How many people are hungry in the developing world?

Today 852 million people (one in eight), mainly in developing countries, are hungry or chronically or acutely undernourished. This is up from 842 million a year ago (2004).

How does it feel to be hungry?

Few Presbyterians in the United States have experienced chronic hunger. These hunger simulation games can give you a little glimpse into how this might feel. Choose one of the games to use with a youth group or your whole congregation. From Hunger: Understanding the Crisis through Games, Drama, & Songs, by Patricia Sprinkle (out of print).

How many people are hungry in America?

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reports that in 2003 11.2 percent of all U.S. households, or 12.6 million households with 36.3 million people, were "food insecure"* because of lack of resources. Of the 12.6 million households that were food insecure, 3.9 million suffered from food insecurity so severe that USDA's very conservative measure classified them as "hungry." Each year 23 million low-income people in the United States, including more than nine million children and nearly three million seniors, turn to food assistance programs related to Second Harvest Food Banks**.

Visit the Web sites below for food security statistics by state, hunger definitions, and information on U.S. food programs:

Economic Research Service brief on food security in the United States: Overview.

Economic Research Service brief on food security in the United States: measuring household food security

United States Department of Agriculture: Laws and Regulations on Food Distribution

Since 1999 food insecurity has increased by 2.1 million households, including 1.1 million households with children. The 36.3 million people in households experiencing food insecurity in 2003 compares with 34.9 million in 2002, 33.6 million in 2001, and 31 million in 1999.

How many children die each year from hunger-related causes?

Six million children die each year, mostly from hunger-related causes. That is more than 16,000 a day. The annual U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report says present levels of hunger cause the death of more than five million children a year.

How many children are hungry in America?

In the United States 13 million children live in households that experience hunger or the risk of hunger.

3.5 percent of U.S. households experience hunger. Some people in these households frequently skip meals or eat too little, sometimes going without food for a whole day. 9.6 million people, including three million children, live in these homes. 7.7 percent of U.S. households are at risk of hunger. Members of these households have lower quality diets or must resort to seeking emergency food because they cannot always afford the food they need. 26.6 million people, including 10.3 million children, live in these homes. (Bread for the World, 2005)

What are the primary causes of hunger?

Poverty is the principal cause of hunger. The causes of poverty include poor people's lack of resources, an extremely unequal income distribution in the world and within specific countries, conflict, and hunger itself. There are an estimated 1.08 billion poor people in developing countries who live on $1 a day or less (Global Poverty Monitoring, World Bank ). Of these an estimated 798 million suffer from chronic hunger, which means that their daily intake of calories is insufficient for them to lead active and healthy lives. Extreme poverty remains an alarming problem in the world's developing regions, despite the advances made in the 1990s. Progress in poverty reduction has been concentrated in Asia, and especially East Asia. In all the other regions, the number of people in extreme poverty has increased. (Food and Agriculture Organization, 2002). 

Interactive map: The Geography of American Poverty
(Based on U.S. Census Bureau)

Conflict is a cause of hunger and poverty. Worldwide, there were some 17.1 million refugees and displaced persons at the end of 2003-largely as a result of wars, political turbulence, civil conflict and social unrest (e.g. Sudan, Liberia, and Colombia) (UNHCR 2003 Global Refugee Trends ). In such emergencies malnutrition runs rampant, exponentially increasing the risk of disease and death (World Health Organization, 2003). But, important and visible though it is, conflict is not nearly as important as poverty as a cause of hunger.

Is there still poverty in the United States?

The numbers, released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Aug. 30, 2005 show that 1.1 million more people in the country lived in poverty in 2004 than in 2003. The official 2004 poverty line for a family of four was an annual income of $19,307, according to the bureau. The poverty rate for people 18 to 64 years old increased from 10.8 percent in 2003 to 11.3 percent in 2004.

The Census Bureau also found that 45.8 million people were without health insurance in 2004, an increase of 800,000 people from the previous year.

Other results can be found through the Census Bureau's Web site

How much do we spend to fight hunger and poverty in America?

Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) was created by the U.S. Congress in 1996 and its initial authorization expired in 2002.  It has been funded since then by a series of eight short-term extensions. Some advocates for low-income people feel that a long-term extension of the current program, with all of its shortcomings, would be preferable to passage of any bill likely to come out of the current Congress. (PC(USA) Washington Office, 2005)

Related Article: TANF Stalls Over Child Care Funding, While Congress Proposes Deep Cuts in Domestic Programs and Waits for Hearings on Social Security

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children-better known as the WIC Program-serves to safeguard the health of low-income women, infants, and children up to age five who are at nutritional risk by providing nutritious foods to supplement diets, information on healthy eating, and referrals to health care. WIC is a Federal grant program for which Congress authorizes a specific amount of funding each year for program operations. The appropriation for 2005 is $5.235 billion. More than 7.5 million people get WIC benefits each month.

How much grain would be needed to adequately feed all the people in the world who die of hunger and hunger-caused disease each year?

12 million tons.

What is the amount Americans would have to reduce their beef consumption to save 12 millions tons of grain?

10 percent.

If poor people are getting fat, does that mean they don't need food stamps or other nutrition programs? Are they buying junk food with food stamps?

USDA studies show that low-income people buy healthier food than any other segment of the population. Poor people live in the same society as others do and see the same ads; some make the same questionable food choices the rest do. Indeed, obesity masks other serious nutrition problems that result from families having insufficient money for food: some high-fat, high-sugar foods that contribute to obesity and other health problems are among the cheapest sources of calories low-income parents can find to keep their children from experiencing hunger.

Economic Research Service brief on food and nutrition assistance programs: FANRP project descriptions

The Global Policy Forum in New York City
The forum is a grant recipient of the Presbyterian Hunger Program and provides an online library of analyses, articles and resources on hunger and its root causes. Under the root causes, HIV/AIDS, militarism, trade and food production and environmental devastation each have their own section with articles organized by year. This site is an educational treasure chest! [Visit site.]

The organizations below provide helpful summaries of data concerning hunger in the United States and around the world.

Food Research and Action Center

Hunger Simulation games

A series of Hunger simulation games from Hunger: Understanding the Crisis through Games, Drama, & Songs by Patricia Sprinkle (out of print) for teaching youth groups and congregations practical lessions about hunger in our world.

Footnotes

* Food security is a term defined by the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) to describe what the United States should be seeking for all its people-assured access at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life, with no need for recourse to emergency food sources or other extraordinary coping behaviors to meet basic food needs.

However, this definition is sometimes critiqued because it implies that people can achieve "food security" even if their livelihoods as farmers are compromised or destroyed by unjust global trade policies. Obviously, this isn't true food security. For this reason, many of our partner organizations refer to "food sovereignty." For a definition and more about this, see PC(USA)'s Just Trade food sovereignty page.

** America's Second Harvest-The Nation's Food Bank Network is the nation's largest charitable hunger-relief organization, with a network of more than  200 regional member food banks and food-rescue programs.