Throughout history, we have seen plenty of times where food insecurity has left major impacts on our society. It is not just a current issue, it has been a reoccurring issue dating all the way back to when we first started. To make sure that this does not go on forever, I will start this timeline with the earliest days of our country.
When British settlers first arrived in America, they landed in Jamestown. Life was not easy as they went trough a period called “The Starving Time.” With a lack of food, a harsh winter, and limited people that were willing to work to obtain food for the community, starvation took a toll on the settlers and many of them ended up dying.
Fast forward a handful of decades and we reach an era which was not directly rooted in the United States, but it did have an effect on our country. The Irish Potato Famine forced over 1.5 million Irish immigrants to seek refuge in the United States after hunger and disease was too much to bear back home. But the potato famine did not just effect people in Ireland, it affected the whole world. Since the potato was a commonly exported staple crop, it was eaten everywhere. Also, the potato contains a ton of important nutrients that help us grow healthy and strong, so at a time with limited food to begin with, losing the potato only made food insecurity worse.
Once again, we are going to fast forward a bit until we reach the 1930’s and the Great Depression. During this time, the majority of America was living in poverty – about 78 percent to be more exact. As we know, especially from today’s age of food insecurity, living in poverty decreases the likelihood of one being able to obtain food. While so many people were left starving during the Great Depression (due to not being able to afford food, not enough food being produced on the farms, etc.), there were also good things that we learned from this time period that help us in today’s age of food insecurity. Soup kitchens and food pantries became very prevalent during the depression as so many people were left starving each day. Although they did not solve the problem of starvation during the time, they did help limit it as much as they could. And obviously we still have these things to this day because of the impact they make on the surrounding community.
Overall, food insecurity has clearly been a historical issue that continues to this day. It is not something that we can easily fix, but we can learn from the past and learn how to make it better day by day.
no1-hungry 