
          Statement of Dr. Aaron Shirley before the House Select Committee
on Hunger. Greenwood, Mississippi June 25, 1984
          By Shirley, AaronAaron Shirley
          Vol. 6, No. 6, 1984, p. 12
          
          My name is Aaron Shirley. I am a practicing pediatrician and the
project director of the Jackson Hinds Comprehensive Health Center in
Jackson, Mississippi. I also serve as chairman of the Board of
Trustees of the Mississippi Medical and Surgical Association, an
affiliate of the National Medical Association. I appreciate this
opportunity to come before you to share my views on the problems of
hunger and malnutrition in our nation. I am sure you are familiar with
the Field Foundations Survey of Hunger in the United_States in 1967
with a follow-up study ten years later. I had the opportunity to
participate in these surveys and was also part of a team which visited
this area in April and May of this year. My first hand experience with
nutritional problems of the poor is not limited to the few weeks spent
during these studies however. Mine is an everyday experience as we
provide a wide range of health and health related services to more
than 26,000 poor in the City of Jackson and surrounding rural Hinds
County, including WIC certification and nutritional counseling to five
thousand poor pregnant women, infant and children.
          In 1967 when we examined children in this very town and outlying
rural communities we saw many children on the verge of actual
starvation. They were stunted in their growth and development, dull
and with very little vigor as you would expect of three, four and five
year old children. Ten years later, and again in April and May of this
year we found similar conditions but not to the extent to which they
existed in 1967. It cannot be denied that the overriding factor
contributing to the improvements which we did see has been due to the
combined benefits of the various food assistance programs put into
place during the past decade. This is not to say or to imply
that poverty related hunger and malnutrition no longer exist. It does
exist. It is still wide spread among the poor of our state, with
children and the elderly being particularly affected.
          With the absolute number of individuals in poverty growing, the
problems are sure to deterioriate, and without appropriate
intervention we may soon find ourselves back to the conditions of 1967
and the numbers adversely affected in this state would be high. For
instance, there are 425,000 children participating in the school lunch
program. Of these, 290,000 or sixty-eight percent receive the meals
free or at reduced price, meaning they are from families in
poverty. When we consider that poor children obtain one third or one
half of their daily nutrients from school lunch we can readily see the
potential negative impact on those who may no longer be able to afford
these meals due to cut backs and changes in eligibility
requirements.
          Some might argue that the difference will be made up at home. This
is just not the case. From our own first hand experience we find that
seventy percent of the five thousand individuals, mostly children,
which we certify annually for the WIC Program have home dietary
histories deficient in vitamins A and C. Forty-five percent are
deficient in iron and thirty percent deficient in protein. In those
children three to five years of age, fifteen percent are deficient in
calcium. And as we interviewed family after family recently and looked
in their refrigerators and on their pantry shelves towards month's end
we could easily determined the reason, not enough food!
          Over the past months there appears to have developed a controversy
over this issue of hunger and malnutrition in our country. It is my
understanding that even your being here trying to sift out the facts
has provoked some degree of resentment and suspicion on the part of
local officials. I can tell you over the years this has been a
predictable reaction of those who have consistently ignored the
problems of poor_people and who have fought hard to retain a political
and economic system which perpetuates poverty and all that living
without an adequate income implies; poor housing, malnutrition, ill
health and shortened life span. You will see some of this for yourself
as you visit families in this area: I hope that you will keep in mind
as you observe these families that the hunger that they speak of is
not the occasional discomfort that you might experience on a busy day
in which you might miss lunch or some other meal. The hunger which you
see here is ongoing and leads to chronic malnutrition, and the
consequences of this type of malnutrition takes it's toll.
          Gentlemen, in closing, I ask that you give serious consideration to
immediately increasing the amount of funds for the various nutrition
support programs--all of them; food stamps, WIC, school breakfast and
school lunch. I say increase them all because it is obvious to many of
us that one meal, or even a portion of a meal can make the difference
between a child who is healthy, happy and capable of learning and
developing into a productive citizen or one who is hungry and
malnourished, apathetic and vulnerable to sickness and disease and
possibly a shortened life span.
        
