Basic Information About Hunger

Child hunger

What happens when a child faces hunger?

Kids who don’t get enough to eat — especially during their first three years — begin life at a serious disadvantage. When they’re hungry, children are more likely to be hospitalized and they face higher risks of health conditions like anemia and asthma. And as they grow up, kids struggling to get enough to eat are more likely to have problems in school and other social situations.

Children facing hunger may struggle in school and beyond.

They are more likely to:

• Repeat a grade in school
• Experience developmental impairments in areas like language and motor skills
• Have more social and behavioral problems

 

Children struggling with hunger come from families
who are struggling, too

Children facing hunger often grow up in a family where a parent or parents also face hunger.

• A family of four facing hunger may need 35 additional meals a month simply because they don’t have money to buy enough food.
• Many struggling households report buying the cheapest food, instead of healthy food, in order to provide enough to eat.
• 25% of children in households at risk of hunger may be forced to rely exclusively on hunger relief charities such as local food banks to make ends meet.

 

Setting up children for a lifetime of success

We, as a community, have a responsibility to the next generation to give them every opportunity to succeed, which in turn can strengthen our communities and our country. That’s why children facing hunger is a priority, but we can’t do it without your help.

Learn how you can be powerful and help confront child hunger

Teenage Hunger

A Hidden Epidemic of Hunger in Teenagers

Food insecurity has become routine among American adolescents, who are also especially susceptible to its hazards.

The problem of child hunger is vast one, one in five American children live in food-insecure households, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Most of the resources and research are directed toward young children; adolescents at the upper end of the age spectrum often get overlooked.

But in some ways, teenagers are particularly vulnerable to the risks of food insecurity, as they take on adult-like responsibilities, feel powerful social pressures, and engage in impulsive behavior. There are an estimated nearly seven million young people between the ages of 10 and 17 struggle with food insecurity in the United States.

Learn how you can be powerful and help confront teenage hunger

Senior Hunger

Senior hunger poses unique challenges. Over five million senior citizens currently face hunger in our country.

• After a lifetime of hard work, many older adults find themselves facing an impossible choice, to pay for groceries or medical care.
• As the baby-boom generation ages, the number of seniors facing hunger is only expected to increase.

 

As Americans age, hunger pains grow

The rate of hunger among seniors aged 60 and older has increased by 45% since 2001, a lingering effect of the 2008-2009 recessions. At the current rate, the number of food-insecure seniors may grow to more than 8 million by 2050. Hunger pains can be increasingly painful as we age:

• Many senior households are forced to choose between food and medical care.
• A Household that includes an adult of the age 50 or older are at an increased risk of having someone with a chronic health condition, including diabetes (41%) and high blood pressure (70%), conditions that can be mitigated by healthy food options.
• Only 45% of eligible seniors are enrolled and receiving SNAP benefits (formerly Food Stamps), making assistance programs for SNAP enrollment that much more important for seniors.

 

Helping to feed our seniors in their golden years

We, as a community, have a responsibility to or senior generation to give back what they gave us, the security of not going hungry. But we can’t do it without your help.

Learn how you can be powerful and help confront senior hunger

Hunger and Poverty

For people facing hunger, poverty is just one issue

• 37 million of Americans struggle with hunger, the same as the number of people officially living in poverty.
• Many households lived at or below the federal poverty level with a median annual household income of $9,175.

 

Facts about poverty and hunger in America

Even in the world’s greatest food-producing nation, children and adults face poverty and hunger in every county across America.

• More than 38 million people are living in poverty in America. In 2019, most families living in poverty earn less than $25,750 per year.
• More than 37 million people struggle with hunger in the United States, including more than 11 million children.
• A household that is food insecure has limited or uncertain access to enough food to support a healthy life.
• Children are more likely to face food insecurity than any other group in the United States.
• More than half (56%) of food-insecure households participated in at least one of the major federal food assistance program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly Food Stamps); the National School Lunch Program and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (often called WIC)

 

Learn how you can be powerful and help confront hunger and poverty

Rural Hunger

Hunger runs deep in the communities
working hardest to feed us

• Many rural communities, the very places where crops are grown to feed the world, face hunger. It seems impossible, but in lands of plenty, hunger pains can be the most hurtful.

 

Millions of rural children struggle with hunger

People who live in rural areas often face hunger at higher rates, in part because of the unique challenges living remotely presents. These challenges include an increased likelihood of food deserts with the nearest food pantry or food bank potentially hours away, job opportunities that are more concentrated in low-wage industries and higher rates of unemployment and underemployment.

This can make hunger in rural areas a unique challenge:

• 3 million households in rural communities face hunger.
• Rural communities make up 63% of counties in the United States and 78% of counties with the highest rates of overall food insecurity.
• 84% of the counties with the highest percentage of children at risk for food insecurity are rural.

 

Learn how you can be powerful and help confront rural hunger