Uncle Sam's hungry brood

Based on how these Americans eat at restaurants and the like, they care little for the poor or homeless: there is so much waste. Nothing in the US is about small or about effort. Want a small food helping, dream on, even if it is a Salad. They have missed the bigger picture somehow.

Pasta Bag what are you yabbering about ??It makes no sense.
regardless 0.4% of the nation going hungry is paltry compared to other countries and the USA has no shortage of food . And its relative to what people earn quite cheap.There are more important things to talk about than overfed America being ona bit of a diet.

@ Roy if living in the USA is so cheep how come so many americans have to work two or even three jobs just to make ends meet? its a bit of a sociaty out of wack.

I love it when brain-dead south africans make a comment on a country like America, The first comment had me in stiches, a south african turning up it's nose and telling the american's they don't care about the poor. If anything south africa cares NOTHING about it's poor, SA has no morals and ranks high in all corruption indexes, and has the highest difference between rich and poor, I don't even like americans but Pasta Bag (and his/her like) has noodles for brains.

Some of you are hilarious. As an American, let me point out that while we are not perfect, and people do sometimes go hungry, we have: food banks, a government program (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, better known as food stamps) that makes sure the poorest don't go without, and churches and community orgs that rally quickly around this. As to the homeless, we have an extensive shelter system. It's not enough, but it's a hell of a lot more than you have. The people you see sleeping on the streets in the US are very often the mentally ill who refuse to go to shelters; not like SA where I see children on the streets.

I'm an American who has been a social worker here, working specifically with homeless inner-city populations, and who has spent extensive time in SA. I'd a thousand times rather be poor in the US than there. Our poorest kids still have food (the only time kids I knew actually went hungry was when mom was an addict and had traded food stamps for drugs) and get two free meals a day at school.

Part of the uptick in hunger you are seeing here are people who have recently lost jobs and not yet figured out how to access available government programs. But at least we have them. Ahem.

Interesting no one understands what I am trying to say. Have you spent any time in the US at all ? If you had you might understand exactly what I mean. Brigitta is right, many have more than one job. As for poking nose, for a developed country such as the USA, I would have expected something a little more from them when it comes to waste-why the comparison to SA at all ?

Chris McGreal, the title of this piece is so distasteful one could easily accuse M&G of hoping for a few mirths at the expense of the hunger of millions. It's not funny.

The emphasis of Obama (in his statement from China) was not on the human tragedy of food insecurity in America, bit on the implications of the levels of hunger for the future competativeness of America as a nation, in other words, on the global competativeness of American capitalism.

Brigitta is right Roy. And things are going to be significantly worts from here on; the financial elite (with Obama at the head of the efforts) is shifting the burden of their looting of the economy onto the shoulders of the cash strapped poor. This can be seen in the assaults on jobs and the driving down of wages.

This is not a phenomenon confined to the USA. Remember the food riots in Egypt, Haiti and Bangladesh a year ago? The irrationality of food insecurity everywhere is in essence the result of skewed priorities in the world's political, economic and social order. The profits of the few are more important than satisfying the basic needs of the many. And even now, with hunger becoming an epidemic, we see food cartels and price fixing as the rich see an opportunity to profit even further from people's hunger. The hunger pains of the many are expressed in the gluttony of the few...and South Africa is not excluded from this irrational profit-over-needs system.

It is irrational, for the world has both the means and the ability to produce enough food for everyone on the planet.

Well well now listen. I currently live in Japan. there is a new party that is in power. This party want Obama to take all his soldiers out of the country(japan)not only that they want America to pay for their debts. These people are not asking them but they are telling them,no begging nothing. So you see, America claim to be up there but they are not. They like to "LIVE BIG". If they can only TRY to PAY back the money that they borrowed from Japanese people maybe, just maybe they can give them a chance. Now the Americans are busy begging the Japanese people. This new party want to have nothing to do with the Americans they are tired of protecting them. The Americans are in deep shit this time around. SA is trying hard although they still need to improve. But I'm happy that M&G published this article. Atleast some people will know what is happening outside.

Pasta Bag I get what you are saying and yes I have been there a few times, but I hardly think you can draw a line between the restaurant habits of the obese population and the poor who have become even poorer because of the economic downturn? Tubby Americans do after all pay their taxes, which fund the programes such as food stamps. The South African government can only dream to do as much for its poor as the States does.. Here it is NGOs and private-run charities who take care of hungry and unwanted children. Where are the state-run orphanages for our million plus Aids Orphans? Where are the refugee camps to help our Zimbabwean friends? We cannot even protect the lives of our farmers. I forsee further increases in the cost of food and shortages as more and more farmers leave the industry.

@Maylani Bezuidenhout, I definetly support your statement, South Africa is going to import food from their own farmers who opted to migrate to other african countries at some stage. So called Land Reform Policy is illitrates think that way, My own pupil dont have a pation to farm, Stupid Mugabe ruined farms in Zimbabwe by so called strategy Land Reform.

@Afrijap, the US was very kind to Japan after world war two that Tojo started against the US. Speaking of hungry in the US, I think that the US should force the mental ill to be placed in the hospitals for their security. Money is not the problem for many of these people because many of them have a lot of money on them but, will not spend it. Drug addict parents should be forced to go for rehab. and should be tested every week in order to keep their children and government checks.

Food shortages around the world, countries preferring to industrialise and in this country, making it difficult for commercial farmers to continue to feed us. the rest of Africa has either gone back to subsistance farming or is sitting waiting for aid from other counteries. The BIG problem here - those other countries are going to have to use that aid money to feed their own - where does that leave Africa?

@ Shannon Wright, you are right that your country (USA) has certainly taken measures to ensure the hunger concern is managed. What I do not agree with is the fact that you are comparing a country like the USA to SA a New Democracy (15 years) where Black (non-white) communities had suffered immensely due to Apartheid, so at least give us a chance to “write the wrongs” if that is ever possible and some time to implement such feeding programs and as the article points out, (Charities say that many of those who fall into financial difficulties take years to get back on their feet, meaning that the problem is likely to persist for years) just as it would take us decades to address the social inequalities of the past and present. Thank you for the efforts you have made in SA inner cities in assisting our homeless population. I appreciate what you are doing and am sure that you have made a positive impact.