When did hunger in the United States turn into a critical issue?
Severe hunger was first recognized in the late 1960s, and Congress acted on a bipartisan basis to reduce it greatly through programs like Food Stamps and Child Nutrition (school breakfasts and summer food programs). But in the early 1980s the President and Congress cut program budgets significantly at a time of national recession, and food banks and soup kitchens proliferated around the nation. We still have not recovered and now federal nutrition programs are not reaching many in need.
