Hunger 101- The Basics of Hunger

What is Hunger?

Everyone has experienced hunger at some time. Whether it is a tummy-rumble due to a delayed lunch, or mid-morning inability to concentrate because of a skipped breakfast, the experience of temporary hunger is universal.

True hunger, though, is different:

• Hunger: Uneasy or painful sensations as result of insufficient or irregular food intake caused by lack of food; the physical and mental condition that results from not eating enough food due to insufficient resources.
• Malnutrition: Insufficiency of one or more nutritional elements necessary for health and well-being because of an insufficient or poorly balanced diet or faulty digestion or utilization of foods; can result from poor eating habits even when food is plentiful - includes under nutrition, in which nutrients are undersupplied, and over nutrition, in which nutrients are oversupplied.
• Food insecurity: Lack of access to enough nutritionally adequate, safe, and culturally-appropriate food for an active, healthy life through socially acceptable, non-emergency sources; worry about where your next meal will come from.

Food Banks help make the difference in U.S. Hunger

In some developing nations where famine is widespread, hunger manifests itself as a severe and very visible clinical malnutrition. In the United States hunger manifests itself, generally, in a less severe form. This is in part because established programs - like the federal nutrition programs and food banks - help to provide a safety net for many low-income families.