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That depends on the country. In rich countries it is rare for poor people to go hungry because food is cheap compared to median income and poverty is defined re

That depends on the country. In rich countries it is rare for poor people to go hungry because food is cheap compared to median income and poverty is defined relative to median income.

orwin 2y ago
Counterpoint: I've visited the US. Poor children go hungry there, at least in WV. I've talked with a teacher who baked white rice everyday to give it to 3 children in her class, since they couldn't afford the school's restaurant and didn't had lunch.
- HideousKojima 2y ago
  Every public school in the US has free school linches for those in extreme poverty. This is especially true in more poverty striken areas (like West Virginia): https://www.fns.usda.gov/nslp https://www.fns.usda.gov/nslp
  - zamfi 2y ago
    Some of these programs require household application, which may be to high a barrier for some students. That teacher's support might be vital to a hungry 8yo whose parents can't/won't/don't fill out the form?
    - HideousKojima 2y ago
      Call CPS if it's that bad
  - mrguyorama 2y ago
    "Extreme poverty" in the US is such a crazy low bar though. A huge portion of America is literally working poor. Not technically under any poverty bar, but that's not enough to pay rent and also buy enough food for everyone. For those people, the $2 a day that school lunch costs (or even 50 cents for reduced price lunch) is literally too much money, because it is. So those kids go hungry. I knew plenty of those kids that all of you are insisting don't exist (for some reason) and no, the existing welfare is just not enough, even in an extremely low cost of living area, in a state with significant state level aid.
    - lupusreal 2y ago
      The bar for free school lunches in America isn't "extreme poverty". You've responding to HideousKojima's characterization of the program as though it is accurate, but he's wrong and if you're actually familiar with the subject matter you should have recognized that he's wrong. Most working class families qualify for free or reduced price lunches. If you're at or below 130% of the poverty line your kids get free lunch. At or below 185% of the poverty line gets kids a reduced price lunch. How many children a family has is part of this calculation; the poverty line is set higher for larger families. This program spends something like 5 billion dollars a year giving lunches to tens of millions of kids. It's not a niche thing few qualify for. There are many schools where virtually every student is in the program. Furthermore, schools will not allow kids to skip lunch. They are given lunch whether or not they have money and the matter is settled with their parents later. The few times I tried to skip lunch in school it turned into huge dramas and food was given to me even though I had chosen to not eat it.
- DataDive 2y ago
  As far as I know schools provide free lunches to children that need it. In my area it is a school policy that a kid would not be denied food even if they had no money in their account - and every place I lived had organizations that would eagerly step up to address such a problem if and when it manifested. For what it is worth, during COVID and a few years after, in my state every kid got free lunch in school regardless of their income.
  - orwin 2y ago
    I'm pretty sure the parents have to fill something for their children to have lunch, and I'm pretty sure the parents were too gone to care. I met the teacher following a photograph who tried to document the opioid epidemic, crica 2018 (we were young and naive, video is probably the only communication medium that's worth anything when you're independent, photography is harder), while I kayaked/hiked/rafted/climbed everywhere I could for the two month I was there. I think she work for a magazine now. And I'm still convinced West Virginia is only lacking a huge lake or a sea to be the best place on earth.
    - DataDive 2y ago
      what I am calling out is that it feels like you are generalizing after learning about one specific and possibly isolated incident. it is very uncommon to have children go hungry in America, because food is plentiful, and numerous charitable organizations would eagerly step in. Bad parenting may happen everywhere in the world. For some brownie points, googling seems to indicate that Germany has a hunger crisis: https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2017/09/world/germany-food-bank-cnnphotos/ https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2017/09/world/germany-food-b...
plorkyeran 2y ago
It is rare for poor people in rich countries to starve to death, but missing meals and going through periods of hunger is unfortunately not uncommon at all.
phone8675309 2y ago
In a recent study by the USDA, Household Food Security in the United States in 2022[1], it is estimated that "17.0 million house-holds were food insecure" (meaning that "they had difficulty at some time during the year providing enough food for all their members because of a lack of resources") and "5.1 percent of U.S. households (6.8 million households) had very low food security" (meaning "food intake of some household members was reduced, and normal eating patterns were disrupted at times during the year because of limited resources"). That's 17 million HOUSEHOLDS that struggled to provide food and 6.8 million HOUSEHOLDS that had to skip meals. I wouldn't call that rare. [1] https://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/pub-details/?pubid=107702 https://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/pub-details/?pubid=107...
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
mrguyorama 2y ago
>In rich countries it is rare for poor people to go hungry because food is cheap compared to median income People say this as if we don't have direct statistics about how hungry poor americans are. Maybe your ASSERTION that poor people should have enough food because "it's cheap" isn't right and you should investigate that.

