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Poverty - Growing Demand For Emergency Food Assistance

Second Harvest National Research Study

America's Second Harvest is the nation's largest charitable hunger-relief organization, serving 23.3 million FIGURE 3.7
Prevalence of hunger, 2001 and 2002 persons per year. In 2001 Mathematica Policy Research conducted a landmark study of the Second Harvest network by means of interviews with 32,000 clients and 24,000 questionnaires from local agencies. The findings are reported in Hunger in America, 2001 National Report (Myoung Kim, Jim Ohls, and Rhoda Cohen, Princeton, NJ, 2001). The study found the following characteristics of recipients of emergency food assistance:

  • More than 23.3 million people sought emergency food assistance in 2001: 21.3 million at food pantries, 1.3 million at kitchens, and 0.7 million at shelters. Of the adult clients who visited emergency food programs in 2001, approximately 61.6 percent were female, 38.3 percent male.

TABLE 3.10
Prevalence of food security, food insecurity, and hunger, by selected household characteristics, 2002

Food insecure
Total1 Food secure All Without hunger With hunger
Category (thousand) (thousand) (percent) (thousand) (percent) (thousand) (percent) (thousand) (percent)
All households 108,601 96,543 88.9 12,058 11.1 8,259 7.6 3,799 3.5
Household composition:
With children < 18 38,647 32,268 83.5 6,379 16.5 4,899 12.7 1,480 3.8
With children < 6 17,073 14,039 82.2 3,034 17.8 2,450 14.4 584 3.4
Married-couple families 26,069 23,357 89.6 2,712 10.4 2,204 8.5 508 1.9
Female head, no spouse 9,496 6,456 68.0 3,040 32.0 2,212 23.3 828 8.7
Male head, no spouse 2,375 1,855 78.1 520 21.9 381 16.0 139 5.9
Other household with child2 707 599 84.7 108 15.3 102 14.4 6 .8
With no children < 18 69,954 64,276 91.9 5,678 8.1 3,360 4.8 2,318 3.3
More than one adult 41,538 38,929 93.7 2,609 6.3 1,651 4.0 958 2.3
Women living alone 16,174 14,472 89.5 1,702 10.5 985 6.1 717 4.4
Men living alone 12,242 10,875 88.8 1,367 11.2 724 5.9 643 5.3
With elderly 24,791 23,229 93.7 1,562 6.3 1,099 4.4 463 1.9
Elderly living alone 10,072 9,327 92.6 745 7.4 490 4.9 255 2.5
Race/ethnicity of households:
White non-Hispanic 80,266 73,859 92.0 6,407 8.0 4,294 5.3 2,113 2.6
Black non-Hispanic 13,515 10,546 78.0 2,969 22.0 1,999 14.8 970 7.2
Hispanic3 10,344 8,099 78.3 2,245 21.7 1,654 16.0 591 5.7
Other non-Hispanic 4,475 4,038 90.2 437 9.8 313 7.0 124 2.8
Household income-to-poverty ratio:
Under 1.00 11,515 7,128 61.9 4,387 38.1 2,736 23.8 1,651 14.3
Under 1.30 17,010 11,272 66.3 5,738 33.7 3,681 21.6 2,057 12.1
Under 1.85 25,134 17,802 70.8 7,332 29.2 4,894 19.5 2,438 9.7
1.85 and over 64,263 60,997 94.9 3,266 5.1 2,321 3.6 945 1.5
Income unknown 19,204 17,744 92.4 1,460 7.6 1,044 5.4 416 2.2
Area of residence:
Inside metropolitan area 87,617 77,997 89.0 9,620 11.0 6,528 7.5 3,092 3.5
In central city4 26,922 23,047 85.6 3,875 14.4 2,517 9.3 1,358 5.0
Not in central city4 45,552 41,542 91.2 4,010 8.8 2,791 6.1 1,219 2.7
Outside metropolitan area 20,983 18,545 88.4 2,438 11.6 1,731 8.2 707 3.4
Census geographic region:
Northeast 20,242 18,372 90.8 1,870 9.2 1,266 6.3 604 3.0
Midwest 25,180 22,755 90.4 2,425 9.6 1,602 6.4 823 3.3
South 39,195 34,325 87.6 4,870 12.4 3,442 8.8 1,428 3.6
West 23,984 21,090 87.9 2,894 12.1 1,950 8.1 944 3.9
1Totals exclude households whose food security status is unknown because they did not give a valid response to any of the questions in the food security scale. In 2002, these represented 336,000 households (0.3 percent of all households.)
2Households with children in complex living arrangements—e.g., children of other relatives or unrelated roommate or boarder.
3Hispanics may be of any race.
4Metropolitan area subtotals do not add to metropolitan area totals because central-city residence is not identified for about 17 percent of households in metropolitan statistical areas.
SOURCE: Mark Nord, Margaret Andrews, and Steven Carlson, "Table 2. Prevalence of Food Security, Food Insecurity, and Hunger, by Selected Household Characteristics, 2002," in Household Food Security in the United States, 2002, Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Report Number 35, United States Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service, October 2003 [Online] http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/FANRR35/fanrr35.pdf [accessed January 7, 2004]
  • More than a third (38.9 percent) of all emergency client households had at least one member working.
  • Sixty-four percent of the households have incomes at or below the poverty level.
  • Assistance from government welfare programs (TANF, general assistance, and Supplemental Security Income) was the main source of income for 15.9 percent of all clients. Other government assistance (social security, workers' compensation, and unemployment compensation) was the main source of income for 30.5 percent of clients.
  • Some 44.9 percent of recipients at all program sites were white; 35.4 percent, African-American; 16.7 percent, Hispanic; and 4.8 percent, Native American/Alaskan Native.
  • Almost two-thirds (62.8 percent) of clients are high school graduates.
  • Almost two-thirds (63.9 percent) of clients have applied for and 29.8 percent currently receive food stamps. See Figure 3.8 for an analysis of the use of food stamps by type of food program.
  • Ten percent of all clients are homeless. Thirty-six percent reported having to choose between paying for food and paying their rent or mortgage. Figure 3.9 shows the housing situation for pantry, kitchen, and shelter clients.
  • Twenty-nine percent reported that at least one household member was in poor health.

FIGURE 3.8
Use of food stamp program by program type

Over half of the agencies surveyed reported an increase in the number of clients serviced at program sites since 1998.

U.S. Conference of Mayors Status Report

Since 1982 the U.S. Conference of Mayors has conducted an annual survey of hunger and homelessness in FIGURE 3.9
Housing, by program type, 2001 U.S. cities. The 2002 survey focused on twenty-five cities and indicated a growing demand for emergency food assistance. The Status Report on Hunger and Homelessness in America's Cities: 2002 (Washington, DC: U.S. Conference of Mayors, 2002) reported that demand for emergency food assistance had increased by an average of 19 percent from the previous year in all twenty-five of the cities surveyed. Demand for emergency food among families with children increased 17 percent. Thirty-eight percent of persons requesting emergency food assistance were employed. The causes of hunger, according to officials in the surveyed cities, included low-paying jobs, unemployment, high housing costs, and weakening of the economy.

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