_dd58590c-0d7d-11e2-93d7-0019bb2963f4.html?fb_action_ids=4484257876928&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_ref=.UIgp9aR36ZF.like&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%7B%224484257876928%22%3A436089903095648%7D&action_type_map=%7B%224484257876928%22%3A%22og.likes%22%7D&action_ref_map=%7B%224484257876928%22%3A%22.UIgp9aR36ZF.like%22%7D

 

Local control was EXCEEDING the goals of the federal regulations, which have resulted in a significant degradation of quality. Very unfortunate. Unacceptable, actually.

[justamouse]

Here is a relevant article:

 

http://www.stowetoday.com/waterbury_record/opinion/weekly_editorial/article_dd58590c-0d7d-11e2-93d7-0019bb2963f4.html?fb_action_ids=4484257876928&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_ref=.UIgp9aR36ZF.like&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%7B%224484257876928%22%3A436089903095648%7D&action_type_map=%7B%224484257876928%22%3A%22og.likes%22%7D&action_ref_map=%7B%224484257876928%22%3A%22.UIgp9aR36ZF.like%22%7D

 

Local control was EXCEEDING the goals of the federal regulations, which have resulted in a significant degradation of quality. Very unfortunate. Unacceptable, actually.

 

WHOA.

 

My kids in 8th grade CCD were *so mad* at the portion sizes. None of them were overweight, and they were all telling me how hungry they all were.

 

I had no idea it was that bad.

 

My daughter said no one is going to their cafeteria anymore, that everyone was bagging it or going out for lunch. She said the school lunches went from bad to horrific.

[Carol in Cal.]

Yeah, the story reminds me of Atlas Shrugged, where all they would serve in a certain venue was soybeans.

[Heatherwith4]

Here is a relevant article:

 

http://www.stowetoday.com/waterbury_record/opinion/weekly_editorial/article_dd58590c-0d7d-11e2-93d7-0019bb2963f4.html?fb_action_ids=4484257876928&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_ref=.UIgp9aR36ZF.like&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%7B%224484257876928%22%3A436089903095648%7D&action_type_map=%7B%224484257876928%22%3A%22og.likes%22%7D&action_ref_map=%7B%224484257876928%22%3A%22.UIgp9aR36ZF.like%22%7D

 

Local control was EXCEEDING the goals of the federal regulations, which have resulted in a significant degradation of quality. Very unfortunate. Unacceptable, actually.

Oh my. That article is infuriating!

[8circles]

Here is a relevant article:

 

http://www.stowetoday.com/waterbury_record/opinion/weekly_editorial/article_dd58590c-0d7d-11e2-93d7-0019bb2963f4.html?fb_action_ids=4484257876928&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_ref=.UIgp9aR36ZF.like&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%7B%224484257876928%22%3A436089903095648%7D&action_type_map=%7B%224484257876928%22%3A%22og.likes%22%7D&action_ref_map=%7B%224484257876928%22%3A%22.UIgp9aR36ZF.like%22%7D

 

Local control was EXCEEDING the goals of the federal regulations, which have resulted in a significant degradation of quality. Very unfortunate. Unacceptable, actually.

 

Wow. I didn't expect to be that shocked.

[Murphy101]

Wow. I didn't expect to be that shocked.

 

I did expect it and it still sucks. That's insanely ridiculous and infuriating.

[LibraryLover]

No hyperbole, I have tears in my eyes.

 

Pure insanity.

 

 

Here is a relevant article:

 

http://www.stowetoday.com/waterbury_record/opinion/weekly_editorial/article_dd58590c-0d7d-11e2-93d7-0019bb2963f4.html?fb_action_ids=4484257876928&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_ref=.UIgp9aR36ZF.like&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%7B%224484257876928%22%3A436089903095648%7D&action_type_map=%7B%224484257876928%22%3A%22og.likes%22%7D&action_ref_map=%7B%224484257876928%22%3A%22.UIgp9aR36ZF.like%22%7D

 

Local control was EXCEEDING the goals of the federal regulations, which have resulted in a significant degradation of quality. Very unfortunate. Unacceptable, actually.

[Renee in NC]

I did expect it and it still sucks. That's insanely ridiculous and infuriating.

 

:iagree: It's those regulations that make Pop Tarts a "healthy food.":glare:

[jennynd]

DS had exact 1 week of PS cafeteria food. He never want to eat anything there again