The Impact of Food Insecurity & Yoga

By Kayla Spray, Citizen Yoga Teacher

Food Insecurity is a crisis that has an impact that reaches beyond the individuals who directly suffer from the policies and social structures that create and reinforce this traumatic experience had by members of our community. Food insecurity has come to be understood by public health officials as a hidden epidemic. As an individual who has personally experienced food insecurity as a child and young adult, I understand the devastating impact that this has on a human being. Even if you have never experienced food insecurity, I assure you that you have been affected by the substantial harm created by this epidemic. Thomas Pogge’s Theory of Global Justice that helped me develop a more thorough understanding of the complexity of poverty and food insecurity. Yoga philosophy addresses this topic by helping us as students understand our selfish, unselfish and selfless desires so that we can start developing more conscious behaviors that reach beyond our own interests. We can also reference Patanjali’s Eight Limb Path, specifically Ahimsa, the first Yama of the Yogah Sutras. Ahimsa can be translated as non-harming or nonviolence but extends further than abstaining from physically harming ourselves or other individuals that we have contact with to sustaining thoughts, words and actions that do not contribute to harm.

As a young child my mother developed chronic illness and eventually relied on her social security disability to support her family. My father struggled with his own mental health and frequently was unemployed before and after they eventually divorced. This circumstance put significant financial strain upon our family, and I remember relying on both free lunch and EBT food assistance to eat. It was something I recall being embarrassed to receive both at school and at the grocery store. My mother would carefully budget and experienced anxiety trying to meal plan for her family with minimal resources. There were certainly times where my mother would rely on local churches and food pantries to make ends meet. As an adult who is fortunate enough to be able to provide nourishing food for herself and family today, the memory of scarcity is deeply embedded in my nervous system. Despite having my needs met I still struggle to move beyond the fear of not having enough. Food insecurity changes the individual’s relationship with nourishment in several ways. As a kid it was always expected that you finish your food because waste put a significant strain on the family and as a result, I have difficulty connecting to my body and recognizing the experience of enough. I often minimized my needs so that I was less of a burden for my single mother. Many disordered eating patterns were developed in such a state of survival. My senior year of high school I was considered an unaccompanied minor at risk of homelessness. Despite maintaining multiple jobs simultaneously, I again qualified for food assistance until my third year of college when I finally made enough to no longer receive assistance. We often hear that people want to remain on government assistance but in my personal experience that is simply not the case. These programs are often the bare minimum of support necessary to eventually escape the grips of poverty and food insecurity.  

The impact of food insecurity on the individual’s physical health includes higher rates of obesity, chronic diseases, malnutrition and poor health management. If someone is struggling to feed themselves and their family, they are more likely to rely on calorically dense foods rather than a variety of nutrient rich foods. Individuals experiencing food insecurity also are less likely to receive preventative medical care when they are focusing on working to provide their basic needs. Additionally, food insecurity creates significant psychological distress in both children and adults that can cause developmental problems and mental health conditions. Hunger can change the development of a child’s brain and the growth of their body. The experience of food insecurity not only makes it difficult for adults to focus on work but for children to focus on learning. If we expect adults to be productive members of society and thrive in the work force, they cannot be worrying about where their next meal will come from or how they will feed their children. Seven years ago, I taught yoga and nutrition to children in the Detroit schools through Daniella Karmanos, Work It Out, Program. Each day students would be removed from class, and it made it difficult for them to participate. Ignorantly I asked if they needed to do this because it made it hard to get through our lesson. I will never forget the teacher telling me that removing the kids from class allowed them to eat breakfast or shower when they didn’t have the resources at home to meet their basic needs. Even as someone who had experienced food insecurity, I wasn’t conscious of the severe poverty these young children were facing. 

(As I stated in the beginning, In my final year at Wayne State University, I was introduced to the German philosopher Thomas Pogge who developed a Theory of Global Justice. The foundation of his theory is based on the negative duty to not inflict harm. Thomas Pogge explained that institutions and policies are structured in a way that foreseeably creates poverty and prevents human being’s basic needs from being met. His theory alleges that wealthy countries benefit from the state of impoverished countries, and I believe that this theory can be applied within the institutions and social structures of our own country, state and communities. If you consider all the services that we as individuals utilize such as amazon, Walmart or any other corporation that relies on individuals performing work that are not compensated enough to provide their basic needs I believe you would agree that we are contributing to a system that harms members of our communities. 

The first Yama of Patanjali’s Eight Limb path is Ahimsa. Ahimsa is translated as non-harming or nonviolence. As students of yoga, it is our responsibility to not allow our thoughts, words or actions to contribute to suffering. Food insecurity is one of the most harmful and preventable issues that our country is facing despite being considered one of the wealthiest nations in the world. In recent years it has become an extremely politicized problem. I’ve witnessed individuals express the belief that some people are not worthy or deserving of governmental support to provide food for themselves or families. I honestly struggle to understand any circumstance that would warrant not providing a child who cannot afford lunch food. Regardless of whether an individual maintains employment or struggles with substance abuse I believe they deserve to have access to healthy food at a bare minimum.

Another way that we can understand our duty to provide support for those individuals impacted by the experience of food insecurity is through the nature of our desires. Even if we are only interested in our own selfish desire for financial security and not having an additional expense as a taxpayer in our country it will benefit us to support programs that attempt to end food insecurity. Research suggests that food insecurity adds an additional 130.5 billion to 160 billion dollars in additional healthcare costs. People struggling with food insecurity are also more likely to go to visit the emergency room or be admitted to the hospital for multiple days. In addition, poor educational outcomes because of food insecurity are estimated to be about 18.8 billion dollars. Even if your only desire is to minimize the cost to you as an individual it is still worth providing individuals with food security because of the substantial cost on health care and education. As our desire extends to our community or country, we can view our actions as unselfish, benefiting the collective. This may express as us feeling an obligation to do what we can to support those suffering from food insecurity without considering the benefit to us as individuals. As we evolve, we start to perform our duties without consideration of what we want and merely do what we ought to do embracing selflessness action. For me as an individual understanding the nature of my desires has allowed me to recognize that it is my responsibility to do what is within my capacity, to alleviate harm being experienced by others.

If you read this far, I am grateful that you took the time to understand my experience of food insecurity. This is an incredibly sensitive subject that I do not pretend to understand in its entirety. Food insecurity creates shame, isolation and furthers disconnection. Yoga reminds us that we are all connected and even if we can’t directly see the impact of this traumatic experience had by members of our community, I hope we feel called to do what we can to end it. If you have never personally experienced food insecurity, I hope that you can find compassion for those suffering and a deep desire to do what is within your power to end this hidden epidemic. This year as our community donates food to fill boxes for our local food pantry, Gleaners, in each of our studios I am reminded of how powerful we are when we come together to support one another. I hope this holiday season we all have a deep sense of gratitude for the abundance in our lives and a desire to provide support to those who are less fortunate. I wanted to leave you with one of my favorite quotes that has echoed in my mind since I was introduced to her work here at Citizen Yoga:

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."  Margaret Mead

Today’s prompt:

Make a contribution this Giving Tuesday to the Gleaners Virtual food drive: https://fooddrives.gcfb.org/event/2025-citizen-yoga-virtual-food-drive/