Thesis: Aiding in Food Insecurity in Rural America

This project takes a focus into the subject of hunger. Food insecurity is a very serious matter. It affects people globally, nationally, and many places locally. The focus of food security will be looked at from a local stand point. Specifically it will be looked at in the town of Warrensburg, Missouri.

This town is a small land locked area in the Mid-West of the United States of America. With a population of an estimated 18,988 people in the town. Warrensburg households have an estimated income from 2012 at $ 38,186 per year. The major of people are white at 85.4 % , in second is black at 6.0 % and last is Latino at 3.1 %. The median age in Warrensburg is about 23 years old. Combined with the amount of people that live in the town there is a University population of about 11,000 students.

These people whether from the town its self or the University come from a cornucopia of different backgrounds and religions. This is a large population of people. Warrensburg, Missouri was founded in 1856. With a population this big with a town that is 158 years old there is a steady amount of people constantly coming in and going out. The main issue with hunger is just not a problem to be dealt with in a general manner of who really needs it or not because this is need measurable because there are different definitions of the term need. The problem is about who ever feels like they need food should not be without it. These people should have access to food regardless of any factors including ethic origins, sex, or social standing.

The main focus in this town is to help the people that are residents in it and as well maybe just people who are passing through at the time that need food be able to have access to it. Hunger is an issue that affects many people. It can be addressed in many different ways. The focus here will be on two. First it can be addressed in the matter of a national problem in The United States of America. 1 out of 6 people in The United States have to deal the struggle of hunger and 50.1 million people in The United States deal with it as a whole. In this same article it reports that there is having food insecurity is something that happens in every county in The United States.

The second focus will be locally. The focus will be not just on a small town example in The United States that deals with the problem of food insecurity but with Warrensburg its self. There are many organizations in the city of Warrensburg that are dedicated to helping those who are in need of getting food. Some of these organizations are churches. One an example of a church helping the community in this way is the Shiloh Baptist Church in Warrensburg Mo. This church holds a soup kitchen on Mondays and Tuesdays. Another organization that helps the community is from the University of Central Missouri. This is the UCM Cupboard. The issue of food insecurity is being paid attention to from a community and academic setting. Even with this help it is still an issue in this town. With organizations that function nationally and globally like these ones do food insecurity still poses an issue.

In this project I will use my skills of ethnography to help. I will be interviewing a selection of different people. These people are ones that come from many different spectrums of food insecurity. The main people that I will be focusing on are those who are in food insecurity. These people might be those without a home. These people might people those with a home. These people might have a family, whether it is them that is responsible for the family or someone else is responsible for them. These people that I will also interview for the people who have food insecurity might claim themselves as single. I will also interview people who deal with food insecurity in helping people who have trouble with it. These people will be interviewed if they are a part some kind of food pantry or organization they gives food to those who need it. These people will be from church organization that helps those in food insecurity. These people will be from schools, like the University of Central Missouri and if there are any other schools in the neighbor hood that take on this issue. I will also look at food insecurity from the prospective of small business owners. I feel that it is important to see how they view it. It is also important to see if they have ever wanted to do anything about the issue. I will also use surveys to ask a series of questions. These surveys will have questions on them that are meant for the people that are the main focus of this project, the people that have food insecurity. These surveys will people very helpful in my research. They allow me to collect large amounts of data for farther research on how to approach the issue of food insecurity. The surveys that I will be using will also be good to collect data that might seem personal as to not embarrass the people that I am collecting data on. Surveys make my research subjects keep their sense of privacy.

The tools that I will be using are important in collecting my research. I will be using for one a recorder that I will be using on my phone. This will help so that I can have word for word accounts of what is said by my research subjects. I will use pens and paper to take quick notes. Using pen and paper for my notes will also be useful in taking notes were I will need to spell something out. It is also useful if I need to look at something right away. It is good to also have two different sets of similar notes just in one set of my notes happens to get missed placed.

Intellectual Merit

The research that will be taken on will help other local areas that have problems will food insecurity. This research can even be used on a bigger scale to be used as a sort of a blue print for national or global problems with food insecurity. This research can also explore why something this happens. It can also even help to reduce these preambles if we can see how they arise in the first place. This research could may show that there is more problems than just food insecurity going on. I am very qualified in dealing with this issue. I have done extensive research on this matter. I have also volunteered for this kind of issue. This research will also look at economic setbacks that had happened to these people. It will also explore their lives before food insecurity if this is possible.

Broader Impact

This research will give more information about the town of Warrensburg. It can show on an average how many people pass through. It will show how many people on average lack the resources to provide food for themselves and or their families. Maybe it could be used to create some kind of schedule of days were food is being served in this manner in the community. It can show who are the people who do or don’t have excess and or knowledge of these organizations that are providing food.

