<\/p>\n
\u201cFinish your food. There are kids starving in Africa.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve heard this phrase for as long as I can remember, and it has never sat right with me. I\u2019ve always thought it was way too simple. It was presented as obvious, almost unquestionable. Hunger was something that existed somewhere else \u2014 somewhere far away. Somewhere unfamiliar like Africa.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While interviewing a senior about food insecurity for a class, I asked what shaped their understanding of hunger. They immediately brought up hearing \u00a0<\/strong>that same phrase, \u201cFinish your food. There are kids in Africa starving,\u201d at the dinner table as a child. Even in conversations\u00a0 about food insecurity in 2026, hunger is still being connected to somewhere distant rather than spoken of as something people can experience domestically.\u00a0<\/p>\n The phrase doesn\u2019t just ignore the size and the diversity of the continent, but it does so with such certainty<\/em>. It locates hunger so confidently in one place, as if it naturally and exclusively belongs there. However, this couldn\u2019t be further from the truth. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization<\/a>, more than 700 million people worldwide <\/em>experience hunger. And in the U.S., about 47.9 million people<\/a> lived in food-insecure households in 2024, including students and working families. These families regularly choose between groceries, rent or school-related expenses. Or stretching meals across days. Or relying on cheaper, less nutritious meals because that is what\u2019s affordable.\u00a0<\/p>\n