Statistics that I Don't Get

I never took statistics in school.  Back in olden times a biology degree didn’t require it, one of the many benefits of going to college in the 1800’s I guess. Anyway, I don’t really understand a current statistic that I keep hearing on the radio.  There is an ad that talks about how 1 in every 6 people in America suffer from hunger.  Among children the number is 1 in 5, claiming that 50 million people in America suffer from hunger.

Then, because I read a lot of news sites I see that the food stamp program has increased, that over 15% of Americans are on the food stamp program, and that the US spends over 100 Billion (yes Billion) dollars a year on the food stamp program.  That means that 1 in 7 Americans are currently assisted with food stamps.

Then I read about the obesity epidemic, that over 34.9% of all adults are obese and that 17% of children are obese.

So I’m confused…ARE WE HUNGRY or ARE WE FAT or ARE WE HUNGRY BECAUSE WE ARE FAT AND WANT MORE FOOD???????

I don’t understand. Then to top it off, my child informs me that school lunch is disgusting thanks to Michelle Obama, and no one eats it. But I am curious as to how these numbers are generated, see I do understand how polls get skewed.  So if you were to ask my children in the 3^rd grade for instance,

“Have you ever been hungry?”

“Have you ever had to go to bed hungry?”

“Have you had times when there was nothing to eat in your house?”

My children would have answered yes, and trust me…it wasn’t because there wasn’t any food in our house. So I have a really hard time believing that in the country that feeds the world, spends billions for food stamps, that has churches passing out sack lunches and hot meals in the park, is hungry.