Food Insecurity at the Franklin McKinley Children's Initiative

Victoria Ashby

San Jose State University

Social Issue/Society: Food Insecurity

     My mother loves to remind me of an experience that she had when I was a child. She remembers putting me in my car seat and driving down the road. Apparently, I was really hungry and I made sure that my mom knew it. I cried and whined during the entire drive. Since my mom didn’t know what else to do, she threw breakfast cereal at me in the back seat. My mom says that I am still like that today. If I don’t eat enough food, I get hangry. You can ask anyone in my family and they will tell you: if I am acting irritable, just feed me. That usually solves 90% of my problems. “Hangry” is a word that my friends and I started using about ten years ago to combine the words “hungry” and “angry.” It implies that a person becomes short-tempered when they haven’t eaten. If I skip a meal or two, I may become short-tempered. I also become tired, emotional, lethargic. I have difficulty thinking clearly. I honestly feel like my brain is impaired and it is difficult to perform at my highest capabilities. While I have been blessed to enjoy regular meals throughout my life, many people in my own community are struggling to put food on the table.

     Food insecurity affects the USA at a national level and affects Santa Clara County at a regional level. In their article “Food insecurity and chronic disease: Addressing food access as a healthcare issue,” Dominic Decker and Mary Flynn claim that 15.8 million US households experience a lack of access to food that is nutritionally adequate to meet their needs (2018). Millions of Americans face hunger on a daily basis and experience the issue of food insecurity firsthand. Hunger is defined as “a discomfort experienced from an involuntary lack of food consumption” (Cole & Tembo, 2011, p. 1071). On the other hand, the United Nations Subcommittee on Nutrition defined food insecurity as “the limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate, safe foods or the inability to acquire personally acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways” (Decker & Flynn, 2018, p. 28). According to this definition, over fifteen million Americans suffer from food insecurity and are unsure of where their next wholesome meal is coming from.

     Although it is one of the wealthiest areas in America, the Silicon Valley is not exempt from the presence of food insecurity. In fact, food insecurity has become a popular topic in Santa Clara County’s government and media. Leslie Bacho, the CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank, reported that almost 27% of the people in Santa Clara County and San Mateo County are at risk for hunger and food insecurity (2017, para. 3). That percentage represents nearly 720,000 people in the Bay Area. As I researched food insecurity in my own community, Second Harvest Food Bank constantly surfaced as the greatest driving force against hunger. They have aggressively challenged the meal gap in the Bay Area. The meal gap counts the number of meals that families need to survive but cannot pay for and that are not produced through food-assistance programs. In 2013, organizations like Second Harvest Food Bank provided Santa Clara and San Mateo counties with 221 million meals decreasing the meal gap in both counties (Andrews, 2015). At that time, Kathy Jackson was the CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank. She explained that Second Harvest serves enough people to “fill Levi’s Stadium with people four times” every month (Andrews, 2015, para. 6). Even with this improvement, however, the meal gap remained at 176 million meals. Residents needed 176 million more meals to end hunger in Santa Clara and San Mateo county.

     Current CEO Leslie Bacho continued grow Second Harvest and make influential improvements to the food insecurity situation. During the last ten years, Second Harvest more than doubled the weekly amount of meals that they provide. In 2017, they began a huge improvement project at their Curtner Center in San Jose that cost five million dollars (Bacho, 2017). Leslie Bacho predicted that the improvement project will allow Second Harvest to distribute 30% more food than they have been able to in the past (2017). While Second Harvest has certainly led the way, several other concerned individuals have assumed a responsibility to decrease food insecurity. They have given birth to organizations and programs aiming to relieve hunger in the Bay Area. For example, the Green Cart program brings portable produce vendors into low-income communities to give them healthy food and provide them with more job opportunities (Gray, 2014). Some local farms like Veggielution give low-income residents boxes of fresh vegetables every week at an affordable price (Gray, 2014). In addition, over 50% of our local farmers have agreed to accept electronic benefit cards from CalFresh (Gray, 2014). Green Cart, Veggielution, and numerous local farmers have taken an active stance to make sure that everyone in the Santa Clara and San Mateo counties has access to nutritious food.

     Despite the valiant efforts of concerned individuals, hunger is still prevalent within our community. We suffer from a lack of food insecurity awareness. Because most people don’t even know the definition of food insecurity, thousands of people don’t know that they can receive help when they need a nutritious meal. In her article, “Hunger in the Silicon Valley: Bringing healthy food to poor communities is a challenge,” Leslie Gray, an associate professor at Santa Clara University, wrote that only 52% of eligible residents participate in the CalFresh program (2014). Almost half of the people who qualify for food assistance do not take advantage of the help from the government. I believe that is partially due to the fact that many people do not know that there are resources available to them. They haven’t been educated on programs like CalFresh, Green Cart, or Veggielution that could assist them in feeding their families. Furthermore, programs like these always need more help. Although one person had a dream to create Second Harvest, it took hundreds of people to make that dream a successful reality. Organizations that service hunger in the Bay Area are in constant need of partners to help them. During the most recent holiday season, Leslie Bacho wrote an article for The Mercury News, asking all of the readers to volunteer time or donate financially to a hunger-ending organizations (2017). She firmly believed that food insecurity was a solvable problem in the Bay Area if everyone would work together.

