What Is Food Insecurity?

Food Insecurity is a term for when people do not have reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food. There are many reasons this can occur, but structural factors within our society play a major role. Examples of this are food deserts in certain areas of a community as well as limited income options with inadequate wages to provide food for a family.

The United States is one of the wealthiest nations in the world, however, over 35 million people, including 11 million children suffer from food insecurity (around 12%) as shown in 2019 data. The numbers are even worse where No Belly Empty Records was founded in Wilmington, North Carolina. There, 1 in 5 children do not have enough food to eat.

Food insecurity is something known as a “social determinant of health”. This means it’s a piece of someone’s everyday life outside of a medical office that directly impacts their wellbeing. In terms of survival needs, food is the foundation for the rest of health. If that foundation is weak then everything else on top of it crumbles.

The immediate response to fight food insecurity is to supply food to those without. The long term solution and cure is to address the underlying systemic problems that create these disparities in the first place.

Our goal is to raise funds for the immediate response and to raise awareness for the long term solution, a more equitable society.

To Donate to the immediate response and send food to those hungry today, click here

To help build a co-op grocery store in a Wilmington food desert with no access to fresh and nutritious food, click here. (An example of a long term solution)

All album purchases from this site are donations with all proceeds going toward fighting food insecurity.