The case study we have selected to do this research project is “Charity is Not a Viable Solution to Food Insecurity”. To gain a basic understanding of this concept, knowing the history of food charity programs throughout American history is vital.

The most common source of food charity Americans seek is SNAP(and as a subsidiary of SNAP, WIC), also called “Food Stamps”. The acronym SNAP stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Essentially, this program grants citizens a physical card, referred to as an Electronic Benefit Card (EBT), that has a monthly balance that people that an individual or family can spend each month on food.

Arguments can be made as to when the true introduction of this program was created, however, the Food Stamp Act was first passed by President Johnson in 1964. Introduced by, Congresswoman Leonar Sullivan, this act provided the basic guidelines for the SNAPS program including limitations on the amount of money that can be given out annually, the exclusion of alcoholic beverages and imported foods from SNAPS purchase, and the prohibition of discrimination by race when granting citizens SNAPS.

By 1981, this program had already grown to over 20 million users. As time progressed and the market became more digitized, these SNAPS programs followed the same, by introducing the system we know now, the EBT cards. When this program came into existenc and gained notice, the program reached roughly 50 million by 2013. The United State's value of the dollar varies by state, therefore the amount of money they receive varies depending on where they live. The amount of money granted per household also depends on the amount of people who live there. For example, in Connecticut, the average monthly benefit per family member is $197, whereas in Iowa it is only $170.

The Center for American Progress claims that "the United States has the resources to build an equitable, sustainable food system that ensures no individual, child, or family goes hungry within its borders. However, this is impossible without the political will necessary to make bold decisions that prioritize the health, well-being, and economic security of everyone, not just the lucky few."

Susan E. Rice, the Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council and former ambassador is quoted as saying, "No one should have to wonder where their next meal will come from. We must take bold steps now-with government, the private sector, nonprofits, and communities working together-to build a healthier future for every American".

A few key policies throughout history in dealing with food security are:

• Farm Bill(1964 and onwards) - created SNAP among other food programs and subsidies

• FFRCA, Families First Coronavirus Response Act - Created new programs for the Pandemic of 2020 and shifted the discussion on subsidized/free school lunches.

• The Hunger Prevention Act of 1988 (PL 100-135) - Established EBT and the means of distributing food stamps/SNAP benefits to individuals

• Food Stamp Act of 1964 - created the basis of Food Stamps/SNAP

• Food Stamp Act Amendment of 1970 - Created the first rigid eligibility/work requirements for subsidized food programs

• The Food and Agriculture Act of 1977 - Major overhaul of the Food Stamps program which expanded access and eligibility, modernized applications, and tightened control of the program to curb abuse

• Food Stamp Nutrition Education Act of 1992 - Established by several states, this act provided educational programs to teach people both about the Food Stamp program as well as guide people on Food Stamps on how to make healthy options within the provided funds

• The Mickey Leland Childhood Hunger Relief Act of 1993 - Established major boosts in funding for programs aimed at ending hunger among children in the United States

• The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 - Established guidelines to allow immigrants to receive Food Stamp benefits, added new brackets for things like shelter deductions, and changed eligibility requirements

• The Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 - Changes to the name of the program in order to fight the stigma. It further guaranteed higher levels of funding, provided transparency to households, and increased the uses for EBT funds

• The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 - Changed the funding structure of educational programs (under the now renamed: Nutrition Education and Obesity Reduction Grant Program) to be fully federally funded, as well as establishing physical activity programs and community based partnerships and interventions.

Aside from government-provided assistance, to combat food insecurity, various organizations, agencies, and advocates exist to help the fight. The largest organization combatting food insecurity in the United States is "Feeding America". Feeding America fights hunger by spreading awareness of food injustice in America. In doing so, this organization often releases public service announcements and works with high-profile figures to allow their message to reach the attention of many people. Additionally, Feeding America performs in-depth research to locate where food insecurity is taking place, calculate rates of food injustice in various communities, and figure out which demographics are most heavily impacted by food insecurity. Feeding America also helps connect people to local food banks, and distributes food from retailers, that they are going to put to waste, to communities in need.

