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Hunger in Our Community

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Hunger in Our Community

What is food insecurity and what does it look like in Central New York, the North Country, and the Mohawk Valley?

The face of hunger has shifted across our communities. It affects children in our schools, seniors with finite resources, and working families & individuals who are struggling to make ends meet.

Food insecurity refers to the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) measure of lack of access to enough nutritionally adequate foods for an active, healthy lifestyle for all household members. Food insecurity is not exclusively a trait of the poverty stricken. Hunger and poverty often go hand-in-hand but poverty is not the ultimate determinant of food insecurity. Food insecurity may reflect a working households need to make trade-offs between important basic needs, such as housing or medical bills, and purchasing nutritionally adequate foods. [i]

Food insecure people in Food Bank of Central New York's 11-county service area: 178,190

In the summer of 2017 Food Bank of Central New York conducted a follow-up study to understand who accessed emergency food agencies in our service area and why. The 348 interviews consisted of households, selected at random, who utilized one of the Food Bank's food pantries or soup kitchens.

We’ve developed the following results to bring awareness regarding who is hungry and the challenges they face. This enables us to collectively identify solutions to better address the growing problem of food insecurity as a community.

Among the thousands of people who depend on charitable food programs in central and northern New York:

  • 29% are children 18 or younger

  • 16% of households include an active member or veteran of the military
  • 43% of households have had to choose between paying for food or paying for day to day expenses (medicine/medical care, utilities, rent/mortgage or transportation/fuel)
  • 60% of households have an annual income below $18,000

Read the full report by requesting a copy of Food Bank of Central New York's 2017 Hunger Assessment

Feeding America: Facts About Hunger and Poverty in America

Feeding America: Facts About Child Hunger

 [i] Feeding America: Poverty and Hunger in America, 2016.
http://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/impact-of-hunger/hunger-and-poverty/
[ii] Feeding America: Map the Meal Gap, Find a Food Bank; Food Bank of Central New York, 2017
http://map.feedingamerica.org/county/2014/overall/new-york/organization/food-bank-of-central-new-york