The Concept of Food Insecurity - Paper Example

Describe the concept of food insecurity

Burlandy (2013) argued that food security is a situation where there is an insufficient amount of healthy food or a situation when a person is unable to obtain sufficient amount of healthy food. People who do not consume enough food each day are said to be suffering from food insecurity. Due to the food insecurity problems, people suffer from such effects like the chronic hunger and also poor nutrition, and therefore such people are not likely to have good health and even productive lives.

Explain how food insecurity affects children

Burlandy (2013) further added that food insecurity affects children in several ways. It causes malnutrition in children due to lack of enough or a balanced diet. This is because the children will not obtain all the available nutrients for proper growth or they may obtain them but in small quantities. This will lead to malnutrition.

What development concerns are there for children who are not receiving proper nourishment

Various development programs and concerns are put in place for the children who are not receiving proper nourishment. They such activities like:

Childcare and parenting practices

The type of the environment including the child-parent interaction and also the exposure to the stressful experience influences the cognitive and at the same time the social, economic development of the children.

Child health and nutrition

According to Coleman-Jensen (2012, the healthy and properly nourished children are most likely to develop and to grow to their required physical and cognitive capabilities as compared to the children, who are frequently ill, suffer from vitamins or other deficiency and have stunted growth.

Describe what can be done about food insecurity

With the growing population increases and the rate of poverty also increases, food insecurity has remained to be some of the main problems. Coleman-Jensen (2012) argued that there are several strategies, which are put in place to combat the food security issue, and this includes the provision of relief aid to those people or countries that are suffering from the problem of food insecurity. In the USA for example, a program known as the food stamp program was introduced mainly to help the individuals who were suffering from food insecurity to play for their food.

Feeding America organization was also established to help collect and also to distribute the donated food items to the needy people. In the general global scale, wealthier countries or organizations have given many people to increase their food production.

The word bank has also provided various help mainly to the developing countries to increase their agricultural sector. This will increase food production and ensure that the problem of food insecurity is properly managed. The wealthy countries have also been of great help to the developing countries through the provision of debt to combat the increasing food insecurity problem.

Describe the effects of poverty besides hunger. Identify a program in your area (Florida) helping children and families experiencing poverty and provide a link to their website

According to Coleman-Jensen (2012), besides hunger, there are several effects of poverty. This includes such effects like:

Malnutrition, which is mainly caused due to the increasing rate of poverty. There is the lack of enough chemical composition of the foods consumed or the there is the scarcity of the food substance itself.

Increased rate of crime- the increasing rate of poverty will automatically lead to the increased rate of crime. This is because people will struggle with all means to survive and these include even using the illegal means such as the robbery to obtain food substances.

Increased poverty besides causing hunger can also lead to the death. Death may result because of hunger, and this is one of the greatest effects of poverty.

One of the programs that the children's and families that are experiencing poverty are the:

Education of the homeless children and youth

This program under the national law on homeless and poverty is always committed to the causes that render individual homeless and also that causes poverty. It also works to place and address homelessness in the larger context of the same.

Describe the missions of the agency, the population it serves and the impact of the agency to the society.

The mission of the agency

The agency or the program described above has various missions to achieve, and this includes

To enable the homeless and the youth to remain in the school where they were even if they move from that school

To enable them to enroll in other schools available without necessarily providing their records, which includes such things like the proof of residency, such factors like immunization, and also the school records and also past papers.

To aid them in getting the transport to the school

To enable them to get all the school requirement that they may need

To challenge some of the improper decision which is made by the school or the district in general.The population the program serves

The program, the education of the homeless children and the youth serves such a bigger population. This is because the children occupied the greatest percentage of the general population. The population may include people such as the:

The young people who are asked to leave home by their parents

Also those young people or the youth who left home without the consent of their parents

Those people who have no formal custody with papers or even arrangement while their parents are in jail or the hospital or even in the rehabilitation centers.

And also those youth who run away from due to hunger or starvation and even also some problems such as those who committed various crimes.

The impact of the agency to the community

The above agency has so many impacts on the society, and they include such factors like the:

The program locates homeless children and youths from their homes and goes a head to enroll them in various schools, making sure that the vulnerable immediately enter and succeed in the school. This helps in the development of the community and also reduce the number of the people idling in the society.

The program publicly posts the educational rights of the homeless children and the youth in places such as schools and family shelters. This educates the people in how to handle the homeless and also in the importance of educating and supporting the needy.

References

Burlandy, L. (2013). Methodological reflections on food insecurity, nutritional status, and poverty. Cadernos de Saude Publica, 29(2), pp.235-236.

Coleman-Jensen, A. (2012). Predictors of U.S. Food Insecurity Across Nonmetropolitan, Suburban, and Principal City Residence During the Great Recession. Journal of Poverty, 16(4), pp.392-411.