News Update - February 2006
Food Assistance Used by 25 Million Americans
National Public Radio
This NPR story discusses a new report from America's Second Harvest that provides demographic information about recipients of emergency food. According to the study, between 24 and 27 million different people receive food from America's Second Harvest food banks, food pantries and emergency kitchens each year. Of these recipients, 36 percent include households with children and 10 percent include households with elderly. Many recipients also have to choose between food and other necessities, such as utilities or heating fuel (42 percent), paying rent or mortgage (35 percent) and medicine or medical care (32 percent). Finally, many recipients of emergency food also participate in the federal nutrition programs such as Food Stamps (35 percent, although more are probably eligible), WIC (51 percent) and the school lunch and school breakfast programs (62 percent and 51 percent, respectively).
The NPR story can be accessed here.
The report "Hunger in America 2006" from America's Second Harvest can be found here. The report contains local, state-by-state data for participating America's Second Harvest agencies.
Please contact NCSL's Hunger and Nutrition Partnership with questions.
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