Who Here Is Hungry?

My first question to myself and to readers here is, how well do we understand hunger?

So I'll talk about my situation a bit.  I work for the Oakland Public Library as a children's librarian.  I live in Oakland too, and I am completely in love with my city. That doesn't mean I don't acknowledge its problems, though.  Oakland's crime rate gets a lot of national attention, but what about the quieter problem of hunger? 

In 2010, the Alameda County Food Bank released a comprehensive study called Hunger: the Faces and Facts, which they call "a census of hunger and food insecurity in California's seventh largest county."  Food security and insecurity are concepts I'll refer to often in this blog.  The World Health Organization defines food security as "both physical and economic access to food that meets people's dietary needs as well as their food preferences," and states that it is "built on three pillars:

• Food availability: sufficient quantities of food available on a consistent basis.
• Food access: having sufficient resources to obtain appropriate foods for a nutritious diet.
• Food use: appropriate use based on knowledge of basic nutrition and care, as well as adequate water and sanitation."

It comes down to this:  food security means that every time you are hungry, you are able to get nutritious food and eat it.  In their report, the ACFB further defines food insecurity as "limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods; the inability to acquire those foods in socially acceptable ways."  I like how they add the concept of social acceptability.

Let's look at some statistics from Alameda County:

• The ACFB currently serves 49,000 unduplicated individuals every week, 250,000 every year.  That's 1 in 6 Alameda County residents.
• 43% of ACFB clients are children 17 and under.
• 88% of client households with a child under 5 face low food security.
• 25% of clients with kids reported an instance of not being able to buy food when their child was hungry within the last year.

So, how does this relate to the library?

That's one thing I will explore in this blog.  As I look out from the reference desk in my library, across the street from the Alameda County Courthouse, how many of the kids and parents I see have skipped a meal today?  Which, if any, of the kids parked on the computers don't know whether an adult will provide them lunch?  A new school year is starting, and according to this USA Today article, we can anticipate two-thirds of Oakland's K-8 teachers giving their students food to help them make it to lunchtime. 

The ACFB report defines hunger as "the uneasy or painful sensation caused by a lack of food; the recurrent and involuntary lack of access to food."  It's not hard to imagine how a child experiencing uneasiness or pain might not be a well-behaved library patron, alert and ready to engage with good books, games, and computer resources. 

Here's how a handful of Oakland libraries are tackling the problem head-on this summer:  by serving as free summer lunch sites.  Have a look at the video in the link.  I love when Chávez Branch manager Pete Villasenor points out that "because the kids have food in their belly, they're able to stay longer, and browse and check out all the great books."

Finally, if you are fortunate enough to live in or near Alameda County, be sure to visit the ACFB's "Faces of Hunger" exhibit in the Oakland City Hall Rotunda Building, on display through Sept. 2, showcasing the photos that accompany the report.