Food For All-Hunger Statistics

Data gathered from the USDA's "Food Security in the United States"
2008 Study
-In 2008, 49.1 million Americans lived in food insecure households, which includes 16.7
million children
-Overall, households with children had nearly twice the rate of food insecurity (21%) as
those without children (11.3%)
-5.7% of households (6.7 million households) experienced very low food security, an
increase from 4.1% in 2007
-In 2008, 8.1% of households with seniors (2.3 million households) were food insecure
-In 2008, 4.1 % of all U.S. households (4.8 million households) accessed emergency
food from a food pantry one or more times
-Groups with rates of food insecurity much higher than the national average (14.6 %)
were:
*Households with incomes below the official poverty line—$21,834 for a family of four
in 2008—(42.2 %)
* Households with children, headed by a single woman (37.2%)
* Black households (25.7 %)
* Hispanic households (26.9 %)
-Food insecurity rate was highest in the South (15.9%), intermediate in the West
(14.5%) and Midwest (14%), and lowest in the Northeast (12.8%)
-According to the US Census Bureau in 2008, 39.8 million people (13.2% of the US
popuation) were in poverty