How widespread was hunger and starvation during The Great Depression?

Asked Feb 19 '22 at 00:13

Active Feb 19 '22 at 00:15

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There has been some discussion over how many people have died of starvation during The Great Depression, with the common consensus being that direct starvation killed very few, but the symptoms of chronic malnutrition (incl. worse immune system, disease caused by lack of vital vitamins...) could have been a significant contributory factor in many deaths.

And while this debate has been somewhat settled, it's still yet unclear to me how widespread malnutrition really was in the US populace at the time. Are there any statistical insights into this topic?

edited Feb 19 '22 at 00:15

Steve Bird

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asked Feb 19 '22 at 00:13

Voxel

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What has your preliminary research shown? What about sun livingnewdeal, or quora ? Do they answer? Justcal's comment is probably the best answer. – MCW Feb 19 '22 at 00:23
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Related: How many people in the US starved to death during the Great Depression? – justCal Feb 19 '22 at 00:23
@justCal It's a duplicate, since OP limited it to the US. – Spencer Feb 20 '22 at 00:06
It seems like a focus on the hunger and malnutrition portion of the question might be significantly different from the mortality issues discussed in the other questions answers. A proxy such as stunted growth rate or soup kitchen attendance might provide indicators, and perhaps other recent studies focusing on the malnutrition or hunger aspects might be found that were not discussed in the question on the mortality rates. – justCal Feb 20 '22 at 01:17
For instance a paper here discussing malnutrition in the first half of the 20th Century might offer some insights. – justCal Feb 20 '22 at 01:22

How widespread was hunger and starvation during The Great Depression?

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