I

’ll have a second helping of that 
wonderful fish you got there, 
Miss Julia.” A man who claims 
to be named William Shakespeare 
addresses me with familiarity. He’s 
a regular at Food Gatherers on West 
Huron Street, as are many locals 
who volunteer their time and serve 
dinner to those who can’t find it 
elsewhere. “You know I’m from the 
Caribbean. This meal tastes like 
home to me.”
As I scoop a little extra fish onto 
the plate of rice and beans I’ve 
already made for William, I think 
about how this meal not only carries 
him back to his roots in Jamaica but 
also nourishes him and relieves some 
of the pressure that homelessness 
places on his shoulders.
Homeless and poverty-stricken 
individuals face food insecurity, or 
simply put, the lack of access to food. 
In an interview, Rackham student 
Vivienne Hazzard, who is pursuing 
a 
doctorate 
degree 
in 
public 
health, explains, “food insecurity 
is linked to lower diet quality,” 
and is associated with “a variety of 
adverse health outcomes, including 
cardiovascular disease, Type 2 
diabetes and cancer.” This link may 
not seem novel; most of us have seen 
or heard about “Super Size Me”, 
the documentary about a man who 
eats nothing but McDonald’s for a 
month and ends up with all sorts 
of poor health conditions. What 
may seem surprising, however, is 
the sheer volume of food-insecure 
adults, seniors and children that 
walk 
through 
Food 
Gatherers’ 
doors, most of whom need a meal 
on a daily basis. Each dinner, Food 
Gatherers goes through countless 
vats of mashed potatoes or multiple 
sheets of peanut butter cake. Last 
week, we exhausted a 5-gallon 
container of strawberries halfway 
through dinner.“Food insecurity 
is much more prevalent than we 
usually think,” Cindy Leung, an 
assistant professor of nutritional 
sciences, said in an interview with 
me. 
Leung 
researches 
dietary 
and 
health 
disparities 
among 
certain populations that are more 
vulnerable than others. She explains 
even those above the poverty line 
may have a hard time accessing 
a sufficient amount of food, thus 
exposing more Americans to hunger 
than to poverty.
“Food insecurity can be as 
simple as worrying about your food 
running out before you have money 
to buy more or not being able to eat a 
balanced meal, and as severe as not 

eating for a whole day because you 
don’t have money for food,” Leung 
said.
Our 
campus 
lies 
within 
Washtenaw 
County, 
an 
area 
with food insecurity rates at 13.6 
percent, higher than the national 
average at 12.3 percent. About 
48,750 individuals, or 13.6 percent 
of our county, report facing food 
insecurity. They make up the 
William Shakespeares, the faces to 
the stomachs that are fed regularly 
on West Huron. Emergency food 
programs 
like 
Food 
Gatherers 
regularly see many of these people. 
In a 2009 report, 85 percent of 

those served at Food Gatherers 
have monthly incomes less than 
$500, 35 percent say a food kitchen 
is their only or primary source of 
food, and only 13 percent eat the 
recommended servings of fruits and 
vegetables. What’s preventing them 
from eating more smoothies and 
fresh veggies, you ask? About three 
quarters of recipients say the main 
obstacle is high costs.
Leung has started challenging 
the assumption that food insecurity 
only affects adults by studying the 
effects of poor access to food in 
college students. In 2015, a doctoral 
student in her department found 
that 41.5 percent of University of 
Michigan 
students 
experienced 
food insecurity at some point 
that year. “The administration is 
starting to work on strategies to 
address this, but it will take a long 
time to understand all the factors 
that contribute to student food 
insecurity and how universities 
should best address food security 
and other basic needs security 
among students.” 
This research is essential because 
good nutrition is also extremely 
important 
in 
fighting 
diseases. 
Millions of studies have been 