That depends on the country. In rich countries it is rare for poor people to go hungry because food is cheap compared to median income and poverty is defined relative to median income.

orwin 2y ago

Counterpoint: I've visited the US. Poor children go hungry there, at least in WV. I've talked with a teacher who baked white rice everyday to give it to 3 children in her class, since they couldn't afford the school's restaurant and didn't had lunch.

HideousKojima 2y ago
Every public school in the US has free school linches for those in extreme poverty. This is especially true in more poverty striken areas (like West Virginia): https://www.fns.usda.gov/nslp https://www.fns.usda.gov/nslp
- zamfi 2y ago
  Some of these programs require household application, which may be to high a barrier for some students. That teacher's support might be vital to a hungry 8yo whose parents can't/won't/don't fill out the form?
  - HideousKojima 2y ago
    Call CPS if it's that bad
- mrguyorama 2y ago
  "Extreme poverty" in the US is such a crazy low bar though. A huge portion of America is literally working poor. Not technically under any poverty bar, but that's not enough to pay rent and also buy enough food for everyone. For those people, the $2 a day that school lunch costs (or even 50 cents for reduced price lunch) is literally too much money, because it is. So those kids go hungry. I knew plenty of those kids that all of you are insisting don't exist (for some reason) and no, the existing welfare is just not enough, even in an extremely low cost of living area, in a state with significant state level aid.
  - lupusreal 2y ago
    The bar for free school lunches in America isn't "extreme poverty". You've responding to HideousKojima's characterization of the program as though it is accurate, but he's wrong and if you're actually familiar with the subject matter you should have recognized that he's wrong. Most working class families qualify for free or reduced price lunches. If you're at or below 130% of the poverty line your kids get free lunch. At or below 185% of the poverty line gets kids a reduced price lunch. How many children a family has is part of this calculation; the poverty line is set higher for larger families. This program spends something like 5 billion dollars a year giving lunches to tens of millions of kids. It's not a niche thing few qualify for. There are many schools where virtually every student is in the program. Furthermore, schools will not allow kids to skip lunch. They are given lunch whether or not they have money and the matter is settled with their parents later. The few times I tried to skip lunch in school it turned into huge dramas and food was given to me even though I had chosen to not eat it.
DataDive 2y ago
As far as I know schools provide free lunches to children that need it. In my area it is a school policy that a kid would not be denied food even if they had no money in their account - and every place I lived had organizations that would eagerly step up to address such a problem if and when it manifested. For what it is worth, during COVID and a few years after, in my state every kid got free lunch in school regardless of their income.
- orwin 2y ago
  I'm pretty sure the parents have to fill something for their children to have lunch, and I'm pretty sure the parents were too gone to care. I met the teacher following a photograph who tried to document the opioid epidemic, crica 2018 (we were young and naive, video is probably the only communication medium that's worth anything when you're independent, photography is harder), while I kayaked/hiked/rafted/climbed everywhere I could for the two month I was there. I think she work for a magazine now. And I'm still convinced West Virginia is only lacking a huge lake or a sea to be the best place on earth.
  - DataDive 2y ago
    what I am calling out is that it feels like you are generalizing after learning about one specific and possibly isolated incident. it is very uncommon to have children go hungry in America, because food is plentiful, and numerous charitable organizations would eagerly step in. Bad parenting may happen everywhere in the world. For some brownie points, googling seems to indicate that Germany has a hunger crisis: https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2017/09/world/germany-food-bank-cnnphotos/ https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2017/09/world/germany-food-b...

plorkyeran 2y ago

It is rare for poor people in rich countries to starve to death, but missing meals and going through periods of hunger is unfortunately not uncommon at all.

phone8675309 2y ago

In a recent study by the USDA, Household Food Security in the United States in 2022[1], it is estimated that "17.0 million house-holds were food insecure" (meaning that "they had difficulty at some time during the year providing enough food for all their members because of a lack of resources") and "5.1 percent of U.S. households (6.8 million households) had very low food security" (meaning "food intake of some household members was reduced, and normal eating patterns were disrupted at times during the year because of limited resources"). That's 17 million HOUSEHOLDS that struggled to provide food and 6.8 million HOUSEHOLDS that had to skip meals. I wouldn't call that rare. [1] https://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/pub-details/?pubid=107702 https://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/pub-details/?pubid=107...

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

mrguyorama 2y ago

>In rich countries it is rare for poor people to go hungry because food is cheap compared to median income People say this as if we don't have direct statistics about how hungry poor americans are. Maybe your ASSERTION that poor people should have enough food because "it's cheap" isn't right and you should investigate that.