Hunger in America Reaches 14-year High
November 2009: reported by the editor of gg.org from USDA data and information.
United States Department of Agriculture’s Hunger Report for 2008
Our neighbors are hungry. The face of hunger in the United States is all around us—no longer just the traditional socio-economically challenged rural and inner city families. This past year, more than 17 million American households, including a large number of working poor and the recently-fully-employed, or 14.6% of every household, had difficulty putting food on the table at times during the year.
And given when the surveys were taken, these statistics do not include those families who are challenged by the recent economic downturns.
These new numbers are up from 13 million households from the year before—or more than 11%.
- Those families experiencing “very low food security” rose more than half, to 506,000 in 2008 compared to 323,000 in 2007.
- 12.4 million children in the United States are “food insecure”.
It is challenging personally to sit down after a dinner [of locally-grown organic vegetables, a piece of braised pork from my neighbor’s recent pig slaughter, and a glass of red wine] to update the content of this Web site, when I have it on my mind that our neighbors are facing severe nutritional challenges.
There are many, many elements contributing to this issue; many of which, have nothing to do with the economic downturn. In good economic times we see horrific statistics—stuff that should shock us.
Food security in New Hampshire is among the lowest on the east coast. Around the nation, North Dakota’s average is 6.9% (of families experiencing food insecurity) while Mississippi’s average tops 17%.
- New Hampshire = 8.5%
- Massachusetts = 8.3%
- Vermont = 12.1%
- Maine = 13.7%
- Rhode Island = 11.7%
- New York = 11.3%
- Connecticut = 11.0%
When thoughts turn to family during our year’s end, food banks and closets fill up. But the need is present all year around, not only at the end-of-the-year holidays.