About Hunger
- Growth of Hunger
- Obesity and Hunger
- Hunger in Illinois
- Hunger in Iowa
- Second Harvest Study
- Glossary: Definitions of Hunger used in research
- Sources
Is Hunger a Problem?
Only if you are a child... who can't concentrate in school because he didn't eat dinner last night.
Or an elderly woman... who can’t control her high blood pressure because she must choose between food and life-sustaining medicine.
Or a single parent... who struggles through a long day of work wondering whether to pay her electric bill or buy food.
Faced with limited resources, one out of six Americans turns to government food assistance programs to achieve a measure of food security. Other Americans respond to food insecurity by skipping meals, substituting less expensive, less nutritious alternatives, or seeking emergency food from soup kitchens or food pantries. They worry nearly all the time about money running out to buy food for the children. They survive on low-cost pasta, potatoes and fat.
Hunger is a condition of poverty. Living below the poverty line puts tremendous strain on a household budget, adversely affecting the ability to purchase a nutritionally adequate diet. In the last 5 years, the number of working poor has outpaced the overall employment increase and there is an ever increasing population of working poor families who live below the poverty line and struggle to provide their families with nutritionally adequate diets, let alone keep food on the table. It is not surprising that impoverished people make choices between paying for food and other necessities, such as utilities, housing, or medical care. Unfortunately this trend continues today.
Just because we don't see emaciated children with swollen bellies walking around the streets, doesn't mean that food insecurity and malnutrition are not major problems. Hidden hunger is found most often in seniors, children, the working poor and the poorest of the poor. Hidden hunger often is:
- the senior who eats only inexpensive noodles, because within the American healthcare system over 25% of low income people have to choose between buying food and paying for medication.
- the overweight but undernourished woman, whose limited food budget restricts her access to fresh foods such as fruits, vegetables, and lean meats.
- the family who faces a choice between buying food or buying heat.
- the child who cannot concentrate in school because he/she does not have regular access to nutritious foods.
Hunger and Food Insecurity Have Been Growing
In this very wealthy country of ours the problem of hunger persists. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported that in 2005:
- 35.1 million people lived in households considered to be food insecure, meaning they do not know where their next meal will come from.
- Of those 35.1 million, 22.7 million are adults (10.4 percent of all adults) and 12.4 million are children (16.9 percent of all children).
- The number of people in the worst-off households (previously called “food insecure with hunger” and now called “very low food security” households) rose in 2005, from 10.7 to 10.8 million.
Obesity and Hunger
- There is growing and appropriate concern in this nation about rising obesity rates among both children and adults, and its negative health and social consequences. While important, the widespread presence of overweight and obesity does not mean we have eliminated the problems of hunger and food insecurity.
- Obesity, food insecurity and hunger all are serious health problems in the United States that can sometimes coexist in the same households and the same people. Food insecure families often adapt using such strategies as relying on less expensive, less nutritious, high-calorie foods to stave off the sensation of hunger.
- The prevention of both obesity and food insecurity requires regular access to affordable and nutritionally adequate food. Federal nutrition programs already play an important role in this area by providing nutritious foods on a regular basis. Research also is beginning to show the nutrition programs’ positive impact on the prevention of obesity among food insecure children.
- In the end, the national nutrition programs are part of the solution both to obesity and food insecurity in the United States.
Hunger in Illinois
Hunger increased in Illinois| Food Insecurity Rate 2003-2005 | 9.1% |
| Food Insecurity Rate 2002-2004 | 9.0% |
| Very Low Food Security 2003-2005 | 3.2% |
| Very Low Food Security 2002-2004 | 3.0% |
Illinois Poverty
Illinois children are particularly vulnerable to poverty; they are 53.3% more likely to be poor than working age adults.
The poverty rate in Rock Island County, Illinois has increased by 3.1 percent from the levels reported in the Decennial Census of 2000, moving from 10.7 percent to 13.8 percent.
67.9% of poor Illinois children live in families that worked in the last year.
The Black or African American race/ethnicity population category holds the highest rate of poverty with 38.6 percent of the people in 2000 living in poverty.
Though poverty rates have stabilized nationally, people who are poor are increasingly poorer. Individuals who are poor fell an average of $3,236 below the poverty line while poor families fell an average of $8,125 below the poverty line - the highest level on record.
There is urgency for a renewed anti-poverty effort in Illinois. Leaders must initiate a concerted effort to develop comprehensive solutions that will reduce the number of people in poverty each year and that will promote the dignity and worth of the 1.5 million Illinoisans whose human rights are compromised because of poverty.
Illinois families have experienced a 9.8% decrease in median income and growing expenses that make it difficult or near impossible to make ends meet.
The majority of new jobs through 2012 are projected to pay far below the current state median household income of $48,008.64
- 43.3% will pay less than $23,650
- 62.9% will pay less than $38,660
There has been a 23.4%increase since 2000 in the proportion of Illinois renter households paying more than 30% of their income on housing costs.
