At 26 years old, Liliane Nascimento needs help every day to feed her five children. They are still children, the oldest is 11 years old and the youngest still spends most of his time on his mother’s lap.
Liliane is a single mother and is unemployed, she receives the Bolsa Família benefit from the Federal Government, but states that she often needs to stop eating to be able to provide her children with a meal.
“I’m out of cooking gas at home today, I’m also out of food and I’m not working. Bolsa Família is worth almost nothing. What am I going to do?” lamented the housewife.
Liliane is part of a group of more than 2 million individuals in Amazonas: people in the food insecure range. On the last Wednesday of April (25), the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) released research on the topic which found that the largest state in the North region is one of the main states in terms of inequality in access to food.
IBGE data show that the indicators are higher in rural areas, where 12.7% of private households are in moderate or severe food insecurity, while in the urban region there are 8.9% in the same situation.
According to nutritionist Izabela Moura, food insecurity manifests itself when people do not have regular, daily access to food in sufficient quantity and quality to meet their needs.
This is a Public Health problem as it leads to a reduction in the quality of life and health of the population. Moura warned that the impacts are even more serious when they affect children.
“It mainly affects the physical, cognitive aspects, memory loss, anemia, malnutrition, children are vulnerable to various diseases” he explained.
Expert says that lack of access to adequate food can reduce life expectancy (Photo: Larissa Martins/Núcleo C/A Crítica)
Another expert in the field, nutritionist and university professor David dos Reis, also highlighted that the lack of access to adequate food can reduce life expectancy.
For Reis, longevity is associated with the foods consumed since the nutrients consumed, mainly from fruit and vegetable sources, contain cell-protective substances. Therefore, the fewer these substances in the body, the lower the chances of the cells remaining active for longer.
“In Brazil, only around 10% of the population consumes the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables,” he said.
When it comes to lack of food, the number of people affected in Amazonas is 400 thousand, according to IBGE. In Manaus, the state capital, many of those affected by hunger are socially vulnerable or homeless.
Some of them receive help from social projects that receive donations of food or resources to prepare portions of soup and distribute in specific parts of the city.
Paula Campos, organizer of a “solidarity soup kitchen” that has been operating for eight years, explained that the majority of the homeless population is in the center of Manaus.
Neuropedagogue Karen Leão, creator of one of the social actions, said that there are also those who stay on the outskirts of the city’s hospitals. This is a different audience, many people come from the interior of the state to accompany family members undergoing medical treatment, but they have nowhere to stay.
According to Karen, this is what happens in front of the Amazonas State Oncology Control Center Foundation (FCecon), located in the Planalto neighborhood, Central-West zone. “At FCecon there are families who live in front of the unit until the family member is discharged or is sent to another place. These are families who come from the interior and have nowhere to stay and they remain out front in tents making camp,” he said.
According to the IBGE statement, Amazonas is the nineteenth state in national fish production (Photo: Archive AC/2021)
According to the IBGE statement, Amazonas is the nineteenth state in national fish production, but it is capable of growing in the ranking and also expanding other sectors such as the production of chicken, eggs, vegetables and fruits in order to generate more financial resources. , jobs and facilitate access to food.
On the other hand, the problem of food insecurity affects the entire country, which returned to the hunger map in 2022. Economic inequality is still a very relevant obstacle in this matter. The institute estimates that one percent of the richest have incomes 40 times higher than 40% of the population.
Experts argue that public authorities’ efforts need to focus on policies that address the problem at its root by strengthening access to quality food.
