CarlosMa_ Food insecurity

Food insecurity; the straggle of low income families in my community San Bernardino 

Food insecurity 

Within the county of San Bernardino, it has become widespread the difficulties experienced by low-income families to providing food. These difficulties that these families are experiencing have been mitigated with programs such as CalFresh, which has helped a percentage of families that face this problem. But despite programs like these, in 2019 the San Bernardino County, state, “Over the past five years, food insecurity has generally been decreasing across the state and nation, […] until 2019. The metro area saw a significant increase in food insecurity.” This increase in food insecurity within the San Bernardino area was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The pandemic effect on food insecurity 

COVID-19 was a big factor for the dramatic increase in food insecurity within the county. After the great hit that the coronavirus caused to society, one of the most affected were low-income families in San Bernardino, but also causing many more families within the county to be affected by this issue. Feeding America Riverside | San Bernardino state, “Early in the pandemic, as many as 40% of the people that food banks were serving were coming for the first time, […] it has been seen a 60 percent increase in food needs across the community.” With this mentioned, it can be seen how the pandemic was a very serious factor for this food insecurity issue in the county.

How I was affected by this social issue

This social issue is one of the most relevant, in my opinion, because of the way in which I was able to observe how it completely affected my community within the county, as well as my family. I mention the case of my family and I, when at a certain point in the pandemic, we had difficulty sustaining food expenses, and community programs, churches, and food banks helped us in those moments by offering us food packages to relieve those difficult moments that my family and many other families in my community went through. That is why, for me, this is one of the social issues that should be supported, because in some point we could need their help too. 

How we help ours communities this issue?

This social issue can be difficult to solve in its entirety, but individually each person can take small actions to try to help to mitigate this issue in their communities. The first way to do this is through donations to the food banks in your area. Another of these ways would go more into community support by joining as a volunteer in organizations, churches, or even among a neighborhood committee to help distribute food aid for those who need it most.

Note: As the request of the interviewees they ask to remain anonymous, allowing only their names to be used.

For the realization of the project, I went out and spoke with neighbors within my community to ask them 2 simple questions.

Have you experienced food insecurity? If so, can you tell us a little about what it was like to experience this social problem?

If you could help your community to solve this social issue how would yo do it?

-Omar 

I had experience food insecurity during the pandemic because of low hours of work and during the time I had to go to local churches to get food for the week because during the time I had struggles even paying rent.

I would help my community by donating food to churches or homeless shelters

-Aramis Aleman 

I have not, though I’ve been around people who has and they had a really rough time. The not knowing if they would be able to afford to eat or make sure they family ate took a mental and physical toll on them.

I think the best way to help this is to have a government based system where there would always be fresh and nutritious food for those who can’t afford it otherwise. This can also be community driven yet I feel that that’s an easy way to slip into unhealthy food causing more problems than fixing them. Of course this food should be either free or really accessible for those with a low income.

-Margarita Ramirez 

It is not a pleasant experience, since this is a primary need. During the pandemic, my family and I were affected by the lack of work, it was more difficult for us to buy food and we found ourselves foolishly going to associations that are in charge of giving food.

Sources 

San Bernardino County, food security.

https://indicators.sbcounty.gov/income/food-security/

Feeding America Riverside|San Bernardino 

https://www.feedingamericaie.org/covid-19