Food Crisis: When the cupboard is bare

During his campaign, President-elect Barack Obama committed to ending childhood hunger by 2015 and to cutting poverty in half within ten years. A report released in early November by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) increases pressure on Obama to fulfill his campaign promises.

The study reported that 36.2 million Americans, including 12.4 million children, are food insecure, or didn’t have the money or assistance to get enough food to maintain active, healthy lives. Almost a third of those, 11.9 million adults and children, went hungry at some point. That’s 691,000 children who went hungry in 2007, up from 430,000 in 2006.

Among other findings in the report:

The highest rates of food insecurity are in families headed by single mothers (30.2%), black households (22.2%), Hispanic households (20.1%), and households with incomes below the official poverty line (37.7%).
States with families reporting the highest prevalence of food insecurity during 2005-2007 were Mississippi (18.4%), New Mexico (15%), Texas (14.8%) and Arkansas (14.4%).

As bad as the numbers sound, hunger is probably worse because the USDA survey was conducted well before the economic crisis really got going.

Food stamps

Participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly the Food Stamp Program) is nearing record highs. Nearly 30 million people, half of them children, receive SNAP benefits – a 9.5% increase since the same time last year. One in every two babies in America receives special nutrition assistance through the federal Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program. And, officials expect the number of people applying for food stamps to climb over the next several months in the wake of record job losses.

In some areas, the figures are even more startling. In NYC, for example, more than 1.2 million people get food Stamps in the city, a 23% spike over the past five years. And, an estimated 500,000 New Yorkers qualify for the benefit but aren’t registered.

But even food stamps do not guarantee that a family won’t endure hunger.

The SNAP computerized system reveals that most benefits are used up by the third week of the month, leaving many families to scramble for other sources of food.

Since the beginning of the economic downturn this spring, the number of people turning to food pantries and soup kitchens has surged, further straining the already overstretched capacity of many organizations in the vast network of volunteer emergency feeding operations. Many are newcomers who were reluctant to seek help until they had no choice.

The nation’s food banks

Food banks are nonprofit wholesalers that gather and store foods, then distribute them to pantries, which act as free grocery stores, and to soup kitchens, which serve meals.

A research study conducted by Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief charity, found that across the board, food banks are witnessing an average increased need of nearly 20%. In many areas, the increase is more than double the percentages from the same time period in 2007.

"We serve more than 200 food banks that provide food to the vast majority of food pantries, soup kitchens, and emergency feeding centers across the country - more than 63,000 in total," said Vicki Escarra, president and CEO of Feeding America. "These are faith-based organizations, community centers, mobile food pantries set up in parking lots, where more than four million people stand in line every week for just a few bags of groceries to help feed themselves and their families. While emergency food assistance is vital to helping people who have to make tough choices between food and other basic necessities, it's often times barely enough to make ends meet. We see increases in the number of people in need at the end of the month when our clients have run out of food stamp benefit and spent their meager income on paying necessary bills."

The poor aren’t the only ones suffering the repercussions of the economic downturn. With unemployment rates and healthcare costs continuing to soar and no end to the crisis in site, a growing number of middle class working families are seeking food assistance.

"Our food banks are calling us every day, telling us that demand for emergency food is higher than it has ever been in our history. They are serving a significant number of new clients - people who were once their donors, middle class workers who can no longer make ends meet, many of the half-million people who have lost their jobs in just the past two months as unemployment has climbed to 6.5 percent," Escarra said.

News of the growing hunger crisis is especially stinging now that we are just days from the country’s annual day of gratitude and feasting. But you can help!

Feed the Need

High schools, middle schools, orchestras and church groups across the country are running food drives to help fight hunger and bring hope to communities in need. And you can start one too!

Get more details here.

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