Barack Obama and Joe Biden's Plan for Tackling World Hunger

Barack Obama and Joe Biden's Plan for Tackling World Hunger

President Barack Obama and Joe Biden's plan to tackle domestic hunger in America has many pros and cons. The program has proven to be an effective program for many American's struggling financially due to the economic crisis and high unemployment rates. Many American's from senior citizens, low income families, and children benefit from this program dramatically. However, these same programs are also a financial strain on the government's finances. This plan stirs up a lot of emotions for me. It is a close and personal issue because the majority of my childhood my family and I struggled financially and were always considered the "low income" family. We were the family that would not have survived without food stamps or Medicaid. As a result, I understand firsthand that federal nutrition and food assistance programs play a key role in minimizing the ill-effects of poverty and improving the diets of low-income working families, especially children. I believe one of America's top priorities should be caring for Americans. Obama states, "We've got rising food prices here in the United States. My top priority is making sure that people are able to get enough to eat." (Meet the Press, 5/4/08) Barack Obama's program to tackle domestic hunger will strengthen and expand nutrition assistance programs and commit to ending childhood hunger by 2015. With rising food prices, existing benefits and programs are not enough to provide a healthy meal. Too many of our fellow citizens - over 35.5 million Americans, including 12.6 million children - face a constant struggle against hunger. For that reason, they supported provisions of the 2008 Farm Bill that improved the Food Stamp Program (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program/SNAP) and strengthened other nutrition programs, such as increasing funding for emergency food assistance and improving the availability of fresh fruits and vegetables in schools with significant numbers of low-income children. Improving and expanding federal food assistance and nutrition programs will also be a key component of ending hunger in the United States.

Many of these low income programs tend to cost the government and tax-payers an overwhelming amount of money. However, the programs included to tackling domestic hunger are not taking away from the tax-payers but supporting its own cause. The Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Program, for example, ensures that children have access to the basic nutrition they need. It is a smart investment and prevents health care costs by helping to ensure the healthy development of infants and toddlers. Also, simplifying program rules in the National School Lunch Program will not only reduce paperwork and administrative costs, but will also ensure that low-income children receive the nutrition assistance they need. Automatically enrolling children who are already participating in the Food Stamp Program in the National School Lunch Program has reduced program error and increased the number of needy children who receive meals. The program will seek to build on this success by automatically enrolling more poor children in the school meals program who are participating in other means tested programs such as federal health programs in order to alleviate the federal costs.

The most effective way to eliminate childhood hunger and reduce hunger among adults is through a broad expansion of economic opportunity. Unfortunately, the past eight years have seen a significant retreat from the gains made in reducing poverty in the 1990s. From 2000 to 2007, the number of individuals living in poverty rose by nearly 6 million, to a total of 37.3 million. During the same time period, the number of Americans experiencing food insecurity increased as well. Poverty is the primary cause of hunger and this program has a comprehensive plan to reduce and alleviate poverty, including providing permanent tax relief for working families, expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit, raising the minimum wage, and providing affordable, accessible health insurance. Approximately 49 million people, including 17 million children, experience household