published nationwide that show 
the negative effects of a poor diet 
on health. Foods with high fat and 
sugar content are often cheaper 
than nutritious proteins, fruits and 
vegetables, forcing too much of our 
population to resort to something 
unhealthier, like that mysterious 
fast-food 
chicken. 
Because 
Washtenaw has the highest cost of 
living in the state, we can see how 
an inexpensive, low-quality diet is 
often the only option.
How do we put an end to this 
cycle? Leung says, “Food Gatherers 
and other anti-hunger programs 
are vital in helping to alleviate 
food 
insecurity 
in 
vulnerable 
populations, 
but 
unfortunately, 
they are not the be-all and end-all 
solution.” She explains that we need 
to tackle the roots of food insecurity. 
Emergency food programs are used 
at consistently high rates because 
food insecurity continues to persist. 
In Washtenaw, almost half of 
community kitchen users reported 
being “worse off” than they were 
only a year ago. On the bright side, 
with the knowledge that food 
insecurity is related to lower diet 
quality, programs are taking steps 
in the right direction by adopting 
nutrition standards for foods they 
distribute. Food insecurity isn’t just 
a hunger issue; it’s a nutrition issue. 
Food banks should play a role in 
distributing foods of high quality, 
not just high quantity.
Can 
Food 
Gatherers 
meet 
the increased demand for their 
services? Even with the 6.5 million 
pounds of food served in 2017, Food 
Gatherers President Eileen Spring is 
worried many more locals may soon 
struggle to find their next meal. 
This is because of the imminent 
U.S. House of Representative vote 
on the Farm Bill; if passed, it would 
involve huge cuts to SNAP, the 
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance 
Program. You might know SNAP 
by its benefits, which were formerly 
called food stamps. This hunger 
safety net is the largest of its kind 
in the United States and offers 
food assistance to nearly 42 million 
low-income 
individuals. 
The 
Michigan branch of SNAP works 
with neighborhood organizations 
to ensure its nutritional-assistance 
benefits reach all who are eligible. 
If we want our community to 
improve and reach its potential, 
we must do all we can to ensure 
the Farm Bill is not passed. We can 
take action by urging our U.S. Rep. 

5
OPINION

Thursday, May 17, 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

in hostile states, along 
with Pompeo’s prioritization 
of curbing Iranian regional 
military 
expeditions, 
granted the two a boon in 
Tuesday’s 
nixing 
of 
the 
JCPOA, while only serving 
to worry other signatories to 
the deal. 
These ambitions are left 
empty without immediate 
action to take the place of 
the JCPOA, which Trump 
has failed to put forward or 
even outline. It must be kept 
in mind that the urgency of 
the JCPOA originated from 
Iran’s supposed proximity to 
full nuclear capability, and 
the same should be kept in 
mind for the regime now that 
it will soon be unbounded by 
the deal’s limitations. But, 
tighter sanctions may not 
be enough to force Iran back 
to make a more conciliatory 
deal before it reaches that 
capability.
To begin with, Iran has 
reacted 
towards 
Trump’s 
decision by maintaining that 
the U.S. was bound to break 
its word from the beginning. 
In addition to the general 
tradition of distrust towards 
the U.S. that this inspires 
– namely in regards to the 
upcoming meeting between 
North Korea and the U.S. 
over 
Pyongyang’s 
own 
nuclear arsenal – it forces 
Iran into a corner regarding 
future deals with the U.S., at 
the risk of being portrayed 
as spineless to the Iranian 
people. 
This shortcoming could 
perhaps be overcome, if not 
for the lack of steps that 
have been taken thus far 
to remedy it. Namely, the 
issue of forcing the deal’s 
other signatories to comply 
with a return to secondary 
sanctions places the U.S. at 

risk of clashing head-on with 
the European countries that 
originally helped broker the 
deal. 
Although, in the end, the 
European signatories will 
most likely side with the U.S., 
the case carries the danger 
of blowing up and damaging 
key alliances. The hesitation 
this will likely cause could 
prove lethal as Iran returns 
to a limitless nuclear arena.
Ultimately, 
Trump’s 
refusal to compose anything 
close to a comprehensive 
Middle East policy has been 
adequately reflected in his 
abrupt withdrawal from the 
Iran nuclear deal. As the 
country has seen, Trump’s 
brash “America First” calls 
for 
reduced 
international 
presence on his campaign 
have often been relegated 
to 
distant 
memories 
the 
moment they are confronted 
by 
more 
uncomfortable 
realities, as has been the case 
in Syria and Afghanistan. 
As 
of 
now, 
Iran 
will 
prove no different. The 
result 
of 
withdrawal, 
beyond 
the 
probable 
resumption 
of 
Iranian 
nuclear 
activity, 
will 
be 
boosted Iranian confidence 
in the absence of American 
coherence. Without a plan 
to 
realistically 
reinstate 
sanctions to positive effect 
by ensuring the unwavering 
cooperation 
of 
all 
other 
signatories, the U.S. is left 
with nowhere to turn to 
after the nuclear deal. The 
deal as it stood may have 
instated its own problems, 
but until further action, the 
U.S. is surely worse off than 
it was before. 

Hannah Harshe can be reached at 

hharshe@umich.edu.

Ethan Kessler can be reached at 

ethankes@umich.edu.

CONTRIBUTE TO THE CONVERSATION

Readers are encouraged to submit letters 
to the editor and op-eds. Letters should 
be fewer than 300 words while op-eds 
should be 550 to 850 words. Send the 
writer’s full name and University affiliation to 
emmacha@umich.edu

Careening Towards Uncertainty by Ethan Kessler continued below:

“Poverty-
stricken 
indivduals face 
food insecurity, 
or simply put, 
the lack of acces 
to food.” 

JULIA MONTAG | COLUMN