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Hunger Today

Hunger Today. Meeting the Challenge. Facing the Facts. A full-time minimum wage job earns $14,768 per year or $284 per week. Poverty level for a family of four is about $23,000 or about $442 per week. Average food stamp allocation is $275 per month ($63 per week) for a family of four.

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Hunger Today

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  1. Hunger Today Meeting the Challenge

  2. Facing the Facts • A full-time minimum wage job earns $14,768 per year or $284 per week. • Poverty level for a family of four is about $23,000 or about $442 per week. • Average food stamp allocation is $275 per month ($63 per week) for a family of four. • The average salary in Rockland is $911 per week. That number is trending down. • Minimum wage salary is 31% of average salary.

  3. What Are We Facing? • 49 million people in the U.S. lived in food insecure households in 2008. That’s 15% of population and includes 16 million children. It represents an increase of 11% over 2007! • There are likely to be between 33,000 and 45,000 food insecure in our county. New York and national statistics vary somewhat. • In New York, 2.7 million people live in poverty.

  4. What About New York? • As of three years ago, there were 2.1 million Emergency Food Program clients. • 43% of eligible New Yorkers participate in Food Stamp programs. 34,000 Rocklanders receive Food Stamps. • 30% of working families in New York do not earn enough to cover basic needs.

  5. What do they Do? • 55% of food insecure households (27 million people) participated in one of the three federal food programs (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, National School Lunch Program and Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children). • New York has drastically reduced the number of people that have not taken advantage of programs.

  6. How Does that Impact Feeding Programs? • Demand was up 25-40% from 2007-2008. • People to People’s demand has nearly doubled since then. • Many food banks and pantries have seen that kind of increase. • Donations were up only 18% during that period and we are now experiencing the first reduction in philanthropy nationwide since 1955. • That creates a national shortfall and crisis.

  7. It Gets Worse • 30% of EFP clients have someone in the household who is sick. • One-third face interruption in utilities. • More than a third must choose between paying for housing and food. • One quarter choose between food and medical care.

  8. It’s Tough on EFPs • Between 2002 and 2006, New York EFPs saw an increase of 75% in the number of clients—and those were good years. • Increase in the number of children using EFPs in the summer months when school programs drop in volume. • 55% of food pantries in New York had to turn away people due to food shortages one or more times.

  9. Observations • “Trying to end hunger with food drives is like trying to fill the Grand Canyon with a teaspoon,” Joel Berg. • “It’s nearly impossible to live at the food stamp budget with children if you like living indoors,” Daily News reporter Heidi Evans. • People without resources are less able to follow nutritional guidelines and thus more likely to be malnourished. • Everyone wants to stamp out hunger. Nobody is for it. So how come we haven’t done it?

  10. We Need to Make a Change in Our Philosophy • We have to remember that it is possible to solve the dilemma of hunger in our community. • It requires increased funding as well as creative and inspired thinking to do things differently. • We have to accept that cash is more valuable to us than food donated. • A dollar donated in cash yields 7 times more food than a dollar donated in food.

  11. People to People’s Successful 2009 • Responded to all the need that came our way. • Made the transition from small effort to large organization. • Increased the visibility of our organizations and our mission. • Made successful inroads in the county government. • Brought the message of hunger to the media and to people that had no idea of the severity of it.

  12. Towards A Successful 2010 • Understand that we need to complete our conversion to a critical need provider with a voice in all areas of our community. • Enhance the way we provide our services at our facilities—staff must realize the importance of our mission and how it has changed over the years.

  13. We CAN Defeat Hunger HERE • We have all been strong opponents of hunger. Let’s go further. Joel Berg says $24 billion would cure hunger in the U.S. • We have a clarity about the importance of our mission. • Incorporate new ideas and new ways to feed people who need it. • Press government. • The money saved from eliminating decreased productivity and hunger-related health care costs would be way more than enough to eradicate hunger in the U.S.!

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