As an avid equestrian rider for the past 10 years, I can say with confidence that the best way for both riders and horses to stay fit is to eat healthy. This usually isn’t an issue for the horses: besides the sugar cubes they’ll weasel out of any unsuspecting passerby at the horse stalls, hay and alfalfa satisfy all of their dietary needs.
For us humans, however, this is a bit more difficult. Our choices regarding and access to nutrition have an incredibly significant impact on our mental and physical well-being, but we are eating increasingly worse as entire populations go without access to proper nutrition or live in perennial food deserts.
In Orange County alone, one of the per-capita wealthiest counties in the country, USDA research indicated that 8.3% of the population is food insecure last year, a percentage that accounts for 264,340 people. More recent projections are even more worrying, indicating that the number has climbed to 13.7%, and the farther from the Orange bubble you travel in any direction, the worse the problem of food insecurity becomes.
In fact, across the country as of 2021, 42 million people and 1 in 8 Americans struggle with food insecurity. The implications of food insecurity go far beyond the realms of our stomachs and can lead to a series of cognitive, psychological, and other chronic problems, especially in children who lack the nutrition needed to properly and fully develop.
Besides an astounding intersection with poverty, studies published in the Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health have found that food insecurity correlates strongly with malnutrition, behavioral issues, mental health issues, chronic illnesses and poor academic performance in youth. Disadvantaged groups, including women and those of racial and ethnic minorities, are significantly more likely to experience food insecurity.
Although this issue is currently far from being solved, and is by most statistical indicators getting worse both locally and worldwide, many organizations are working to fight it. Recent efforts from both Let’s Move and Feeding America, national nonprofits dedicated to eradicating food insecurity, have found great success across the country. Locally, Second Harvest Food Bank and Orange County United Way have made strides through local food and awareness drives and grassroots initiatives to empower local communities to grow their own food.
Despite the big moves these players are making, you don’t have to be a registered 501(c)3 to get involved and start making a difference. The first thing you can do is to try to waste less food. As a society, we waste between 30-40% of all the food we purchase and prepare: if we wasted less, there would be more food easily accessible and available to those in need. Additionally, local churches and grassroots organizations host food drives year-round. Donating whatever you can, whether that’s in the form of food, money or time can go a long way toward supporting the cause.
Just as maintaining a healthy intake of alfalfa and sugar cubes is essential for a healthy horse, eating right and regularly is essential for a healthy society. The alarming rates of food insecurity in even generally affluent areas like Orange County underscore our critical need to expand food accessibility and obligate us to jump in and give back wherever and to whomever we can.
