c. 1998 Religion News Service
WASHINGTON _ The nation’s largest hunger-relief organization said Tuesday (March 10) that last year more than 21 million Americans _ roughly one in 10 _ routinely received aid from food assistance programs, including food stamps, food banks and soup kitchens.
Additionally, women, children, the elderly and the working poor are among those most in need of emergency food help, according to a landmark study of hunger in America.
The report,”Hunger 1997: The Faces and Facts,”was commissioned by Second Harvest, the Chicago-based hunger-relief group that works with nearly 200 food banks and 50,000 local charitable organizations across the country. It was based on face-to-face interviews with more than 28,000 low-income Americans as well as data received from more than 11,000 charities operating about 12,000 feeding programs nationwide.”Our research indicates that hunger is _ at its core _ a consequence of poverty, and like poverty it most deeply affects along gender and generational lines,”Sister Christine Vladimiroff, president of Second Harvest, said at a news conference announcing the report.
Of the 21 million Americans receiving food aid in 1997, more than 62 percent were female and 38 percent were children, while more than one-third of households receiving help had at least one working member. In addition, 16 percent needing food were over age 65.
Ironically, the report comes as the country is experiencing exceptional economic growth with minimal inflation, unemployment at historically low levels and a soaring stock market.
The contradiction was not lost on Vladimiroff.”In the shadows of these glowing (economic) statistics, there exists another reality, the distressing reality of hunger amidst abundance,”she said.”Millions of Americans, nearly one in 10, do not have enough to eat in the wealthiest nation in the world.” Vladimiroff added that more than one-fourth of the elderly needing food aid are forced to choose between filling prescriptions and buying food. Moreover, more than one-third of working-poor households must choose between paying their rent or mortgage and buying food.”You eat or you buy shelter. What a choice in the wealthiest nation the world has ever known,”Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., a member of the Senate’s Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry committee and a Second Harvest supporter, said at the news conference.
Of those needing emergency food help, about one-third received food for less than three months, one-third for three months to a year and one-third for more than a year.
The report also suggests the need for food aid cuts across racial and ethnic lines: 47 percent of recipients were white, 32 percent were black and 15 percent were Hispanic.
Nationwide, about 50,000 local agencies operate more than 94,000 feeding programs, Vladimiroff said. And more than half of all volunteer feeding agencies are religious-sponsored organizations representing various faith traditions.”They are modern-day Good Samaritans donating food, funds and time in the effort to feed the needy,”Vladimiroff said of the volunteers who help feed the hungry.
Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., another Second Harvest supporter and the host of the news conference, praised the group for its efforts.”Second Harvest is remarkably efficient,”he said.”More than 99 percent of all donations made to Second Harvest goes to needy Americans.” Kim Anderson, a mother and registered nurse from suburban Minneapolis, was one. Immediately following the birth of her daughter, she and her husband divorced and Anderson found herself homeless and hungry.”I truly never believed I would be the type of person who would need assistance,”she said.”I could be anyone, your neighbor, your friend, your co-worker. Every day in America people need assistance and it’s wonderful we have programs like Second Harvest to help us out.”
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