5 April 2012 ~ America and Food Security

Learning such statistics as nearly 17.2 million Americans were found to be "food insecure" in 2010, and that Ohio was the 6th in the nation for most food insecure, there is alot of room for improvement. Sitting in class and  thinking to myself : 'I'm only a college student, earning my degree in dietetics. What could I possibly do in order to put some ease to such a horrible situation all over the country (and world)?' Taking small steps, such as learning about gardening and making the effort to put yourself in the shoes of someone who has to go to free meal programs in order to survive, might just be the key to opening our eyes to the reality that lies outside of Ohio University and college life. As a dietitian, we are bound to come across people who are going to laugh in our face when we tell them to buy fresh fruits and veggies in order to improve their health; we have to be able to come up with solutions and answers for these people which fits realistically in with their lifestyles. In my opinion, in order to do that we have to be able to understand and have an empathetic view of what it must feel like. There are 17.2 million in the US alone who cannot comfortably buy the food they want or even need. That could be us one day, and we are likely to be dealing with these people as well.