This research deals with the problems of food insecurity in Warrensburg Mo. It specifically focus on who it is affecting. This includes families, single adults, single adolescents, sex, ethnicity, how these people are able to support themselves and find out any other factors that might had lead to food insecurity for these people. This is important in an effort to reduce food insecurity and also find a stable means to combat the issue. I have found pdf files on readings on how this matter as been addressed. These come from the works of John Mazzeo PhD. He is a applied medical anthropologist who has done work with food insecurity. He has done work in Haiti and Zimbabwe. He has done work with talking about cattle rising and vegetation growing in these areas. These may help because he has explained how he has done his work in rural areas. Even though where I am working is not like these places in climate and condition it is still also a rural area. These notes that he has might become useful to my research. Added to this reading material other research that I have done and can further add on to is information about organizations who are in the area that I am doing research in. Do to visiting these places I have knowledge of them.

I have been to some of these places in the community that help battle food insecurity. I have also done research of them on the internet at sites like the Shiloh Baptist Church website and the University of Central Missouri website. Through both of these I have found particular days that they are done. Also I have found out times they are done. I have found information about the community and the university at The United States of America, Missouri, Demographics website and the University of Central Missouri website.

In my data analysis plan I will do three things. First I will try to answer three of my major questions. Why is food insecurity happening? How many people are affected by it? What is needed to reduce it? Secondly I will create a variety of specific questions for my subjects. Thirdly if possible I will compare ethnographic research and surveys by demographics. My research will take two years to development. This is because it is better to see the changes of my research compared from year to year. I will work on my project six days a week. I will work on collecting data five times a week and one day to put it together and sort through it. I will work on it from 5:00 pm to around 9:00 pm. I will stop at this time because this is a ball park time of when all organizations are opened and closed and is less likely for me to research and do surveys of my subjects. No funds will be needed for my project.

This project will help the anthropological theory. It will do so by creating a template on a issue, it’s cause and it’s effect on the people involved. It will be able to look at what is happening and from there find solutions through different methods that can connect to it.

The Broader impact of the project will help when it comes to the subjects. These are useful to create my questions for them. These questions will be in my ethnography questions and surveys. It will help show some of the causes of the issue.

I will not need a budget. My schedule for my research is formatted to do enough work on it and also work. I am in the town that I am doing my research project in. I can use my bike for transportation or just work. I was planning on using digital surveys on my devices because it would be easier to keep my research.

Supplementary Documents

There might be more information about the town that I am in that I might need to further explore. I will do this by connecting City Hall or my advisor to help me connect City Hall for more information that I might need. In this information that I gather I plan to site it but leave out any names if necessary. This is to keep privacy.

DMP

My research will produce information on the population of people will found insecurity. It will also hold information to why they are food insecure. It will also have sex of subjects and ethnicity. It will hold information on single, married and or have children or any kind of guardian. Children will be interviewed and surveyed. This is only by the permission of the adult. For my recording I will use I recording device on my phone and hand written notes. I will use digital surveys on my computer. I will manage my paper information in files in my office. They will be dated in a cabinet. My recorded data on my phone will stay on there but locked. I will not let the people that I interview or anyone else look are use my research. I will let the people that I interview listen to things that I record on my phone but only of themselves. I will only have access to all of the information. To keep confidentiality with my subjects I will create I contract that I will sign that states that I will not release any of their personal information without their consent.

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Bibliography

City of Warrensburg. "City of Warrensburg, MO." Warrensburg, Missouri. Warrensburg, Missouri, n.d. Web. 9 Oct. 2014. <http://www.warrensburg-mo.com/>.

University of Central Missouri. "Internships." University of Central Missouri. University of Central Missouri, n.d. Web. 9 Oct. 2014. https://www.ucmo.edu/intern/

The United States of America. Missouri Demographics. Missouri Demographic. By Cubit. Cubit, n.d. Web. 9 Oct. 2014. <http://www.missouri-demographics.com/warrensburg-demographics>.

Shiloh Baptist Church. "SMBC's Circle of Friends Fifty Thousand Dollar Challenge." Http://www.smbctoday.org/. Shiloh Baptist Church, n.d. Web. 9 Oct. 2014. <http://www.smbctoday.org/floating2.php>.

University of Central Missouri. "UCM Dedicates Campus Cupboard to Assist Students, Staff in Need." Www.ucmo.edu. University of Central Missouri, n.d. Web. 9 Oct. 2014. <https://www.ucmo.edu/news/campus.cupboard.cfm>.)

Work Be Press, John Mazzeo, http://works.bepress.com/jmazzeo/, n.d Web 5 December 2014.