Healthy food in low income America

For the next few weeks I will be investigating how low income Americans get access to healthy and fresh food.

Here is a short excerpt from a major story that will be appearing on the blog in the next couple of weeks.

Stay tuned for the finished product!

Over 18 percent of the families residing in Bowling Green, Ky. live below the poverty level. On average, a familial income of approximately $22,000 does not allow for lavishness of any sort. But, after paying rent, utilities, and other necessary expenses, should the type of food that a family consumes suffer, simply because healthy food is more difficult to attain?

In Bowling Green, where you can find a McDonald’s or other fast food restaurant in nearly every part of town, the draw of the dollar menu that can easily feed a family of four for less than $5 is challenging to overcome. In a grocery store, it takes much more knowledge about food products and an understanding about how to properly ration certain foods, in order to make $5 stretch as far.
What has caused this, not only health, but also education gap between the affluent and low-income people?

The Congressional Hunger Center, with its executive director, Edward Cooney, is one of the organizations leading the fight for food equality and hunger eradication.

“We try to help people make more prudent choices when shopping for food to feed their families with,” Cooney said.

“People that are on food stamps have no spare income,” he said, adding that whenever individuals can get access to more money, they normally spend it wisely.

“They’ve been buying like normal, healthy people,” Cooney said in reference to the approximately $80 monthly increase that families received because of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Cooney said that he works closely with bi-partisan legislators to ensure that new legislation will be fair to low-income Americans and that healthy food will still be an option.

“Our preference is for people to have access to real food via grocery stores,” he said, “we want to get people food, especially the most healthy food.”

However, for some struggling individuals and families, the grocery store is not an option.