tion that comes from not eating enough food due to insufficient economic, family, or community resources. Health effects of hunger and subsequent malnutrition are entrapping and long lasting. Malnutrition causes increased infant mortality, low birth weight, retarded physical growth, and impaired brain development. Even moderate and temporary hunger can cause reduced IQ/EQ, radically diminished school performance, and heightened immunodeficiency. Emotionally, hunger often leads to intense feelings of despair and hopelessness, which are the fundamental causes of crime and violence. People go hungry in America because they are poor, and the poor have been steadily increasing in numbers in the United States since the 1970s.Statistics: The percentage of people living in poverty in the US has increased from 11.6% in 1970 to 14.2% in 1994 In 1991, the percentage of children in poverty reached 22% in the US, the highest among industrialized nations Forty three percent of all emergency food recipients are children under 10 and it is children who suffer the worst from hunger. Their developing bodies and brains are especially vulnerable to the deficiencies of an inadequate diet. 25% of children under four have low hemoglobin levels, which causes iron-deficiency anemia 8.4% of children in America have retarded growth Malnourished children suffer a dramatically increased susceptibility to lead poisoning, which permanently damages the brain, kidneys, and nervous systemWe as humans have both the knowledge and the resources to eliminate hunger. Using these tools to work requires us to make some serious choices as individuals and communities together. Only when we decide as a group that we have had enough and are ready to cure this disease permanently; only than can we reassure ourselves that we have done everything that a species can do to put forward the future that will benefit all....
