CR#8 Voice of the Community
One of the hardships that the community undergoes daily is struggling with food insecurity. A couple root causes play into this. The rise of housing costs in California plays a huge role. Especially in a wealthy county like Marin, where homes sell well over a million dollars, the price of living here is no laughing matter. But of course, not everyone in Marin makes six figures a year. Florencia agrees. “To be self-sufficient in Marin County,” she said, ”how much do you need to make? Marin County is (known for) its extremely high cost of living… Our families that come (to Health Hubs) are low-income families and middle-class families. The expenses are still high for middle class families who are borderline low-income.” With soaring housing costs and stagnant wages, it’s evident that much, if not all, of the money earned is going towards rent or paying mortgage for middle-class and low-income families. On the topic of pay, finding good jobs is very difficult for the community.
In today’s political climate and the Trump administration actively cracking down on immigration, the fear of living in the United States as an immigrant is hurting the population, causing a lack of participation in their support programs by the population it was intended to serve. “They might get lucky and find a job,” Florencia added, “but when they finish the job, people are complaining. (Employers) are leaving them, dropping them back where they found them but don’t pay them. And if they complain they will be reported to immigration.” The threat of deportation is a very real threat, evident by Trump’s vocal animosity and racism, targeted mostly at Latinos and Muslims in his famous tweets. Some employers are looking for cheap labor and an undocumented immigrant had been their perfect target, someone who cannot do anything in their power to retaliate because of their immigration status. As families live in fear of the government, “they are afraid to access (public benefits) because of what would be the consequences. They might be deported; that’s what they hear. Or their children will need to pay for the services they receive when they become adults. A lot of the myth is that their children will have to pay it back when they are 21 or 18,” Florencia stated.
The exploitation of immigrant workers is a national issue that isn’t just constricted to the bounds of Marin. Companies are literally justifying the extremely low pay they’re giving to their undocumented workers in detention centers, claiming that “the work program is ‘volunteer’ and that standards are set by the federal government” when in actuality, they mean “’we’re only paying $5 an hour because [the workers] are volunteering to do it’” (Picchi). In many cases, people did not choose to be living in poverty, to the point where they can’t even afford to put food on the table for their family and their kids. It comes to the point where even children are skipping meals in order to help their parents pay rent, according to Florencia. She has numerous resources that she graciously sent me after the interview, including a facts sheet from Health and Human Services of Marin County. From a survey they conducted, “more than 10,000 children in Marin live in food-insecure households” (HHS). Unfortunately, it is not difficult to imagine children skipping meals in order to save money, not at home and nor at school. In the living condition, if we can even call being food-insecure a living condition, that these children are growing up in, they, along with the rest of their family members, will do anything in their power to help keep the family afloat, even if that means not having a school lunch.
Miguel Villarreal is in charge of food and nutritional services for the Novato Unified School District, saying “he regularly gets letters from parents who say they can’t afford school lunches for their children even though they don’t qualify for assistance. ‘We do have many families who earn above the poverty level but live way below cost of living standards for this area’” (Halstead). According to the Economic Research Service, a government organization, 11.8% of households in America are food insecure (ERS). In comparison to the food secure population, 11.8% may not seem like a lot. However, if you really think about it, how much of the food secured population are relying on fast foods, process foods, and packaged foods? They’re cheap, affordable, and pretty tasty. They’re easily accessible and convenient for families who are constantly working. In fact, a third of the nation’s population eats fast food at least once a day (LA Times). Consistent consumption of fast food leads to numerous health issues, especially coupled with sedentary activity, as many already know. Food insecurity is linked to under nutrition and isn’t strictly a U.S. problem alone. In BBC’s words, “The highest rates of childhood obesity can be found in Micronesia, the Middle East and the Caribbean. And since 2000 the number of obese children in Africa has doubled. In many places it is common to find children whose diet does not meet their needs” (Hawkesworth). We’ve heard about it all: type II diabetes, heart attack, high blood pressure, and stroke. With medical visits and health insurance being so expensive, the high rates of cardiovascular diseases will only add more to the costs of being healthy.
There are many ways that Health Hubs is addressing the issues, specifically the fear of accessing public benefits and programs. Before the new sign-in system at Health Hubs, families had to provide proof of identification every time they accessed the food pantry. Knowing that the Canal is a primarily a Latino/Hispanic community, where some may have been undocumented immigrants, Health Hubs decided to change the registration system to better serve their community. “We used to have 90 families come, but with the change we now have 300 families come (to Health Hubs) every week,” Florencia said. This small change in operations alleviated some of the fears families harbored of government and medical services, allowing them to fully take advantage of the public benefits that were put out there to help them in the first place. Health Hubs not only provides healthy foods for the community, but nutrition education and health screenings as well. Working alongside the Marin Community Clinics, Health Hubs could be considered preventative care.
1. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/working-for-peanuts-detained-immigrants-paid-1-a-day/
4. http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-fast-food-america-20181003-story.html
