The August issue of National Geographic magazine looks at the “New Face of Hunger" in the U.S.:
The number of people going hungry has grown dramatically in the U.S., increasing to 48 million by 2012—a fivefold jump since the late 1960s, including an increase of 57 percent since the late 1990s. Privately run programs like food pantries and soup kitchens have mushroomed too. In 1980 there were a few hundred emergency food programs across the country; today there are 50,000. Finding food has become a central worry for millions of Americans. One in six reports running out of food at least once a year. In many European countries, by contrast, the number is closer to one in 20.
For the article, National Geographic assigned Reportage contributor Kitra Cahana to photograph what food insecurity looks like in the suburbs of Houston, Texas. In the image above, Jacqueline Christian, a home health aide and mother of two in the Houston suburb of Spring, says grace before a lunch of supermarket sushi. With a full-time job that requires constant driving, Christian often buys takeout meals. When food runs out, she picks up dinner for her sons from McDonald’s dollar menu and tells the boys she’s already eaten, “just hoping they leave a piece of the burger.”
Read an interview with Kitra and see more of her photos on National Geographic’s Proof blog.
(Photos by Kitra Cahana/National Geographic)
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