Hunger in Maine
Hunger in Maine has many faces: a child, a working adult, a senior citizen. Several factors contribute to hunger in Maine including but not limited to: income growth that is outpaced by the increasing cost of living, high level of underemployment, and rising unemployment.
- 13.3 percent of Maine households, representing over 175,000 people, experience food insecurity or are unable to consistently access adequate amounts of nutritious food necessary for a healthy life.
- 19.5 percent of Maine children under the age of 18 are food insecure.
- 18.8 percent of Maine children under the age of five are food insecure.
- Maine ranks ninth in the nation for food insecurity and has the highest food insecurity ranking of any state in New England.
- Many Mainers that are food insecure report choosing between purchasing food or paying for other necessities such as fuel, rent and medicine.
Hunger in America
Good Shepherd Food-Bank is a member of Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization. Feeding America serves an estimated 25 million low-income Americans each year through its network of more than 205 food banks and their 63,000 charitable feeding agencies, including food pantries, soup kitchens and homeless shelters.
In November 2009, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service (USDA) released its annual study measuring food security in the United States, Household Food Security in the United States, 2008. Below are highlights from the USDA report and census data compiled by Feeding America.
Poverty i
- In 2008, 39.8 million people (13.2 percent) were in poverty.
- In 2008, 8.1 (10.3% percent) million families were in poverty.
- In 2008, 22.1 million (11.7 percent) of people aged 18-64 were in poverty.
- In 2008, 14 million (19 percent) children under the age of 18 were in poverty.
- In 2008, 3.6 million (9.7 percent) seniors 65 and older were in poverty.
Food Insecurity and Very Low Food Security ii
- In 2008, 49.1 million Americans lived in food insecure households, 32.4 million adults and 16.7 million children.
- In 2008, 14.6% percent of households (17.1 million households) were food insecure, an increase from 11.1 percent (13.0 million households) in 2007.
- In 2008, 5.7 percent of households (6.7 million households) experienced very low food security, an increase from 4.1 percent in 2007.
- Households that were more likely to experience food insecurity were households with children (21.0 percent), households with children headed by single women (37.2 percent) or single men (27.6 percent), households with incomes below the poverty line (42.2 percent), Black non-Hispanic households (25.7 percent) and Hispanic households (26.9 percent).
- 8.1 percent of households with seniors (2.3 million households) were food insecure.
- 14.2 percent of rural households are food insecure, an estimated 2.8 million households.
Use of Emergency Food Assistance and Federal Food Assistance Programs
- 4.1 percent of all U.S. households (4.8 million households) accessed emergency food from a food pantry one or more times. ii
- 55 percent of food-insecure households participated in at least one of the three major Federal food assistance programs – Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly the Food Stamp Program), The National School Lunch Program, and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children. ii
- Among members of Feeding America, 65 percent of pantries, 61 percent of kitchens, and 52 percent of shelters reported that there had been an increase since 2001 in the number of clients who come to their emergency food program sites. iii
Working Poor Facts iii
- 36 percent of client households served have one or more adults working.
- Nearly 37 percent of all adults served have completed high school or equivalent degree with no further education beyond high school.
- Almost 32 percent of all households served have had to choose between paying for food and paying for medicine or medical care.
i U.S. Census Bureau.Carmen DeNavas-Walt, B. Proctor, C. Lee. Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2007.
ii USDA.Mark Nord, M. Andrews, S. Carlson. Household Food Security in the United States, 2008.
iii Rhoda Cohen, M. Kim, and J. Ohls. Hunger In America 2006. Feeding America. February 2006
