World and Domestic Hunger Statistics

• 854 million people in the world are hungry.

• In the United States, 11.7 million children live in households where people have to skip meals or eat less to make ends meet.  This represents more than one in ten households in the United States are living with hunger or are at risk of hunger

Local Statistics

• In 2004, 3,345 Madison County children (20 percent) lived in poverty.

• In 2006, 223,000 Kentucky children (22.8 percent) lived in poverty.

• During 2004, 60 percent of people eligible for food stamps nationally actually received them, up from 54 percent in 2002.  Kentucky’s utilization rate also increased from approximately 64 percent in 2002 to 71 percent in 2004, ranking Kentucky 9th among states in highest access to food stamps.

• In 2007, 3,287 Madison County and 456 Berea Independent children qualified for free and reduced lunches up from 2,622 and 267 respectively in the year 2000.

What Causes Hunger?

According to Bread for the World there are many reasons why hunger exists in our world. Here are just a few that they listed on their Web site:

• Not enough jobs.
• Low wages. Salaries not enough to lift them out of poverty.
• 23% of the world’s population possess 85 % of the world’s wealth.
• Not enough education.
• Unfair treatment of women.
• Famine and disasters.
• Unfair laws.

Two programs that CELTS and SFA sponsor to help fight hunger in our community are the Hunger Hurts Community Food Drive in the Fall and Empty Bowls during the Spring Term.

1. “Household Food Security in the United States, 2002.” ERS Research Briefs. http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/fanrr35/fanrr35.pdf
2. Johnson, Robyn, Southern Madison County Family Resource Center. Data accurate as of December 1, 2003.
3. Smith, Diane, Berea Community School Family Resource Center. Data accurate as of December 1, 2003.
4. U.S. Census data for FIDIPS 151 (Madison County, KY), 1990 and 2000, representing data collected in 1989 and 2000. See www.census.gov.
5. Hunger Basics, Bread for the World, www.bread.org/learn/
6. “2007 Kentucky KIDS Count Data Book”, a Project of Kentucky Youth Advocates and Kentucky Population Research, University of Louisville, www.kyyouth.org