There are many problems in the United States of America. The problems consist of poverty, education, health care, unemployment, food insecurity, etc. One of the most serious yet unnoticed problems in the United States is food insecurity. Food insecurity means not knowing when your next meal will be, and there are 50 million Americans that struggle with this problem everyday. One of the programs that tries to help overcome food insecurity in America is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program also known as (SNAP). SNAP doesn’t get as much funding as it should so the problem of food insecurity is still rising. The government should spend less money on programs like the military and more money should be spent on SNAP. Do you know how hard it is to live on the current snap program? Or where and how the government money is spent?
“If another country was doing this to their kids we would be at war.”- Jeff Bridges spokesman for the No Kid Hungry Campaign of the organization Share Our Strength. The current SNAP program needs a lot of work. Some would argue that the SNAP program is perfectly fine and doesn't need any more help then it currently receives. The film “A Place at the Table” mentions how James McGovern a U.S. Representative, Massachusetts Co-Chair, at the Congressional Hunger Center went on a food stamp diet for a week because he thought the food stamp benefit was inadequate. The average food stamp benefit is three dollars a day. He went into a local super market in Massachusetts. It took him a long time because you have to add up every penny, and it has to last you for a week. His side effects from lack of food were being tired and cranky. James couldn't drink coffee because it was too expensive. For him it was an exercise that ended in a week. For millions of other people in the United States that’s their way of life. Every day is a struggle just to eat. This was an adult who did this week long challenge and he struggled to get through it. Imagine living like that. Now imagine if you're a child attending elementary school like Rosie another character in the film “A Place at the Table”. Rosie is food insecure and because she doesn't eat, she loses focus in class frequently. Her teacher made her write the word focus on her name plate at the top of her desk, but all she can think of is her stomach gurgling. Rosie is America’s future and our future is starving and thinking about food instead of learning.
There are many other children out there just like Rosie that need help. Another problem with the SNAP program is it’s hard to qualify for. A lot of people would state that it isn't hard to qualify for at all, and that most of the members take advantage of the SNAP program. According to Barbie a mother of two in the film “A Place at the Table”, “The assistance programs in the U.S. are hard to qualify for. It’s like you're starving or you don’t get any help. But what defines starving? If you don't eat for a day are you starving? In their eyes no, but in your eyes and the way you feel of course.” Barbie goes on to mention she use to make nine dollars an hour at her job before she got laid off. As a single mother raising two children nine dollars an hour wasn't enough. So she went to the welfare office to apply for food stamps. Barbie sat in the welfare office for eight hours to be told she was two dollars over the income limit. After she was laid off Barbie was eligible for food stamps from the SNAP program, but her food stamps only last her and her two children three weeks out of the month. For one whole week it’s a struggle for Barbie and her family.
Barbie and her family aren’t the only ones that don’t receive enough money from the SNAP program. The common argument people have is that the people on the SNAP program aren't spending their money properly or are spending their money on the wrong kind of food. The website ("Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program." Wikipedia) says, “Forty-seven million Americans rely on SNAP for food every month, and that, sometimes, the recipients still do not have enough money to get them through the whole month. And this was before the passing of the Farm Bill. Once passed, the Farm Bill cut two million recipients from SNAP and gave less money to the rest of the recipients. If these people did not have enough money before the $8.6 billion budget cut, then what were they supposed to do now?” It’s ridiculous that the government even thought that it was ok to cut $8.6 billion to people that are starving. They don’t spend their money poorly they get it taken from them!
Our government is messed up! This is how the government plans on spending a decent amount of money in the year 2015. The article (Federal Spending) states, “In fiscal year 2015, the federal government is projected to spend around 3.9 trillion dollars. These trillions of dollars make up around twenty-one percent of the U.S. economy, as measured by the Gross Domestic Product.” I read this and thought where do all these trillions of dollars go? As I continued to read I found out that the United States spends $640 billion on its military (Federal Spending). We spend $640 billion on our military and we have a problem with hunger in America? This is how messed up our country is. We’re so focused on being a super power, getting into other countries problems, and having the most advanced military that we forget or over look problems in our own country like food insecurity. Wouldn’t you think that we would be a stronger nation if everyone was able to eat? I do.
A large population of our country would argue don’t you want to be properly protected if there was every any kind of war happening in the U.S. I would want to be, but we can properly protect ourselves AND spend less money on our military. According to (“List of countries by military expenditures." Wikipedia.) the website states that the U.S. spends just about six times more than the next country in military spending. China spends $188 billion on their military and their military is pretty strong.
Why can’t we spend less and be just as strong if not stronger? It’s a quick fix really. All we would have to do is cut our military spending in half! I believe that $320 billion dollars should go towards the military program. The website (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities) says that, “In the fiscal year 2013, the federal government spent about $82.5 billion on SNAP.” If you add $160 billion of the $320 billion that you cut from the military, to the SNAP program, that already gets $82.5 billion. SNAP would have a new total of $242.5 billion. If you took the other $160 billion that was cut from the military, and you add it to food and agriculture, so farmers can grow healthier food so the people on SNAP will stop buying processed foods. This could possibly end hunger and obesity in America.
Work Cited:
"A Place at the Table." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 24 June 2014. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1736049/>.
"Federal Spending: Where Does the Money Go." National Priorities Project. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 June 2014. <https://www.nationalpriorities.org/budget-basics/federal-budget-101/spending/>.
"Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 19 June 2014. Web. 24 June 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supplemental_Nutrition_Assistance_Program>.
"List of countries by military expenditures." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 25 June 2014. Web. 28 June 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures>.
"Center on Budget and Policy Priorities." Sorry --. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 June 2014. <http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=2226>.