Hunger Study
Nearly 900,000 individuals in Arizona needed to seek emergency food help from charities within the last year, according to the largest hunger study of its kind, the results of which were released today.
St. Mary's Food Bank Alliance served more than 477,000 of those needing help, providing the bulk of charitable emergency food service in the Valley and throughout the state, according to the "Hunger in America 2010" study produced by Feeding America, the national network of food banks.
The census, conducted every four years, provides a snapshot of those who face the hard realities of food insecurity and hunger – who they are, where they live, and how they cope. Hunger in America 2010 seeks to take this information and provide it to hunger-relief agencies, policy makers and community members so that informed decisions can be made on how to better help those in need.
Among the findings gathered from the client and agency surveys gathered by St. Mary's Food Bank in support of Hunger in America 2010:
* More than 40 percent of the households receiving emergency food assistance have at least one person who is working.
* More than 50 percent of those receiving emergency food assistance report having to choose between buying food and paying rent or a mortgage.
* More than one-quarter of those surveyed reported having to choose between buying food and paying for medicine or medical care.
* Nearly half are children.
* More than 80 percent are U.S. citizens.
* Nearly a quarter of those seeking emergency food assistance are college educated.
* A single parent heads only one-third of the households caring for a child.
* Nearly 80 percent did not receive any form of government cash assistance, or "welfare."
The methodology incorporated into the 2010 study includes data collected from February through June, 2009. Through participating food banks across the nation, Feeding America collected quantitative and qualitative feedback from 61,000 face-to-face in-depth interviews with people seeking emergency food assistance and more than 37,000 agency surveys, making this study the largest, most-comprehensive ever conducted on domestic hunger.
To read the executive summary of Hunger in America 2010: please click here. |
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