Food Insecurity

What is Food Insecurity?

The US Department of Agriculture’s definition of food insecurity is “Food insecurity is the limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, or limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways.”  They also reported in 2023,  “47.4 million people in the US lived in food-insecure households.”

Food insecurity goes beyond not having the ability to pay for food. It also includes not having easy, consistent access to an adequate amount of healthy food. Some examples include: you have enough money to keep your tummy from hurting, but it isn’t nutritious, you don’t have grocery stores in your area; or the region you live in is experiencing famine. 

What does Food Security look like locally?

Per the Capital Area Food Network’s 2024 Hunger Report, 
“50% of Prince George’s County residents faced food insecurity at some point in 2023.” Food insecurity is not just for the poor; the greatest rates of food insecurity increase were in the middle-income groups – households earning $100k-$150k. Prince George’s County has a number of food swamps and food deserts, and a very high obesity rate compared to other parts of Maryland.  On 19 December 2024, Bowie Sun reported as costs rise, Bowie charities see growing need for food and aid.

How does food insecurity happen?

from https://www.harvesters.org/getting-to-the-root-of-food-insecurity-with-food

What is St. Matthew’s UMC doing about Food Insecurity? Our church has a long history of feeding the hungry. Our current local efforts include Bowie Food Pantry, Little Free Pantry and Prince George’s County Men’s Shelter Meal. As opportunities arise, we share and receive resources with/from other churches and nonprofits to help the food insecure (e.g., potato drops, Meals of Hope, food recovery, etc.) Internationally, our church has provided help to Impacto Ministry in Guatemala, and St Matthew School in Logan Town, Liberia to enable them to provide food in their neighborhoods. This work is direct service work, which is vitally important and will continue.  It, however, is not sufficient in addressing food insecurity.

In 2020, our church started to also use a social justice approach by asking why people don’t have enough food in the first place. What are the structural and environmental problems that cause need in the first place? This shows us where we need to prayerfully consider how our church can respond to the injustices. Over the last three years, our church’s September Hunger Action Month has been helping to lead this discussion and provide opportunities to advocate on behalf of the food insecure.