One in six Americans struggle with hunger, the advertisement of the largest of the large big-box stores read. Pictured were a group of children who look far from malnourished, yet racially diverse, and a smiling adult overseeing the stuffing of the face.

The big-box store is fighting hunger with special deals on such nutritious foods as Double Stuffed Oreo cookies, Philadelphia Cream Cheese, Kool-Aid bursts — sugar in a plastic bottle — and boxed macaroni and cheese. Nothing says healthy living more than some nice cheese sauce mix. The mix includes, straight from the garden, sodium tripolyphosphate. I hear that might be featured at this year’s downtown farmers’ market.

The phrase “struggle with hunger” also is up for debate. What does that mean? Two meals a day? One meal a day? One pack of Oreos? Walk around the store in which these sales are advertised and see how many malnourished children are roaming the aisles.

A recent report showed that more than 20 million children are on free or reduced lunch at school. Many schools offer breakfast and some offer supper for schoolchildren, taking away the responsibility of a parent who chose to have children.

But back to the sales circular. Are we led to believe that the key to tackling both the nation’s apparent hunger problems and its obesity epidemic is to offer great sales — a boon to the parents who cannot, or will not, feed their children and a boon for the children who think the key to happiness is two Oreos with a Rice Krispies Treat in the middle.

Far be it for me to pick on obese kids, since the struggle with weight has haunted me for — how old am I? I am much more inclined to believe that the fat epidemic carries much more, umm, weight than the children struggling with hunger. Surely there are kids who have hunger pains and maybe are not eating the ultimate, home-cooked nutritious lunches, but starving children? We see them on National Geographic, not begging for mush downtown.

The ad comes across as disingenuous. Fight hunger by providing sugar-laden products at a discounted rate. The only thing that will solve is enhancing children’s waistlines.

But isn’t that what we are fighting against?