One political figure formed his campaign around the dire need to provide food justice for those in need. Jim McGovern has served the 2nd Massachusetts in the United States House of Representatives since 2013. Jim McGovern has used his authority in the government to bring this issue to the highest power in the nation. in 2022, McGovern announced that he would build a movement to end American hunger for good, and even raised over $2 million for his conference. In terms of legislation, McGovern, with the support of a few other representatives, led a bipartisan bill that required the White House to have a conference on nutrition, health, and hunger. A third action he has performed to advocate for the American hunger issue is stopping in local communities in California, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New York, Arizona, and Maryland to brainstorm methods that would specifically help their local communities that are facing food injustice.

One agency in government that helps combat hunger, is the National Institute of Food and Agriculture. The NIFA addresses the ongoing food insecurity through education, research, and work with land-grant universities. A large portion of the support that the NIFA does to combat food insecurity, is providing funding. The NIFA offers grants and funding for various agriculture-based programs and organizations that help distribute food to communities in need.

Unfortunately, every single country in the world has food insecurity, and the United States is certainly no exception. According to Feeding America, approximately 44 million people, including 13 million children, in the country are food insecure. In just the year 2022, 49 million individuals sought out assistance from charitable food programs such as community organizations, food banks, and food pantries for themselves and their families. The USDA Economic Research Service found that 87.2% (or 115.8 million) households were food secure while 12.8% (or 17.0 million) households were food insecure, 7.7% (or 10.2 million) households had low food security, and 5.1% (or 6.8 million) households had very low food security at some point in the year 2022.

Food insecurity touches people in almost every community, yet these rates vary considerably on a state-by-state basis because of factors like the cost of housing, average wages, unemployment, and state-level social welfare policies; rural communities in the south, however, tend to struggle the most in accessing enough healthy food. Feeding America also reports that “hunger can affect people from all walks of life. Millions of people in America are just one job loss, missed paycheck, or medical emergency away from hunger.

But hunger doesn’t affect everyone equally - some groups like children, seniors, and people of color face hunger at much higher rates”. One’s socioeconomic circumstances determine their access to food to a great extent, and characteristics such as employment, education, and disability status all have documented effects on rates of food insecurity. According to the USDA’s Household Food Security in the United States in 2022 report, rates of food insecurity were “statistically significantly higher than the national average (12.8 percent)” for all households with children; households with children under the age of 6; households with children headed by a single female or a single male; women living alone; households with Black, non-Hispanic, and Hispanic household reference persons; households with incomes below 100% of the poverty threshold, 130% of the poverty threshold, and 185% of the poverty threshold; and households in principal cities and nonmetropolitan areas.

Overall, race, socio-economic status, and geographical location play crucial roles in one’s likelihood of becoming food insecure, with BIPOC, working and lower-class, and rural and southern communities disproportionately affected.

The Center for American Progress explains that the "COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent economic crisis, coupled with supply chain issues and other challenges, have resulted in rising prices for goods and services-including food. This has worsened the U.S. hunger crisis, shining a light on decades of policy failures in the U.S. food system and the racial and poverty-related disparities that have existed for far too long."

One of the major points of research for US food insecurity has been budget shortfalls. With food insecurity present in every single county in the United States, every state continues to maintain a budget shortfall in terms of social food services. We found Connecticut to be at a 258 million dollar shortfall with 380,310 food insecure individuals as of 2021. The United States as a whole has over 21 billion dollars in budget shortfall of ending food insecurity, and is home to over 33 million food insecure individuals. That's roughly 10.4% of the population.

A major point we found when analyzing the data ourselves(in the third graph) was a strong correlation between decreasing the budget shortfall and a decrease in the number of food insecure residents. This was unsurprising and one of the main points of our case study- displaying that the government being willing to spend more on social programs and, in particular, those surrounding food security, are much more effective and correlated to the number of food insecure residents than something such as charities which could not possibly raise nearly as much as needed to cover the shortfall. In analyzing the numbers via linear regression (budget shortfall in thousands of USD versus number of food insecure individuals in Connecticut), we got an R squared statistic of nearly 70%. This means 70% of the variability in the number of food insecure individuals in Connecticut is accounted for by the annual budget shortfall on food spending in Connecticut.