From the 2007 Report in Illinois Poverty by the Illinois Poverty Summit
Hunger in Iowa
Demand at pantries and soup kitchens in the middle of America's breadbasket is on the rise. More than 934,000 Iowans requested emergency food assistance in 2002, up from 722,000 in 2000. The casual observer could miss the signs of starvation in Iowa because food insecurity expresses itself differently here than in more urban settings. In Iowa, hunger is hidden behind the closed doors of homes, masking the true proportion of the problem. A USDA ranking of states, however, tells of its seriousness. Iowa dropped from third in the nation four years ago, to sixteenth, in keeping its residents adequately fed.
- Over 132,000 households (up from 112,000 households in 2003) are food insecure
- Of these households, over 42,280 households (up from 23,500 in 2003) have at least one member that goes hungry at times.
- This adds up to over 421,000 Iowans who do not have enough food to eat at times.
Fact Sheet: HUNGER IN AMERICA 2006
The America’s Second Harvest Network
River Bend Foodbank was the 58th foodbank to join Feeding America (A2H) national network of foodbanks. The following is excerpts from the result of a study conducted in 2005. The study is based on completed in-person interviews with 52,878 clients served by the A2H National Network, as well as on completed questionnaires from 31,342 A2H agencies. The study summarized below focuses mainly on emergency food providers and their clients who are supplied with food and other services by members of the A2H Network. Here, emergency food providers are defined to include food pantries, soup kitchens, and emergency shelters serving short-term residents. It should be recognized that many other types of provider organizations and programs served by foodbanks are, for the most part, not described in this study. These providers who are not covered included such services as congregate meals for seniors, day care facilities, and after school programs.
Key findings are summarized below:
HOW MANY CLIENTS RECEIVED EMERGENCY FOOD FROM THE A2H NETWORK OF FOOD BANKS?
WHO RECEIVES EMERGENCY FOOD ASSISTANCE?
A2H Network agencies serve a broad cross-section of households in America. Estimates of key characteristics include:
MANY A2H CLIENTS ARE FOOD INSECURE OR ARE EXPERIENCING HUNGER
MANY CLIENTS REPORT HAVING TO CHOOSE BETWEEN FOOD AND OTHER NECESSITIES
DO A2H CLIENTS ALSO RECEIVE FOOD ASSISTANCE FROM THE GOVERNMENT?
MANY A2H CLIENTS ARE IN POOR HEALTH
MOST CLIENTS ARE SATISFIED WITH THE SERVICES THEY RECEIVE FROM THE AGENCIES OF THE A2H NATIONAL NETWORK
HOW LARGE IS THE A2H NATIONAL NETWORK?
WHAT KINDS OF ORGANIZATIONS OPERATE EMERGENCY FOOD PROGRAMS OF THE A2H NATIONAL NETWORK?
HAVE AGENCIES BEEN EXPERIENCING CHANGES IN THE NEED FOR THEIR SERVICES?
WHERE DO THESE AGENCIES OBTAIN THEIR FOOD?
VOLUNTEERS ARE EXTREMELY IMPORTANT IN THE A2H NETWORK
Glossary: Definitions of Hunger in Research Today
Food Security: assured access to enough food for an active healthy life.
Food Insecurity: limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and sufficient foods.
Hunger: uneasy or painful sensation caused by lack of food due to lack of resources to obtain food.
According to USDA, "Food security is an important dimension of household well-being, analogous to health or housing. Food insecurity and hunger are undesirable in their own right, and possible precursors to nutritional, health, and developmental problems." The study classified households into the following categories:
Food Secure: Households with no or minimal evidence of food insecurity
Food Insecure Without Hunger: Households, experiencing uncertain access to sufficient food, concerned about inadequate resources to buy enough food, and who have adjusted by decreasing the quality of food their family eats. These families are often at risk of hunger.
Food Insecure with Moderate Hunger: Households in which adults have decreased the quantity as well as quality of food they consume (because of lack of money) to the point where they show clear evidence of a repeated pattern of hunger. There also may be hungry children in some but not necessarily all of these households. This category includes households who have indicated that due to constrained resources their children were not eating enough and that they had, at times, been forced to cut the size of their children’s meals in order to make ends meet.
Food Insecure with Severe Hunger: Households in which children’s intake has been reduced even further and there are hungry children due to lack of financial resources; and adults’ food intake is severely reduced.
Sources:
Feeding America
USDA
FRAC (Food Research and Action Center)
Hunger in Iowa: Susan Roberts MS RD LD* Drake Agricultural Law Center
Iowa College Study
America Second Harvest: Hunger in America 2006
Illinois Poverty Summit: 2007 Report on Illinois Poverty Working Toward Change: Rock Island County