Throughout most human history, dating back about 300,000 years, securing enough food has often been a daily struggle. For much of antiquity hunger has often been an ever-present problem. Estimates vary but more than 100 million people died in the 20th Century alone from famine, half of those in China. That figure is probably too low. World War I and II resulted in widespread famine and the Bolsheviks purposely starved Ukraine by exporting every single bag of seed that was meant for replanting the following year. Historians know about hundreds of famines dating back 3,000 years but most were probably lost to history. In addition, one family can lack the means to secure food while others have plenty.
Perhaps the prevalence of famine and hunger throughout history is why people today have such a soft spot for feeding the poor. Food Stamps (SNAP) enjoys significant support across the political spectrum, only drawing criticism when it becomes a middle-class entitlement.
Feeding poor children especially enjoys strong political support. I know Republicans who are die hard supporters of the free school lunch program, including serving breakfast to children whose parents should have fed them before leaving home. During the Pandemic, some schools continued to serve free lunches to children who showed up for food. Indeed, in the quest to feed poor children during Covid, Minnesota paid out hundreds of millions of dollars to vendors who turned out to be not providing anything. When the state stopped paying the fraudsters they sued and won. It took the legislature to stop paying for fraud.
I am going to make a bold statement that always seems to draw criticism whenever I have mentioned it: hunger is no longer a problem in the United States. Hunger, when it exists, is merely a symptom of other problems. Today hunger and malnutrition are symptoms of child neglect, drug abuse, dementia, disability and mental illness. In fact, obesity is a bigger problem among the poor than hunger. Why is obesity a problem for the poor, far worse than obesity among the wealthy? There are various theories, but the primary reasons are probably that food is cheap (free in many cases). Eating is pleasant. Eating fires endorphins in the brain. For people who enjoy few other pleasures in life, eating is an enjoyable pastime. I even heard a social scientist say that the poor tend to discount the future costs at too high of a social time preference rate. That is, they are willing to forgo future years of life and endure disability later in life in return for enjoying more food today.
UNICEF just announced that obesity among children now surpasses undernourishment worldwide. The BBC reported the following:
For the first time, there are more children in the world who are obese than underweight, according to a major study by children’s charity Unicef.
Around one in 10 of those aged between five and 19 years old – around 188 million children and young people – are now thought to be affected by obesity.
The figures are even higher in the United States, according to the CDC:
From 2017 to March 2020, the prevalence of obesity among U.S. children and adolescents was 19.7%1. This means that approximately 14.7 million U.S. youths aged 2–19 years have obesity.
Overall, obesity prevalence was highest in Hispanic children (26.2%) and non-Hispanic Black children (24.8%) followed by non-Hispanic white (16.6%) and non-Hispanic Asian (9.0%) children.[1]
Just over one quarter of children from families living near the poverty level are obese. Obesity among adults 20-years of age about 40% is obese in 2025.
Food is cheap, especially when you are willing to prepare meals at home with simple ingredients. My local Kroger always has meat marked down in the butcher’s bargain bin. Beans and rice are prepared all over the world as a staple because these two plants have amino acids that form a perfect protein. Although I have not seen recent data, healthy nutritious meals for an adult is probably as cheap as $2. Perhaps giving food away is a political tool, not a tool to improve good health. We should probably admit that out loud.