Sunday, December 7, 2014

Hunger in America

Last week at a family dinner during a discussion poverty and hunger came up. And Frank made a comment that over 10% of people in the US went hungry. I didn't believe the numbers. I've always thought that the issue of poverty and hunger only exists in developing countries and the Western developed countries are free of it. As it turns out Frank was wrong. He underestimated the number at 10%. It was over 16%.


As a follow up to our conversation Frank sent me the link to a non profit Feeding America. It was an extremely interesting website that not only made available all the relevant data, but was heling reduce the problem and allowing participation by each of us.


Here are some shocking data points about hunger and poverty:

Hunger and poverty often go hand in hand, but poverty is not the ultimate determinant of food insecurity. People living above the poverty line are often at risk of hunger as well. Research demonstrates that unemployment, rather than poverty, is a better predictor of food insecurity among people living in the United States.


The most recent government data collected shows that in 2012,
  • 46.5 million people (15 percent) were in poverty, including 16.1 million (22 percent) children under the age of 18.
  • 49 million Americans lived in food-insecure households, including nearly 16 million children.

According to the Feeding America Hunger in America 2014 study,
  • Based on annual income, 72 percent of all Feeding America client households live at or below 100 percent of the federal poverty line.
  • The median annual household income of Feeding America clients is $9,175.
  • More than half of client households (54 percent) report at least one employed person at some point in the past year.

You can check out more details at:
http://www.feedingamerica.org/

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