FACES OF HUNGER IN NORTH TEXAS

On Feb 2, 2010, Feeding America released Hunger in America 2010, a comprehesive and detailed study on hunger and Americans who sought food assistance from private, nonprofit agencies in early 2009.

A regional report from this study prepared for Tarrant Area Food Bank presents a picture of hunger for our 13-county service area as a whole.  The following documents relating to our regional hunger report are available on this site:  News Release, Summary of Findings, Regional Report.

The statistics below are from the Hunger in America 2010 survey and report sponsored by Feeding America.

The faces of hunger* in our 13-county service region are Caucasian, Hispanic, African-American, Asian and Native American. They may be your neighbors or your work colleague. He or she may be the child in school sitting next to your son or daughter.

The families and individuals we serve include: **

• Children, who are more than one-third, almost half (43 percent) of all individuals our network serves
• Senior citizens often living on fixed incomes
• Single parents earning minimum wage
• Chronically ill or severely disabled individuals
• Unemployed and under-employed workers (30 percent of adults younger than 65 are employed.)
• Homeless families and individuals

The majority of people seeking food assistance were not receiving government benefits in 2008, the primary time period covered by the hunger study published in 2010.

• Only 33 percent of the households seen by area agencies were receiving benefits from the Supplemental Food Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly called Food Stamps.
• Government welfare, or Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), was the main source of income for only 1.2 percent of households.

Among all households served by the Tarrant Area Food Bank network:

• Most do not have great numbers of children --- 63 percent of households have three or fewer members and many households consist of one elderly person;
• 30 percent of families with children younger than 18 are headed by single parents;
• The great majority of individuals (86 percent) receiving food assistance from our network are U.S. citizens.
• 65 percent have a total annual income of less than $15,000, whether from employment, pensions, or some form of Social Security;
• 52 percent are having to choose whether to buy food or pay for utilities;
• 39 percent are forced to choose between paying for medicine/medical care and buying groceries.

For a brief overview of poverty and hunger in the Tarrant Area Food Bank service region, see Hunger Facts (pdf).
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* Hunger in the United States is measured by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as low or very low food security, that is, “food insecurity.”  Food insecurity is the inability to consistently access adequate amounts of nutritious food necessary for a healthy life. Any degree of food insecurity can lead to malnutrition and chronic hunger, which adversely affect a person’s health, and, in the case of the seriously ill or the very young or very old, can even threaten one’s life.
** Regional survey for Tarrant Area Food Bank conducted in 2009 as part of Hunger in America 2010, a study commissioned by Feeding America, the nationwide network of regional food banks.