Close to one out of every eight Americans struggled to feed themselves adequately in 2007, a report by the Agriculture Department, released earlier this week, revealed.
The statistic translates to 36.2 million adults and children who struggled with hunger last year, slightly up from 35.3 million in 2006. In other words, 12.2 percent of Americans did not have enough money or assistance to obtain enough food to maintain active, healthy lives, according to the report.
Nearly a third of the number of Americans struggling to feed themselves went hungry at some point, which represents a growth of more than 40 percent since 2000.
But perhaps the most disturbing finding was that the number of hungry children in America rose 50 percent in 2007. Some 691,000 children in the United States went hungry sometime last year, compared to 430,000 in 2006. The number of hungry children in 2007 represents the largest figure since 716,000 in 1998.
“Even before this year’s severe economic downturn, more households were struggling to put food on the table,” said Bread for the World President David Beckmann. “As the crisis continues, federal nutrition programs are working overtime to keep up with the need.”
The anti-hunger ministry highlighted that 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. This is a 9.5 percent increase compared to last year’s figure.
The number means that one in every two babies in America receives special nutrition assistance through the federal Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program.
“More than one in six children lives on the brink of hunger in the U.S.,” Beckmann noted. “America desperately needs political leadership that will see to it that all our children get the basic nutrition they need to thrive.”
James Weill, president of the anti-hunger group Food Research and Action Center, predicts the 2008 hunger figures will be even higher given the severe economic downturn this year.
“There's every reason to think the increases in the number of hungry people will be very, very large based on the increased demand we're seeing this year at food stamp agencies, emergency kitchens, Women, Infants and Children clinics, really across the entire social service support structure," said Weill, according to The Associated Press.
A post-election poll, conducted by the Alliance to End Hunger, showed that a significant number of Americans are just one paycheck away from facing difficult choices on how to feed their families. Nearly half of American voters reported that they live paycheck to paycheck.
Three in five voters reported being impacted by high food prices, including one in five voters who said they worry that they or someone they know will go hungry.
President-elect Barack Obama during his campaign pledged his commitment to end childhood hunger by 2015 and to cut poverty in half within 10 years.
“These goals need to be Mr. Obama’s priority. Together with the new Congress, he can help put the nation on that path by strengthening child nutrition programs when they are reauthorized next year,” said Beckmann.
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I find that most who joke about the homeless have either never met someone who is in fact homeless or suffering from mental defects or they have never been hungry or without a shelter.......I am all for feeding the hungry around the world , but find that we have seriously let our own people here in the U.S. down and it saddens me greatly. There is no reason that our resources should be so depleted that we can't help out own people..........we as Christians know that the answer is Jesus and only him, but the fact is that most don't know this or are too hopeless to think that He can help. We are a giving country, just not to our own so much. I am just grateful that being born again means that as the world gets worse that means we are that much closer to the rapture.......we need to be working harder than ever to spread the gospel. It's amazing how far a little love and compassion go:) I heartily agree with mom and believer......to teach someone a skill for life is priceless:) thought: my husband has always wanted to learn to hunt and didn't know where to start with his busy schedule, so a man at work has offered to take him and show him...what a blessing that someone would step up who he hardly know really to show him such a priceless skill, a skill might I add that has been forgotten or lost in a lot of areas of this great country:) if we would all share the skills that God has given us (without asking for something in return) then people would have an easier time surviving in the tough times and we could also be examples of God's people:) God bless everyone:) have a great weekend and keep looking up:)
mom, first thanks for your willingness to assist those in need and I heartily agree that a majority of the people who use your services are truly in need, but a concern I have is are we feeding them fish or taking the time to teach them how to fish? I too have seen well-deserving people get help, I remember while working at the Knoxville Union Rescue Mission we had a food giveaway for Thanksgiving and I saw a couple there who were wearing work uniforms from a local fast-food reataurant and there was a part of me that wanted to give them a dozen baskets because they were willing to do what it would take to care for their family, it was incidents like that which made up for all the jerks I encountered who were using the system for their own selfish gain. I just wish we would spend more time teaching folks how to fish rather than just feeding them fish.
Hello all! It just so happens that I volunteer at a food pantry, and I have to say that there are in fact more hungry people than you can imagine in any given area. These are not just people who use the system either, they are, for the most part, hard working fine individuals who are just having a hard time making ends meet. Like one women I met who got a great job at a local discount megastore, but after the bills and babysitters, couldn't feed her children. Besides all that, the Bible has a great number of verses that deal with the poor, widowed, and orphans, and from what I recently discovered, it doesn't have qualifiers; it says, when you bless the poor you lend to God. It all comes down to compassion really, compassion and the command to love our neighbor. I choose to put on compassion and kindness. Thank you and be well, Duchess Miner
to daniel paul
ok homeless are too bitter? well what about those homeless veterans that were neglected by the same gov't they were told to fight an illegal war? are they bitter or is it bec. of greed, power & money. hmm
I wonder how many of those hungry children are hungry because of neglectful parents? I have serious doubts about the depth of hunger in the US. I see numbers listed by never a break down of the cause of the hunger.
Thank goodness we only have a couple of months until president-elect Obama takes office. As the newly annointed "King," "the One," and "Messiah," all titles bestowed upon him in the media,Obama will be able to feed thousands of people at a time with a couple of fish and a few loaves of bread. Seriously though, when are we as a society going to finally realize that our problems can't always be solved by higher taxes and more government intervention. Activsim and involvement at the community level can do more to stem the tide of hunger in this country than any government program.
When I was pastoring in Vermont an ecumenical group was saying that 73,000 kids in Vermont go to bed hungry every night, but when I told them if they would give me the names of the kids in the city where our chruch was and I would personally ensure that none of them ever went to bed hungry again I never got the list only a tap dance response.
jester...the only problem is most homeless are too bitter.
If we simply cut down our excessive cosumption of food
and everything else, and share with the needy; we can
solve the problem in a week's time. Our selfishness and
greed has caused pain to our God and our neighbours.
Perhaps the financial meltdown might have taught us a
lesson that we were investing money where moth and rust
were eating for a long time.
actually, we could solve the homeless and hungry problem in one step.
kill the homeless....feed them to the hungry. any questions?
Solution... love your neighbor as yourself. Let he who has two give to him who has none.