|
(All figures are for 2005, unless otherwise indicated)
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, more than
35 million Americans lived in households considered “food insecure” in 2005,
including 12.4 million children. That represents roughly one of every eight households
in the nation. About one-third of those households are classified as “very low
food security” – including 270,000 with children, a figure that has not changed
substantially since 1999.
Food insecurity is defined as having “limited or uncertain
availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods or limited or uncertain
ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways.” The USDA’s food security scale
classifies food insecurity as both with and without hunger.
Click here
to access a summary of the USDA report, Household Food Security in the United States, 2005
One of ShopRite Partners In Caring’s partners
and the nation’s largest food bank, America's
Second Harvest provides food for an estimated 25.3 million different people
each year – about 4.5 million individuals in any given week.
Of the household served in 2005, America's Second Harvest reports:
- 36.4% of members are children younger than 18
- 8% are children 5 years old or younger
- 10% are elderly
- 36% include at least one employed adult
- 68% had incomes below the official poverty level in the previous month
- 35% receive Food Stamp Program benefits
- 29% include at least one person in poor health
Among households with children:
- 73% are food insecure
- 31% are experiencing hunger
- Only about half with children age 3 or younger participate in WIC
Additionally, 70% of clients are considered "food insecure," and:
- 42% report having to choose between buying food and paying utility or heating bills
- 35% have had to choose between buying food and paying the rent or mortgage
- 32% have had to choose between buying food and paying for medicine or medical care
- Only 12% are homeless
- Approximately 40% are non-Hispanic white; 38% African-American; 17% Hispanic; (the rest are "other")
Learn more in the America's Second Harvest report, Hunger in America 2006
|