Food Insecurity In America

Introduction
Food insecurity exists when there is a lack or limited access to nutritious and affordable food. According to the United Department of Agriculture(USDA), about 17.4 million US households suffered from food insecurity in 2014. This represents 14.9 percent of US households struggling to obtain adequate and nutritious food. Even though, food insecurity can affect anyone, the 2014 USDA report shows that families with children under 6(19.9%), headed by single mothers (35.3%) and coming from poor and ethnic families suffered the most from food insecurity. Food insecurity can also affect disproportionately minority groups. Data shows that among the most affected population groups come from Black and Hispanic American households (25.1%
For example, in study made by Canada’s university of Alberta, researchers found that low-income students who participated in the universities’ food banks reported to be moderately and severely food insecure. Of the 59 participating students who completed the survey, 10.3% were food secure, 44.8% were severely food insecure, 32.8% reported feeling unhealthy and 60.3% indicated at least one adverse academic outcome for being food insecure. Moreover, the cost of college can also take a toll and place high economic demands to college students. Especially, in the last 30 years, the price of higher education has outpaced inflation, the cost of living and medical expenses. Added to this, students are also expected to do well academically and compete with other students, which constrict their time for food preparation. For example, Larson et al found that emerging adults often lack the knowledge, skills, time and resources to prepare adequate and nutritious food. Therefore, these studies suggest that college students may be especially vulnerable to food insecurity and to the risks associated with their ability to
The survey, which contained a total number of five questions was designed to test the effects of food insecurity in college success. For this experiment, surveys were delivered in both paper and online forms and took approximately around 2 to 5 minutes to complete. Participants who were both undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Berkeley were randomly selected and inform of the purpose of this study. Moreover, all participants who took part of the experiment were given their confidentiality rights and received individual compensation for their