For the past 25 years, the U.S. has been working on a job called the U.S. Household Food Safety Survey Module. They collect information from about 50,000 U.S. households each year to calculate how many people face food problems that are not enough to sustain a healthy life. This helps them understand the scale of the problem in the country as a whole as well as in the states. However, in the USDA's annual survey, the way Latin American parents responded to some questions did not fully reflect the reality of what they were experiencing. We published this finding in a special issue of the Journal of the Society of Nutrition and Nutrition in October 2023.
Our team, assisted by sociologist Christian Dilardo-Owens, completed a study in California, New York, and Texas. Through surveys and interviews, we help USDA determine if the questions they are asking Latino families are accurate and acceptable. However, it turns out that many of the answers we get from the survey don't quite align with the more detailed stories we hear from our respondents. When we ask them to explain their answers, many people find it easier to talk about how to handle or deal with a situation where there is not enough food than to directly answer the question, how worried or struggling they are about or struggling to feed their families and how they want to.
There is still room for improvement.
Student researchers started a conversation with 62 Latino parents and caregivers. They were asked questions from the U.S. Household Food Safety Survey module and asked them to choose between English or Spanish versions. Half of these questions are needed"Often"、"Sometimes"or"Never"to answer.
In the last 12 months, since last month, whether you have scaled back or missed your meal time because you don't have enough money to buy food. After completing the survey, the interviewer asked the interviewee a few open-ended questions to dig deeper. This strategy allows participants to speak freely. We came to the conclusion that the participants were not because they didn't understand English words or Spanish translations, but because they put the questions together.
When we asked people how often they would skip a meal or eat less, some people would say "never", but then they said they usually cook fewer meals. Some even shared the experience of eating only small snacks instead of main meals. On top of that, some people who claim to always have enough money to buy food leak the secrets of robbing food pantries and similar contingency plans. Although they did this to ensure that their families had something to eat, this did not quite fit the meaning of the problem. Basically, our survey may not fully cover the number of people who are dealing with the problem of not having enough food.
Food insecurity is even higher.
In general, these questions are somewhat sensitive, and there are only a few ways to answer them. Some people find it difficult to give accurate answers, especially when it comes to whether their children are not getting enough food. Still others believe that the way the problem is done is not a true reflection of their own life situation, especially if they can afford food. Now, let's take a look at what the official data tells us: the food insecurity rate in the United States went from 10 in 20212% rose to 12 in 20228%。*Important individuals such as nonprofits and researchers in the U.S. use the findings we find in these surveys to address food issues and decide on programs such as food assistance, nutrition rules, and the U.S. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Latino gangs are growing and have become one of the largest in the country. As of 2022, about 19% of U.S. gangsters identify as Hispanic or Latino. The key problem, however, is this: we don't have accurate information about this large group, which leaves us confused about how many people are struggling to get enough food. In addition, to date, there has not been enough investigative work to verify whether survey questions are truly beneficial to Latino Americans. Now, let's look at this: Official data for 2022 shows that Latino families with children face severe food insecurity, reaching 132% compared to 5 percent for white households with children5%。However, based on our findings, the situation may be more dire than these numbers suggest.
Next.
Currently, our team is delving into the data in our chat logs. We're investigating how Latino families responded to food shortages during the height of the coronavirus 2019 pandemic. We're also asking if Latino parents and caregivers in big cities are looking at these issues differently than smaller cities. Now, we have a scoop mission: our goal is to find out the differences between different Latino groups, such as Mexican-Americans and Puerto Ricans, in order to get more accurate information about the food safety status of Latino families with children.
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