It has been difficult to quantify the problem of hunger in military families. For years, advocates have been pushing DoD to gather accurate data on food insecurity. That is a core element of DoD\u2019s new effort, Barron said. \u201cWe are gathering data and analyzing relevant statistics, which will help us better scope the problem,\u201d she said, noting that she is \u201cfoot stomping the research piece.\u201d<\/p>\n
When she came to her job at the Defense Department in January, she said, she began having conversations with colleagues about food insecurity. \u201cI really did get a look that said to me, \u2018We don\u2019t think we have a problem.\u2019 The reason they thought we didn\u2019t have a problem was, at the time, we were just looking at the low SNAP numbers,\u201d she said. SNAP is the U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps.<\/p>\n
But in her previous work as a family advocate in the nonprofit Association of the U.S. Army, she said, she was hearing that food insecurity in the military is a problem, as she came into DoD.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one at the department owned the issue,\u201d she said, \u201cnot that anyone needs to own it. But I felt like I at least needed to raise the awareness,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She brought in an Army colonel to speak about the issue of how financial insecurity affects the physical and mental state of a person, and 90 people came to listen, she said.<\/p>\n
Her office has also started working with experts at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, too. Lawmakers have also been asking questions about the issue. \u201cNow the department is much more aware,\u201d she said. \u201cMilitary Community and Family Policy office now owns the issue of food insecurity, and we\u2019re hard at work since April to develop a plan for the department that everyone can wrap their arms around.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some steps under way:<\/p>\n
*Barron\u2019s office will start to train Military Family Life counselors and Military OneSource consultants on resources available for families experiencing food insecurity.<\/p>\n
*DoD will pilot a food insecurity assessment tool that will help determine the needs of service members and families.<\/p>\n
*Her office is working with the DoD financial readiness office to make sure families know what resources are available. The financial readiness office will also implement a tool of their own to address the issue.<\/p>\n
Food insecurity is a readiness and national security issue, Barron said, but proper nutrition is also an issue, because service members and their families need the proper nutrition to keep their minds and bodies performing at their best. She noted that many parents will often give up their own food to make sure their children can eat. If service members are worried about their families not getting enough to eat, it can affect their ability to do their job and the mission, she said. And it\u2019s not just married troops: DoD is also looking at food insecurity among single service members.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Perhaps instead of combating an issue that doesn’t exist (though with the fight against “extremism” in the ranks, I guess that’s the DoD’s new favorite activity) we should spend more time educating your servicemembers on financial management. A few less Scat Pack Chargers, Mustangs, and Camaros on base and suddenly these young’uns might have enough of their allowances and pay left to eat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We talked about what “food insecurity” is a while back when surveys were used to make … DoD “all in” on combating “food insecurity” in the ranks<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[209,213,237],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-teh-stoopid","category-your-tax-dollars-at-work","category-big-pentagon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/664"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=115897"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":115899,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115897\/revisions\/115899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=115897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=115897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=115897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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