My Service Site: Franklin McKinley Children’s Initiative

     I had the privilege of volunteering for the Franklin McKinley Children’s Initiative which operates under the umbrella of the Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County. I volunteered at a center that is strategically located on the east side of San Jose. It stands behind Santee Elementary School in a low-income neighborhood. While they strive to address several social problems in their community, FMCI has employed specific programs and initiatives to contribute to the solution of food insecurity. On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday afternoons, FMCI hosts a homework club for the students at Santee. Dozens of students know that FMCI is a safe and encouraging environment to visit after school. The staff at FMCI knows each of them personally. FMCI is a second family for these students. The staff keeps snacks and canned foods in the kitchen to give to the children and the families of their community. Sometimes, the students are allowed to take a break from their homework with a movie day. On movie days, the staff buys meals for the all the children so that they can go home with a full stomach after watching a film together. While the homework club gives students the opportunity to create friendships and relationships within community, it also gives them the opportunity to eat a full meal.

     The primary way that FMCI addresses food insecurity is through their partnership with Second Harvest Food Bank. On the fourth Saturday of every month, FMCI hosts a food bank in one of their parking lots. A semi-truck from Second Harvest arrives in the morning full of nutritious foods. Volunteers and staff set up a line of tables and canopies where the food can be unloaded. One person is stationed behind each table to give out appropriate amounts of produce, canned goods, or grains. Each person that visits the food bank can go home with about $150 worth of groceries. Visitors are given kitchen staples like rice, bread, and milk but they are also given a wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables. FMCI provides a clipboard where each person can sign up to receive food. They must tell FMCI their name, phone number, and the number of people that live in their house. This allows FMCI to keep clear records of who receives the food and the level of impact that they are making in their community.

     The biggest challenge that I observed was a lack of facilities. FMCI doesn’t have a room at the center that is big enough to hold an organized food bank. Because there is so much food, the food bank has to be held outside in one of their parking lots. Unfortunately, a lot of extra problems arise because the food bank is outdoors. When I volunteered for the food bank, the weather became cold and rainy. All of the staff and volunteers were huddled under the canopies together. Food bank customers were trying to stay dry under umbrellas and trees. Hoping that the weather would clear up and the sun would come out, we waited for an hour to unload the semi-truck. When we realized that the rain wasn’t going to stop, we set up the food in the pouring rain. All of the staff, volunteers, and customers were cold and wet. It would have been much more enjoyable experience for everyone if we had a facility to host the food bank.

I was surprised by two big achievements that FMCI has made through their food bank. First of all, I was surprised by the sheer number of people who showed up to received food. We served over one hundred people in just a few hours. I realized that FMCI has done a terrific job of marketing their food bank. Their staff has informed their community about the resources that are available to them. Secondly, I was surprised by the amount of food that they were giving out. Families were given enough food to supplement their kitchen for about two weeks. They were not given leftover food, expired food, or food that had been rejected by grocery stores. The food provided by FMCI and Second Harvest was nutritious, fresh, and high quality.

My Self: My Insights and Growth

     I had the privilege of volunteering in several different ways at FMCI. On Friday mornings, FMCI holds ESL classes for the adults in their community. Many of them have young children who aren’t old enough to be in school so I provided childcare during their classes. On Monday afternoons, I served at the homework club for students from the Santee Elementary School. I helped the students finish their homework and spent time playing with them. I really enjoyed my time at the homework club because I got to know the children individually. They remembered me and were excited to spend time with me. It was such a pleasure for me to learn about their families and their hobbies.

     I also enjoyed the opportunity to serve at the Second Harvest Food Bank. I spent all morning giving out romaine lettuce and eggplants. I recognized several parents who came through our line at the food bank. They were parents who participated in the ESL classes at FMCI. When I handed them their portion of food, I knew that it would be feeding the children that I had been taking care of. When I first met those kids, I had a hard time connecting with them because I didn’t speak Spanish. Most of them didn’t speak English well so we had to rely on sign language and interpreters to communicate with one another. However, after a month, I had truly grown to care about them. I was thankful that they would be able to sleep with full stomachs after the food bank.

     I recognized the prevalence of food insecurity during my volunteer hours at the homework club. Every day, the children come to homework club with unhealthy snacks. A vendor positioned himself right next to Santee Elementary School so that students could conveniently buy chips, cheese puffs, and sugar. From one of our class activities, I remembered a film where young children were surviving on unhealthy snacks because their parents couldn’t afford to buy them fresh fruits or vegetables to eat. Snacks full of sodium and sugar increase the chances of obesity in children and can make it harder for them to focus on their homework. My education taught me to identify the signs of food insecurity. Before this class, I had never heard of the term “food insecurity” and I had no idea what it meant. It has been exciting to learn about the resources that are available to members of my community and the resources that are available to students at San Jose State University. Moving forward, I want to keep my eyes open to recognize food insecurity around me, especially at my university. I want to point my classmates and friends in the right direction so that they can be satisfied and healthy.

References

Andrews, D. (2015). Hunger pangs. The Santa Clara Weekly. Retrieved from https://www.santaclaraweekly.com/2015/Issue-6/hunger_pangs.html

Bacho, L. (2017, December 20). Opinion: Many Santa Clara, San Mateo counties’ residents at risk of hunger. The Mercury News. Retrieved from https://www.mercurynews.com/2017/12/20/opinion-alarming-number-of-santa-clara-san-mateo-counties-residents-at-risk-of-hunger/

Cole, S. M., & Tembo, G. (2011). The effect of food insecurity on mental health: Panel evidence from rural Zambia. Social Science & Medicine, 73(7), 1071-1079. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.07.012

Decker, D., & Flynn, M. (2018). Food insecurity and chronic disease: Addressing food access as a healthcare issue. Rhode Island Medical Journal, 101(4), 28-30.

Gray, L. (2014, January 21). Hunger in Silicon Valley: Bringing healthy food to poor communities is a challenge. The Mercury News. Retrieved from https://www.mercurynews.com/2014/01/21/hunger-in-silicon-valley-bringing-healthy-food-to-poor-communities-is-a-challenge/