Social science - sociology assignment 2 | Sociology homework help

10. Building momentum

Be sure to incorporate any sources you found related to your selected social problem using standard APA format. Issue Statement: Food Insecurity Among Children and Families in New Mexico Walden University December 21, 2025 Issue Statement: Food Insecurity Among Children and Families in New Mexico The food insecurity is a social issue that has existed since the beginning of humanity and is characterized as the insufficient or unpredictable access to sufficient food that is nutritionally adequate to live an active and healthy life (U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service [USDA ERS], 2024). Millions of households in the country are affected by food insecurity annually, and a significant proportion of them have very low food security, where their eating habits are interrupted, and they consume less food at certain times (USDA ERS, 2024). The risk in New Mexico is concentrated in the low-income households, families with children, single parent households, many Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous communities, the elderly with fixed income, and individuals living with disability or chronic illness, particularly in regions with high housing and healthcare expenditures in comparison to incomes (Feeding America, 2024; USDA ERS, 2024). The policy issue is not whether or not there is hunger but how the state will manage it as an expected consequence of the economic and administrative obstacles or continue to package it as a form of personal failure. Food insecurity is not a marginal suffering that should be championed by the masses and policy makers. It is an institutional cause of preventable health and education inequalities. When rent, utilities, transportation, and medication are not negotiable, families will spend first on food due to it being the most adjustable cost, which triggers a cycle of poor quality in a diet, stress, and additional health-related expenses that will cost the population over time (Odoms Young, 2023). In the case of children, food insecurity is particularly harmful because it crosscuts brain development, focus, behavior control, school attendance, and the ultimate school achievement. Schools and medical systems end up dealing with the downstream consequences when the nutrition of a child is unstable, as the upstream issue persists (Mande, 2023; Odoms Young, 2023). That is why the problem should be a part of policy, not only of charity. The direct professional duty of social workers to promote policy change is also directly linked to the fact that hunger manifests itself in practice setting as presenting problems that are misdiagnosed. Food insecurity in a clinical setting may manifest itself in anxiety, irritability, sleep disorders, headaches, fatigue, nonadherence to medication, and conflict among caregivers, which may be considered individual pathology instead of a logical reaction to scarcity (Odoms Young, 2023). Without involving policy, social workers run the risk of being incorporated in a system that makes crises stable but does not make them less. The necessity of advocacy is not accidental since the safety net is a policy-driven concept where policies define who qualifies, the challenge of enrolling is high; the degree of benefits is sufficient; and families are discouraged by stigma or bureaucracy (U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service [USDA FNS], 2024). When the objectives of the New Mexico community to reduce child food insecurity are achieved, the communities will accrue tangible, quantifiable advantages. To begin with, schools are better learning environments since students are better prepared to concentrate and less prone to disciplinary and health office visits caused by hunger related distress. Second, families will have less financial pressure as they will not have to make such decisions as much when at school and will not have to deal with meal debts and stigma associated with income-based eligibility systems. Third, the general health of the population benefits since regular consumption of healthy dishes minimizes the risk factors that cause inequities of chronic diseases in the long run (Odoms Young, 2023). Fourth, the social service system could also move to crisis distribution to prevention and stabilization, where families are connected to more long-term assistance such as SNAP enrollment, healthcare screening, housing assistance, etc. Success is not an increase in the number of meals served, but a decrease in the number of households that report disrupted eating, reduction in damaging coping behaviors, and positive child well being indicators in school and health environments (USDA ERS, 2024). Policy Review: New Mexico Senate Bill 4 and Universal School Meals One powerful state policy that is responding to this problem is the New Mexico Senate Bill 4 (2023), the Healthy Hunger Free Students’ Bill of Rights Act, which broadened the hunger free school strategy of the state and created a universal system of school meals throughout the state. Practically, this policy should help to guarantee that school lunch is available to students with fewer obstacles typically associated with household applications, stigma, or unpaid meal balances, and take advantage of federal reimbursements where they exist (New Mexico Legislature, 2023). The projected outcome is easy to grasp: decrease the hunger number in the school session, stabilize the child nutrition in a manner that is predictable, and is not related to the family paperwork or fluctuation of income. This is a policy that is prescribed by the state. It is passed by the state legislative procedure and realized with the educational system and the school nutrition system statewide (New Mexico Legislature, 2023). It responds directly to the issue statement by mitigating one of the most detrimental and manifest types of child food insecurity hunger at school. It enhances access by institutionalizing meals as a school time activity among all students thereby improving the lack of stigma and administrative agitation that frequently suppresses deserving families to get assistance. What is missing is important. Universal school meals are not a complete resolution to household food insecurity out of school, over the weekend, in the school break, and during the summer months, or to the macroeconomic factors of affordability such as housing prices and unreliable wages. In case of high needs, school meals may be used to stabilize the daily intake of the children, as the family continues to starve at home. This disparity is the reason as to why school meals be coupled to robust SNAP access and community based assistance, such as screening and referral pathways to healthcare and social service agencies (Mande, 2023; USDA FNS, 2024). The main elements of the policy are universal meals structure, guidelines that promote the use of all available federal funding mechanisms, and program characteristics that promote healthier food environments and implementation support (New Mexico Legislature, 2023). Other provisions in the policy are to enhance the delivery methods and barriers to eating among the students (factors that make students not eat) like procedures to minimize unpaid meals and encourage regular attendance. Its version was in place since 2023, and it is based on prior New Mexico legislation on hunger free schools that started developing several years earlier and was extended with amendments (New Mexico Legislature, 2023). This is important as it indicates a trend of a policy over time: the state shifted its focus on the narrow strategies to wider universal model, in gist of the fact that income based systems tend to omit families with varying incomes or with a large administrative cost. The policy has had wide support among child advocates, teachers, anti hunger groups, and other interested parties in the field of public health, mainly because it is easy to defend the policy on the basis of child development and functioning of the school. Where it exists, opposition is inclined towards cost issues, the question of whether universal benefits ought to be extended to more high-income families and whether the government should play the right role in meals provision (New Mexico Legislature, 2023). Even in cases where those objections are weak on child outcomes, they tend to be politically potent given they put the issue in the context of undeserved benefits instead of prevention. The impact of this policy on clients in the context of clinical social work is the possibility to decrease one of the stressful situations that arise daily and provoke the worsening of the symptoms. By ensuring that children can rely on eating at school, the caregivers encounter less conflict in the mornings, fewer school calls about hungry children, and less shame when it comes to the processes of eligibility to free meals. There can also be an increase in better engagement of clinicians with the treatment plans when the basic needs are achieved more regularly. Nevertheless, advocacy should still be urgent since the quality of the implementation defines actual results. Clinical social workers are also anticipated to promote high-quality performance, nutritious meals, culturally-responsive choices, and connections between schools and healthcare or community organizations to enable families to utilize SNAP support and other resources in cases where school meals are insufficient (Mande, 2023; Odoms Young, 2023; USDA FNS, 2024).

References

Feeding America. (2024). Map the Meal Gap 2024. Mande, J. (2023). The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program as a health intervention. Current Opinion in Pediatrics, 35(1), 33–38. New Mexico Legislature. (2023). Senate Bill 4 (2023 Regular Session): Healthy Hunger Free Students’ Bill of Rights Act. Odoms Young, A. (2023). Food insecurity and health equity in the United States. Annual Review of Public Health, 44, 1–21. U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service. (2024). Household food security in the United States in 2023. U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service. (2024). A short history of SNAP.

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