- Study: 1 in 8 get help at food banks, By Wendy Koch, February 1, 2010, USA Today: “One in eight Americans – 37 million – received emergency food help last year, up 46% from 2005, the nation’s largest hunger-relief group reports today. Children are hit particularly hard, according to the report by Feeding America, a network of 203 food banks nationwide. One in five children, 14 million, received food from soup kitchens, food pantries and other agencies, up from 9 million in 2005, the year of the group’s last major survey…”
- Workers hungry, too, study finds, By Anne Krueger, February 3, 2010, San Diego Union-Tribune: “It’s not just the jobless who are going hungry. Nearly two-thirds of the families who sought assistance from food banks last year included at least one adult who was working, according to a new study of hunger in San Diego County released yesterday. That amount compared with 36 percent nationally in the study conducted by Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization. More working families need help with food in San Diego County because the area has one of the highest living costs in the nation, said Gary J. McDonald, president and chief executive officer of Feeding America San Diego…”
- Study finds use of food pantries soaring in Mass., By David Abel, February 3, 2010, Boston Globe: “Nearly 1 in 10 state residents relied on a food pantry, soup kitchen, or shelter last year, a 23 percent increase over 2006, according to a new survey of food banks in Massachusetts. Feeding America, a network of 200 food banks nationwide, estimated that more than 571,000 state residents relied on food assistance last year. The state’s food banks distributed 44.7 million pounds of food last year, a 30 percent increase from 2006, reflecting a spike in demand as unemployment and poverty have surged during the recession…”
- Study: 650K Ind. residents received emergency food, By Carly Everson (AP), February 2, 2010, Chicago Tribune: “Nearly 650,000 Indiana residents — almost half of them children or seniors — received emergency food from local food banks last year as the recession lingered, according to a statewide study released Tuesday. The study, conducted by the groups Feeding Indiana’s Hungry and Feeding America, found that 37 percent of the households served have at least one employed adult, said Emily Weikert Bryant, a spokeswoman for Feeding Indiana’s Hungry. Twenty-five percent of adults in the households Feeding Indiana’s Hungry serves are working at least part-time, she said…”
- Report shows surge in visits to food pantries, By Rex W. Huppke, February 2, 2010, Chicago Tribune: “Eddie Johnson lost his state job in 2008, then lost his rental apartment and soon became one of the new regulars picking up monthly food supplies at the Lakeview Pantry. The North Broadway storefront fills up each Monday afternoon with crowds now bigger than volunteers have ever seen. This week, more than 40 people filled the waiting area, taking numbers for their turn to collect everything from bulk boxes of rice to fresh produce. A core population of people who have long lived in poverty is now being joined by Chicagoans like Johnson, recession victims driving food pantry demand to new highs…”
Tag: Charities
Food Assistance Programs
- R.I. emergency food programs see a one-year 30-percent surge, By Paul Davis, November 23, 2009, Providence Journal: “Two years ago, Robin McDuffie and her family often spent $150 a night for five meals at a favorite Spanish restaurant. On the menu? Lobster, filet mignon and arroz con pollo. Then her husband lost his mortgage-company job. Now, McDuffie spends a little more for a week’s worth of groceries — with money from the state. ‘We went from making a hundred grand to making four grand,’ says McDuffie, who attends a class on how to prepare healthful meals with less money. She no longer eats meat. ‘I never thought I’d have to do this,’ says the 38-year-old mother of three. In Rhode Island, where the unemployment rate is among the worst in the nation, the number of people who go to bed hungry is at a 10-year high, according to a new report from the Rhode Island Community Food Bank. ‘Poverty and hunger are facts of life for too many Rhode Islanders,’ says the report, to be released Monday…”
- Suburban food pantries struggle with record demand, By Ernst Lamothe Jr., November 23, 2009, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: “Mary Ellen McDowell has gotten accustomed to seeing crowds of people arrive during the holidays at Webster Community Chest, a food cupboard for area residents in need. However, this year is unlike any she’s experienced in the past decade, with a record number coming in for help. The worst recession since the Great Depression forced local suburban food cupboards to become more resourceful to provide the same services. Those who run the food cupboards say the problem isn’t going away and they are leaning on the public and themselves like never before…”
- Miss. charities struggle amid need, By Gary Pettus, November 22, 2009, Jackson Clarion-Ledger: “For the first time in its history, the Mississippi Food Network won’t be able to buy turkeys and distribute them to thousands of needy Mississippians at Thanksgiving. ‘We aren’t able to provide the turkeys and hams and some of the special foods we usually have,’ said Walker Satterwhite, executive director of the 25-year-old food bank, which supplies more than 300 churches and nonprofits in the state. The reason: a malnourished economy has caused turkey costs to soar and charitable donations to sink…”
Homeless Women and Families
Downturn brings a new face to homelessness, By Alexi Mostrous, August 15, 2009, Washington Post: “The lowest point in Lawanda Madden’s life came in February, when she woke up on the floor of her friend’s run-down house in this city battered by recession. She was shivering with cold. She remembers turning to her 8-year-old son, Jovon, and thinking: ‘How did this happen to us? How did we become homeless?’ Only 15 months before, Madden, 39, had a $35,000-a-year job, a two-bedroom apartment and a car. She was far from rich, but she could treat Jovon to the movies. She occasionally visited her sister in Chicago and bowled in a local league. She dreamed of going to law school. Then she was laid off and lost everything. ‘I’ve had a job since I was 19,’ she recalled. ‘I never imagined I would be without a home. You think it’s going to get better — that it’s just temporary — and then six months goes by, and you wonder, ‘Wait a minute — this might be it.” With neat hair and clean clothes, a college education and stable job history, Madden represents the new face of American homelessness…”