Existing Food Policies and Their Relationship to Hunger and Nutrition

Abstract

The federal government subsidizes, either partially or fully, 95 million meals each day through the food assistance programs (U.S. Department of Agriculture [USDA] 1984). Despite the scope and cost of the food assistance programs (table 1), recent studies have concluded that the incidence of hunger in the United States is increasing (Porter and Washington, Chou).1 Although there is general agreement that hunger reemerged in the United States during the 1980s, there is much controversy regarding the extent of hunger. The Physician Task Force on Hunger in America estimated that 20 million Americans suffer from hunger at least some time each month, but the President's Task Force on Food Assistance indicated that it is currently impossible to estimate the extent of hunger because of the absence of reliable data. The objectives of this paper are twofold: (a) to review current food programs and policies and their objectives relative to existing nutritional and hunger problems and (b) to appraise the existing food assistance programs based on their stated objectives. This discussion is not intended to be a thorough discourse on key elements of food policy but is designed to highlight developments in food policy relating to the food assistance programs, nutrition, and hunger. Recent Developments in Food Assistance Programs