MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger

United States Hunger Facts

Poverty

The federal poverty line was $21,834 for a family of four in 2008.[1]

42.2 percent of households have incomes below the official poverty line.[2]

37.2 percent of households with children are headed by a single mother, and 27.6 percent are headed by a single father.[3]

In 2008, 22.1 million (11.7 percent) people aged 18-64 were in poverty.[4]

In 2008, 14 million (19 percent) children under the age of 18 were in poverty.[5]

In 2008, 3.6 (9.7 percent) seniors 65 years and older were in poverty.[6]

Hunger

49.1 million people lived in food-insecure households in 2008, including 32.4 million adults and 16.7 million children.[7]

17.3 million people lived in households that were considered to have very low food security, up from 11.9 million in 2007 and 8.5 million in 2000.[8]

Of these individuals, 12.1 million adults and 5.2 million children lived in households with very low food insecurity.[9]

14.6 percent (17 million) of households were food insecure, up from 11.1 percent (13 million) of households in 2007.[10]

One-third of these food insecure households (6.7 million households, or 5.7 percent of all U.S. households) had very low food security, up from 4.7 million (4.1 percent) in 2007.[11]

In about 8,335,000 households with children (21 percent) lived with low or very low food security, up from 15.8 percent in 2007.[12]

Prevalence of very low food security among children was up from 0.8 percent of households with children in 2007 to 1.3 percent in 2008. In about 506,000 households (1.3 percent of households with children), one or more children were subject to reduced food intake and disrupted eating patterns.[13]

Black (25.7 percent) and Hispanic (26.9 percent) households experienced food insecurity at far higher rates than the national average.[14]

Food and Nutrition Assistance Programs

55 percent of food-insecure households received assistance from one or more of the three largest Federal food and nutrition assistance programs during the month prior to the December 2008 food security survey. SNAP reached 33.7 percent, the National School lunch Program 32.5 percent, and WIC 14 percent.[15]

SNAP/Food Stamp Program:

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Food Stamp Program is the nation’s single most important resource in the fight against hunger. Eligible individuals must earn a net income below 130% or less of the federal poverty line.[16]

Food stamp participants tend to leave the program frequently. Half of all individuals who entered the Food Stamp Program stayed 8 months or less and 61% exited within 1 year.[17]

About 67 percent of eligible people in the United States received Food Stamp Program benefits in fiscal year 2006.

13 million individuals who are eligible for food stamp benefits in an average month do not participate in the program.[18]

The average gross income of food stamp households is $673 per month.[19]

The average monthly food stamp benefit per person is $95.64.[20]

Of the 38 million individuals who were eligible for food stamp benefits in an average month, 26 million individuals (65 percent) participated and over 13 million eligible individuals did not.[21]

80% of households that receive food stamps contain children and 1/3 of households that receive food stamps contain seniors and disabled individuals.[22]

National School Lunch Program »

Operates in over 101,000 public and non-profit private schools and residential childcare institutions. Provides nutritionally balanced, low-cost, or free lunches to more than 30.5 million children each day in 2008.

Any child at a participating school may purchase a meal through the National School Lunch Program. Children from families with incomes at or below 130% of the poverty level are eligible for free meals. Those with incomes between 130 percent and 185 percent of the poverty level are eligible for reduced-price meals for which students can be charged no more than 40 cents.

The program cost $9.3 billion in FY 2008. The government spends $2.68 on each free school lunch, $2.28 on reduced-price lunches, and $0.25 on paid lunches.

WIC »

8,704,510 individuals, including 2,153,192 women, 2,222,462 infants and 4,328,857 children participated in 2008, up from 8,088,005 in 2006[24].

Food Pantries and Emergency Kitchens

4.8 million households (4.1 percent of all households) obtained emergency food from food pantries one or more times during the 12-month period ending in December 2008. Households that obtained food from food pantries included 8.8 million adults and 4.5 million children. The percentage of households that used food pantries was up from 3.36 percent in 2007, and the number of households that used food pantries was 22 percent higher in 2008 than in 2007. A large majority (80.4 percent) of food-insecure households, and even of households with very low food security (73.4 percent), did not use a food pantry at any time during the previous year[23].