March 26, 1998 | Read Time: 3 minutes
Second Harvest, the country’s largest chain of food banks, fed almost 26 million people last year — nearly 10 per cent of America’s population. Even so, it had to turn away an estimated 2.3 million hungry people because of a lack of food.
Those figures were contained in “Hunger 1997: The Faces & Facts,” the most comprehensive study that Second Harvest has ever done of its 185 member food banks. Released this month, the report was based on a study of 79 Second Harvest food banks. In addition, more than 11,000 anti-hunger charities that receive groceries and other supplies from Second Harvest provided information for the study, and almost 28,000 clients were interviewed.
Christine Vladimiroff, president of Second Harvest, said that the numbers are of particular concern in light of the buoyant economy. “We rejoice in the welcome news of positive economic growth and productivity for what that means to so many Americans,” Ms. Vladimiroff said at a press conference in Washington announcing the report’s results. “Yet, in the shadows of these glowing statistics, there exists another reality — the distressing reality of hunger amidst abundance.”
Many hunger-relief groups reported that they were unable to meet the demand for food. More than a quarter of the charities that keep such statistics reported having to turn hungry people away. Second Harvest estimates that an additional 965 million pounds of food would have been required to feed every hungry person that showed up at a Second Harvest-affiliated program.
The survey found that the number of hunger-relief groups has exploded in the 1990s in an attempt to meet the increased need. More than a third of the feeding programs surveyed by Second Harvest were started in the last seven years. And those hunger-relief groups were heavily dependent on government funds. On average, almost 60 per cent of their budgets came from federal, state, and local government sources.
The Second Harvest study found a large gender gap among those who relied on hunger-relief charities for food: 62 per cent of the clients were women, while only 38 per cent were men. Children under the age of 18 accounted for 38 per cent of the client load, while people 65 and older made up 16 per cent of those seeking assistance.
Second Harvest also found that the clients were a diverse lot. On average, 44 per cent of those helped by local food banks were white. Blacks made up 35 per cent of the people being served, and Hispanics made up 15 per cent.
Clients came from both cities and suburbs. The largest number of people served, 27 per cent, lived in rural areas. About 23 per cent resided in cities with more than 500,000 people, while 21 per cent lived in cities with 100,000 to 500,000 people. Suburbanites accounted for almost 20 per cent of food-bank clients on average.
Almost 60 per cent of the clients surveyed by Second Harvest were unemployed, 21 per cent as a result of a disability. And many of the hungry who were interviewed said they were so strapped for cash that they sometimes had to choose between spending money on food or on shelter. More than a third of the clients said they had delayed medical care because of a lack of money.
Ms. Vladimiroff said that the numbers are particularly troubling because the data was collected before many provisions of the recent overhaul of the welfare system went into effect. One difference the law has made so far is that eligibility rules for food stamps have been tightened, so that many healthy adults ages 18 to 50 have lost their benefits, as have more than 900,000 legal immigrants.
For a copy of the report, contact Second Harvest, 116 South Michigan Avenue, Suite Four, Chicago 60603-6001; (312) 263-2303. The cost is $35 for organizations classified under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Service and $75 for all others. An executive summary of the report is available at Second Harvest’s Web site, http://www.secondharvest.org.
