04/22/2025
Remember this video next time your people got store coming up and you wanna tell them "I don't got it"
Food insecurity, or the lack of access to enough nutritious food, can have serious consequences on people's health and well-being.
People who experience food insecurity are more likely to experience malnutrition and chronic conditions like heart disease and diabetes. Food insecurity can also hurt people's mental health and result in depression, anxiety, and stress. Not meeting basic needs like food and shelter can lead to social isolation, stigma, and shame. Without enough food, people who experience food insecurity may have difficulty concentrating, have low energy, or miss school and work due to illness. In 2020, Impact Justice led a national investigation into prison food, finding that three out of four people surveyed were served spoiled food while incarcerated. This status quo is not just wrong, but unnecessary. Pioneering correctional institutions have devised systems that provide nutritious,
satisfying food and save money, yet the commissary is often out of reach- three out of five formerly incarcerated people reported having been unable to afford anything from it. At many facilities, necessities like soap aren't provided and have to be purchased, making food a luxury item. In some cases, the relationship between food service and commissaries is symbiotic. Many vendors, like the behemoth Aramark, the country's largest food service provider, are contracted to run both meal services and the commissary. This can create a perverse incentive: the worse the meals, the greater the need to spend. A study found that each year spent in prison "translated to a 2-year decline in life expectancy." It's easy to see how. Food borne illnesses are, perhaps, among the most immediate and universal risks for incarcerated people- research findings indicated they were six times more likely to contract them. To artificially meet health requirements, especially calorie minimums, meals are packed with refined carbohydrates. For key nutrients, powdered drinks stand in for whole foods. A study conducted in a rural Southwest jail found that daily meals had 156 percent more sodium than is recommended. Even seemingly healthy options, like oatmeal, are over-sweetened and low in fiber. People in prison were 150 percent more likely than the general population to report histories of diabetes, asthma, high blood pressure, according to the DOJ.
Nearly one in four incarcerated people have hypertension. They, too, have higher rates of hearing, vision, cognitive, and ambulatory disabilities than the general public, which the abysmal nutrition in prisons and jails surely doesn't help.
Check out hopeontheyard’s video.
