summary tactic 5

Tabitha Arambula

April 30, 2014

Soc 122

Social movement tactic 5: Push Polling

            We used the push polling tactic as one of our five methods, and I have to say it was fun. My group is hunger and we came up with a survey about our issue. When I did the first hour, mostly all the calls would go the answering machine, or they would not answer. From the data that I analyzed, on the question, do you think that hunger is a serious issue in the US, 91% of people said yes while 9% said they did not think hunger is a serious issue in the US. The next question was if they knew that 11 percent of US households are at risk of hunger, 32% said yes while 68% said they did not know that 11% of US households are at risk of hunger. In the survey, we also asked if they knew that more than 1 in 5 children are at risk of hunger, and 45% said yes, and 55% said they did not know that more than 1 in 5 children are at risk of hunger. I went on to ask if they thought that food insecurity is a serious issue in Fresno, 86% of people said that hunger or food insecurity is a problem in Fresno, while 14% said they didn't think hunger was a serious issue in Fresno. The next question on the survey was if they knew that in 2012, Fresno was ranked the 5^th hungriest metro in the nation, and 29% of people said they knew, and 71% of people said they did not know that in 2012 Fresno ranked 5^th of the hungriest metros in the nation. The next question was a level of agreement on the statement, poverty is the leading cause of hunger/food insecurity. 48% strongly agreed, 43% agreed, 5% disagreed and 5% strongly disagreed. I also asked if they knew that 50 million Americans struggle to put food on the table, 45% said they did know that 50 million Americans struggle to put food on their table while 55% said they did not know. I also asked if they were currently receiving or have ever received governmental aid such as SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) 23% said yes while 77% said they are not currently receiving aid, or have never received aid. Most of the people that took the survey were female (68%) and there were a few males that took the survey, 32%. There were different zip codes and some came up twice so I am only going to put the first five, and they are: 93277, 93704, 93292, 93728, and 93705. Out of the 20 people surveyed, 13 were Hispanic/Mexican. 4 people were Caucasian, 1 was black, 1 was Middle Eastern and 1 was Pacific Islander/ Hispanic. Some of the people that would answer would tell me that they didn't have time, they were busy working, or they would just hang up. I thought that some people were nice, but there was a couple who just yelled and hung up. I got to experience something out of the ordinary for me, and I enjoyed it because I got to learn new things about the issue because to be honest I did know any of the questions on the survey. I got to learn more about the issue and I got information that I can use in order to help others in need.