No one deserves to be hungry.
This basic principle guides much of the work we do at Hoosier Hills Food Bank. It’s important to learn about the people we serve and how hunger affects their lives.
Hunger is an income issue, an indicator of the growing disparity between income and expenses.
Hoosier Hills Food Bank serves…
16.5%
26,000 individuals
500,000 pounds of food
of the service area population
each month
each month
Despite our status as an advanced and industrialized nation with a high standard of living, hunger and food insecurity persist as significant problems in America, and have grown significantly during the economic recession.
Each year, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) issues a report, “Household Food Security in the United States.” The most recent report covers the calendar year 2020. According to the USDA’s Food Security page, more than 38 million people, including 12 million children, in the United States are food insecure.
Similarly, our partner organization and the national food bank network, Feeding America, conducts comprehensive hunger studies. In its “Hunger in America 2020” study says that in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, unemployment and food insecurity soared. In 2020, over 60 million people turned to food banks and community programs for help putting food on the table.
Children and seniors are particularly vulnerable groups when it comes to food insecurity. According to Map the Meal Gap, one in five kids in the United States is food insecure. Nationwide, over 35 million people face food insecurity. This rate has more doubled since 2001.
Hoosiers are also faced with troubling tradeoffs:
Visit Feeding Indiana’s Hungry for more information.
Hunger and malnutrition are global problems. It’s estimated that over 900 million people go hungry and that almost 16,000 children die each day from hunger-related causes. Poverty, economic and agricultural policies, conflict, climate change, and natural disasters are all considered contributing causes to world hunger. Many organizations provide information or are working to end global hunger.
One of Hoosier Hills Food Bank’s goals is to educate the community about hunger issues in order to encourage action and advocacy. There are many organizations working to end hunger, including those at the links below. This is not intended to be an all-inclusive list of hunger-related resources, or an endorsement of any information source or program over another.
Two terms are important, and several of the sites that we will link to include definitions of these and other concepts. “Hunger” is generally defined as an uneasy or painful sensation caused by want of food. “Food insecurity” is generally defined as a lack of regular access to nutritious food. Many organizations use these terms interchangeably, including HHFB.
Links
