Nutrition Programs

In terms of politics, the debate over whether or not school lunches should be free is surprisingly divisive (or at least it would be anywhere except in the USA). What is far more obvious is that giving away food to the hungry has had measurable impact as a crime deterrence. A 2016 research of 35,000 adults indicated that white and Hispanic males who self-reported frequently going hungry as children were roughly three times as likely to be violent than those who did not, while among black respondents it was about fifty percent more probable.

This is not to claim that simply providing more food to the poor is a definite solution; in fact, if some counterbalanced measures are not taken, it could backfire. According to a five-year study by Chelsea Singleton of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, communities of all races saw increases in violent crime when there were high rates of obesity and physical inactivity. Any dietary plan appears to require a supplementary program to help burn off much of those calories.