More than 41 Million Americans, Including Nearly 13 Million Children, Lived at Risk of Hunger in 2016
Reverend David Beckmann, President, Bread for the World
(Washington D.C., Thursday, September 21, 2017) – New data released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in its annual report, “Household Food Security in the United States in 2016,” shows that more than 41 million Americans, including nearly 13 million children, lived at risk of hunger in 2016. That is 12.3 percent of U.S. households.
Communities of color experienced higher rates of food insecurity than the general U.S. population. More than 22.5 percent of African-American households and 18.5 percent of Latino households experienced food insecurity – at nearly twice the national rate in 2016.
Bread for the World has warned that significant cuts to safety-net programs would reverse the progress that has been made and drive up both hunger and poverty in the U.S.
Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, will discuss why it is important for Congress to fully fund programs such as SNAP (also known as food stamps), school lunches, and other programs that help people struggling with hunger and poverty.
The system of safety-net programs launched in the 1960s has substantially reduced hunger and poverty, even though the wages of low-income workers have been stagnant for decades. Safety-net programs were a lifeline to millions of families when unemployment soared during the Great Recession.
Yet there is political pressure from the president, and some in Congress, for unprecedented cuts to safety-net programs. Congress will decide in the coming months whether they will fully fund these vital programs or make the deep cuts that have been proposed.
10 Hungriest States in the US, according to data from the USDA are:
- Mississippi: 18.7 percent of households;
- Louisiana: 18.3 percent of households;
- Alabama: 18.1 percent of households;
- New Mexico: 17.6 percent of households;
- Arkansas: 17.5 percent of households;
- Kentucky: 17.3 percent of households;
- Maine: 16.4 percent of households;
- Tie – Indiana: 15.2 percent of households;
- Tie – Oklahoma: 15.2 percent of households; and
- North Carolina: 15.1 percent of households