Last November, the campus recognized National Hunger and Homelessness Week. This week aims to make people more aware about poverty in the U.S. and what we can do to help. I attended the OxFam Hunger Banquet which was an interactive simulation of global poverty held here on campus, and it turned out to be extremely powerful. As people attended the event, we were randomly chosen to be in the low, middle, or high income class. The high income class was said to have had an annual income of $8,000 and more, the middle income class was between $2,500-$8,000, and the low income class was less than $2,500.
As $8,000 is the global annual average income of high income, it doesn't seem real to us in the United States. When we include all the countries in the world, you begin to really notice the disparities between them. About 50% of the world's population falls under the low income status, which means that they struggle to make money in order to feed their families. This brings up problems in the development of the human brain. Food is a necessity for human survival and body function, that when the body is not consuming enough calories, the hypothalamus overworks to restore balance to the body. The cells of the brain rely on energy from food like other cells, so without it both neural functioning and brain chemistry are negatively impacted. This includes concentration, memory, sleep patterns, mood, and motor skills. Severe hunger may also limit the size and functioning of the brain structures, intellectual capacity and others may be more likely to be diagnosed with anxiety, depressive disorders, and suicidality.
Global poverty impacts daily functioning especially in the brain which could develop into chronic disorders. By being made more aware of the hunger problem, we may choose to change our food patterns like where we buy our foods, how much do we buy, and how to properly dispose leftover food. This awareness will promote for better food habits and more activism towards global poverty so that everyone is given the chance to live without impairments.
To learn more about poverty, information can be found on the OxFam Website: https://www.oxfamamerica.org"