HUNGER FACTS
This information is from the Minnesota Food Share March Campaign January letter:
Food security is “access by all people at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life.” Food insecurity means that “consistent access to adequate food is limited by a lack of money and other resources at times during the year.”
One in 10 Minnesotans, or more than 500,000 state residents, are food insecure on a regular basis. That is more people than attended Minnesota Vikings home games during the 2015 regular season.
In 2015, 11% of all Minnesotans and almost 15% of kids in Minnesota lived below the poverty line.
In September, 2016, 43.4 million Americans utilized the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as the Food Stamp Program) to help feed their households. Of those, nearly one in two households has children and 75% of households have children, an elderly family member, or a family member with a disability.
Over 50% of SNAP households have some form of earned income. In Minnesota, 67% of households with children who are receiving SNAP reported having earnings from work. Often wages are too low and expenses (such as child care, transportation, and rent) are too high, so working families must use SNAP to help keep their families fed.
10% of seniors in Minnesota reported being threatened by hunger. Senior hunger is expected to rise as more Baby Boomers reach 60.
There were over 3.2 million visits to Minnesota food shelves in 2015. Almost half of those visits were made by children and seniors.
For the first time in history, over half of public school students in the United States are from low-income families. Three out of four public school teachers say they see students regularly come to school hungry. The Harvard School Breakfast Research Summary found that lack of adequate nutrition can impair a child’s ability to concentrate at school. When kids get a healthy breakfast there is an average increase of 17.5% on standardized math scores.
Food security is “access by all people at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life.” Food insecurity means that “consistent access to adequate food is limited by a lack of money and other resources at times during the year.”
One in 10 Minnesotans, or more than 500,000 state residents, are food insecure on a regular basis. That is more people than attended Minnesota Vikings home games during the 2015 regular season.
In 2015, 11% of all Minnesotans and almost 15% of kids in Minnesota lived below the poverty line.
In September, 2016, 43.4 million Americans utilized the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as the Food Stamp Program) to help feed their households. Of those, nearly one in two households has children and 75% of households have children, an elderly family member, or a family member with a disability.
Over 50% of SNAP households have some form of earned income. In Minnesota, 67% of households with children who are receiving SNAP reported having earnings from work. Often wages are too low and expenses (such as child care, transportation, and rent) are too high, so working families must use SNAP to help keep their families fed.
10% of seniors in Minnesota reported being threatened by hunger. Senior hunger is expected to rise as more Baby Boomers reach 60.
There were over 3.2 million visits to Minnesota food shelves in 2015. Almost half of those visits were made by children and seniors.
For the first time in history, over half of public school students in the United States are from low-income families. Three out of four public school teachers say they see students regularly come to school hungry. The Harvard School Breakfast Research Summary found that lack of adequate nutrition can impair a child’s ability to concentrate at school. When kids get a healthy breakfast there is an average increase of 17.5% on standardized math scores.