Hunger Facts
The following facts might be of interest to your volunteers, donors and other supporters. Please feel free to use them in your literature or other organizational materials, but don't forget to cite the sources of the information!
Facts
This summer, parents of the nearly 16.8 million children in the US who relied on the National School Lunch Program for free or reduced-price meals every day during the 2007-2008 school year must figure out how to prevent their children from going hungry during the summer. The Summer Food Service Program is one solution. A federally funded program, SFSP takes the place of the National School Lunch Program during summer months. In Alaska, participation has been historically low. The state was ranked 49th for participation in the program just last summer. Slowly, but surely, the tides are changing. After a big push by the anti-hunger network, Alaska now ranks 44th in the country and has made a 40% increase in the number of kids accessing SFSP food. This still is just one in 9 of the children who are receiving school lunch, but it's progress!
Source: Food, Research and Action Center
Every day, 14,000 kids in Alaska eat breakfast at school; more than 50,000 eat lunch. This number has increased almost 100 percent in the last 10 years; however, the participation rate for those students eligible for free and reduced breakfast is only 34 percent, putting Alaska 48th in the nation for breakfast participation. If the participation rate increased to 60 percent, another 2 million dollars of federal funding would come to the program. Only 68 percent of schools that serve lunch also offer breakfast. Currently, the federal government funds the majority of the school meal program for school districts at over 28 million dollars. Small amounts of additional funding comes directly from school districts. Alaska is one of eleven states in the country that doesn't have any state legislative support for school meal programs.
Scientific research suggests that eating quality meals, especially breakfast, increases test scores, decreases school violence and lowers the rate of obesity.
Source: Food, Research and Action Center and Alaska Food Coalition
With a rate of 11.2%, Alaska has the 11th lowest poverty in the United States . While the state average is very low, the poverty rates across the state vary drastically. Poverty rates along the western coastline of the state and the Yukon-Koyukuk average more than 19 percent. This area is one of the most rural areas in the United States --the population density in this area never rises above an average of 0.4 people per square mile in any borough. To put this population density into perspective, Fairbanks fits 948.7 people per square mile and New York City crams in an amazing 26,402.9 people per square mile.
Currently, the AFC has 2 members in this region. Less than 200,000 pounds of food comes into the area from food banks and there are only 36 anti-hunger agencies, several of which are only serving to a subsection of the community and are only open seasonally. On the upside, half of the agencies in this area have signed on in the last year through the SFSP (Summer Food Service Program) or FDPIR (Food Distribution on Indian Reservations) programs.
Source: FRAC (Food Research and Action Center ) www.frac.org
Hunger is a condition of poverty. Living below poverty puts tremendous strains on a household, giving families barely enough money to purchase healthy and nutritious foods, as well as other essentials of life. Nutrition research shows that as income goes down, the nutritional adequacy of the household's diet goes down as well. According to data released by the US Census Bureau this month, 50.9 million people, or 17 percent of all Americans, lived on less than 125 percent of the federal poverty level in 2007. This means they are income-eligible for most federal nutrition programs, like food stamps and other child nutrition programs. These programs can help families can children stretch their food dollars and get access to healthy foods.
In Alaska, 8.9% of our population is living at or below the poverty line. For a family of four, this equates to just $26,500 per year.
