70 percent of emergency food centers face threats to their survival If there is any indicator of the toll that the Great Recession has taken on the public, it would be the statistics beginning to emerge about hunger in the US. According to a study from the nation's largest food bank operator, the number of Americans in need of food aid has jumped 46 percent in three years, including a 50 percent jump in the number of children needing food assistance, and a 64 percent increase in hunger in senior citizens' homes. The study, Hunger in America 2010, found that 37 million people, or roughly one in eight US residents, received food aid in 2009. That's a 46 percent jump from a similar survey carried out in 2006. "Clearly, the economic recession, resulting in dramatically increasing unemployment nationwide, has driven unprecedented, sharp increases in the need for emergency food assistance and enrollment in federal nutrition programs," said Vicki Escarra, president and CEO of Feeding America, which operates some 200 food banks across the country. http://rawstory.com/2010/02/study-unprecedented-hunger-us/
We could try going hungry for a change. Actually going hungry. Everybody around here is 30-80lbs overweight
Hard to believe that this is happening, near me kids are walking around with the latest tech gadgets and young adults driving 45k luxury cars. Now I don't know if the parents are treating them to these type of gifts or if they are paying the $579 dollar monthly lease payment on their own, but I just dont see it in my area, YET!!!!!
I don't buy into this widespread hunger propaganda until I see entire neighborhoods turn their precious suburban lawn into fields of cabbage, potatoes and carrots.
Wow that is a big number. What's sad about this is that a big part of this percentage are children, those who have single-parent to feed them.
not in the US for the typical american hunger is about not being able to pay for the big-mac with extra fries and big coke or buy canned food at the nearest mart. the vast majority dont cook or acknowledge the importance of a healthy diet, hence wont plant cabbages in any case.
I've known what it is to be hungry, but I always went right to a restaurant. Seriously though, there should be a side by side study on the amount of food we throw away.
Before deciding on this issue we should determine how they defined "Hunger". There was a report a while back about this study on NPR and the man from the study that was interviewed was unable to refute facts about how they defined hunger that would include many of us who have plenty of money for food. He just kept repeating the stats from the study over and over and over. Even NPR could not save him from sounding unprepared. I am sorry I do not remember exactly how the discussion went but it was something along the lines of "We defined someone as suffering from economic induced hunger if they made a decision to buy less or less expensive foods in the past six months due to the current economic situation." Well I skipped a few fancy dinners with the wife last year when I thought I might have to let some employees go. It just didn't feel right to spend hundreds of dollars on a meal when I wasn't completely sure of their future. Does that make me one of the statistically hungry?
For real, if we have hungry people in the states, for shame if you send money to haiti, for shame for the retroactive tax deduction. Personally, i have never met a starving person, even in the third world. Anyone seen the British dumpster diver, he makes use of the left overs. Its pretty gross. 2-week old badger road kill and a seagull. If you are hungry in the US its your own damn fault, almost anyone is willing to share food, just maybe not money to buy liquor. Ask for cheesburger or bread and you will receive. Ask for change... Reducing cost of food should not constitute going hungry. Reducing amount of food below 2000cal/d should. btw, cabbage is great, I could probably fuel half my gas bill if I could only channel the consequence of eating cabbage.