Day 2 of Class: Food Insecurity

For our second day of class we watched a clip from the movie Erin Brockovich, which was a good segue into Dr. Holben's lecture on food insecurity.  I think that as nutrition majors we can be so hardwired to tell people things like "eat fresh fruits and vegetables" or "make sure your buying lean cuts of meat" that we forget that the people we may be working with someday might not have enough money to put food on the table every night.  When someone is choosing between a $4 bag of apples or four TV dinners for $1 each, most likely the TV dinner that will feed the family that night will win over the apples.  I find it crazy that something so processed as a frozen dinner can cost less than apples that simply gets picked, bagged, and sent to the store.

 We also watched a 60-minute show which documented people from Marietta that had to stand in line for free food.  It was hard for me to watch, since Marietta is a short drive away and the people they interviewed seemed like good, hard working people, who were having trouble making ends meet.  When watching this I couldn't help but think about Maslow's hierarchy of needs.  People who worry about where their next meal will come from are struggling at the basic level of the hierarchy. Therefore, they are unable to strive to maintain higher order needs such as feeling a sense of belonging and esteem. In order for a community to flourish, it needs to first meet the basic needs of it's people.  Once these basic needs are met, then it's citizens can fulfill higher level needs which could positively impact the community. 

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Overall, Thursday's class was eye-opening and made me step back and realize all I have to be thankful for.  This topic has made me more sensitive to what other people may be going through, which I will take into consideration in the future when I am working with the public.