World Hunger and Poverty

From the Barbara Ehrenreich article on Alternet.org
http://alternet.org/story/39273/

* They are less likely to have access to large supermarkets and hence to rely on the far more expensive, and lower quality offerings, of small grocery and convenience stores.

The latest U.S. federal data indicate that:

• In 2004, 13.5 million households (or 11.9% of all U.S. households) were food insecure. Over 38 million people (13.2% of all Americans) lived in these households.
• During the 12 months preceding the 2004 survey, 4.4 million households experienced hunger. Over 10.7 million adults and children lived in these households.
• In 2004, 13.9 million children under age 18 lived in food-insecure households (19.0% of all children).
• Food insecurity and hunger are concentrated in low-income households. In 2004, households with incomes below 130% poverty line had a food insecurity prevalence more than 3 times the national level. More than two-thirds of households reporting hunger had incomes under 185% of the poverty line.
• Female-headed households showed disproportionately high levels of food insecurity and hunger, with 33% reporting food insecurity and 1 in 11 experiencing hunger.
• Black and Hispanic households had food insecurity prevalences that were at least 2.5 times those of White (non-Hispanic) households.

From: http://www.centeronhunger.org/hunger/facts.html (Source: Nord, M., Andrews, M., Carlson, S. (October 2005) Household Food Security in the United States, 2004. Washington, D.C.: Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture.)

Ten children die every minute as a result of malnutrition, more than a quarter of children in developing countries are underweight and suffer disease because of their poor diet, and in some areas almost half of all under-fives are malnourished, a new United Nations report says.

Unicef warns that the slow progress on reducing nutritional problems among children means that several key Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets may now be missed. Ann Veneman, executive director of Unicef, said: “The lack of progress to combat malnutrition is damaging children and nations. Few things have more impact than nutrition on a child’s ability to survive, learn effectively and escape a life of poverty.”

Read More – Global Policy Article

From: http://www.worldhungeryear.org/info_center/just_facts.asp

US Hunger & Poverty Facts

• From 1967 to 2003, average household income (adjusted dollars) grew from $7.589 to 9,996 for those in the bottom 20%, and grew from $83,758 to $147,078 for those in the top 20%.₁
• In 2003, California had a poverty rate of 13.4%, compared to 9% in Virginia, 19.9% in Washington D.C., and 12.7% for the U.S. ₁
• For those living in poverty, the poverty gap per family member (defined as the total dollar amount short of the poverty line) grew from $1,873 to $3,018 (adjusted dollars) between 1975-2003. ₁
• From the years 1980-2000, average net income (adjusted dollars) for households with children grew by $876,300 for the top 1%, and grew by $2,000 for those in the bottom 20%. ₁
• While the number of persons at poverty level declined from 13.4% to 12.5% from 1987-2003, the number of persons on Medicaid grew from 8.4% to 12.4%₁
• Approximately 7.5 million workers (6% of the U.S. workforce) earn at or near the federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour.₂
• If the federal minimum wage had maintained its 1968 peak value, it would be $8.69 an hour today. ₂
• From 1956 to 1981, the minimum wage was approximately half of the average American workers wage; today it is about 30%. ₂
• In the 1960s and 70s, a full-time worker earning minimum wage could support a family of three at the poverty level. ₂
• Approximately 7.5 million workers (6% of the U.S. workforce) earn at or near the federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour. ₄
• From 1956 to 1981, the minimum wage was approximately half of the average American workers wage; today it is about 30%. ₄
• In the 1960s and 70s, a full-time worker earning minimum wage could support a family of three at the poverty level. ₄
• Of those individuals directly affected by the most recent federal increase in the minimum wage, 70% were over the age of 19, and 35% of the income gains went to the poorest one-fifth of working households.₂
• Currently, 13 states have laws mandating a state minimum wage that exceeds the federal level by at least one dollar and is near half the average wage of workers in that state. ₂
• Housing costs continue to squeeze the budgets of low-income families. The typical household in poverty paid 64% of its income for housing in 2003, up from 61% in 1997. ₃
• One of every 12 (8.3%) elderly Whites were poor in 1999, compared to 22.7% of elderly African-Americans and 20.4% of elderly Hispanics. ₄
• A worker earning minimum wage would have to work 97 hours a week to pay the rent of an average two-bedroom apartment. ₅
• Poverty rates are highest for families headed by single women, particularly if they are black or Hispanic. In 2001, 26.4% of female-headed families were poor, while 13.1% of male-headed families and 4.9% of married couple’s households lived in poverty. In 2001, both black and Hispanic female-headed families had poverty rates exceeding 35%. ₆
• The U.S. Conference of Mayors reports that in 2004, requests for emergency food assistance increased an average of 13%. The study also found that 56% of those requesting emergency food assistance were employed. High housing costs, low-paying jobs, unemployment, and the economic downturn led the list of reasons contributing to the rise. ₇

Source material:

1. Just the Facts: Poverty in Los Angeles Institute for the Study of Homelessness and Poverty, US Poverty, Income and Health Insurance Data, March 2003.
2. Institute on Assets and Social Policy, Minimum Wage: Creating an Asset Foundation.
3. Hunger, Crowding, and Other Hardships are Widespread among Families in Poverty, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, December 2004.
4. “Poverty in the United States: 1999, U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Reports, pg.60-210.
5. Institute for Children and Poverty, Homeless in America: A Children’s Story – Part One (New York, NY: 1999); Twombly, Out of Reach: The Growing Gap Between Housing Costs and Income of Poor People in the United States (Washington, DC: The National Low Income Housing Coalition, 2000).
6. Hunger and Homelessness Survey 2004, 1. U.S. Census Bureau, Poverty in the United States: 2001, P-60, no. 219: Table 1.
7. U.S. Conference of Mayors – Sodexho USA, December 2004.

From: http://www.thp.org/issues/

Population is linked to hunger – but not the way many people believe. We tend to grow up thinking that the problem of hunger is caused by overpopulation – too many people and not enough food. Some people even believe that deaths due to hunger actually help slow population growth.

In fact, the opposite is more nearly true. In modern history, hunger-related deaths have never been a major portion of the overall death rate. Yet, the insecurity caused by hunger-related high infant mortality rates causes parents to have more children, earlier, as a form of insurance – thus driving up the birth rates.

In every country where infant mortality rates have dropped, drops in birthrates have followed.

The underlying truth of the matter is that the same social factors that give rise to hunger also give rise to high population growth rates. Only by addressing these root causes can both problems be solved. This is the work of The Hunger Project – and of a growing number of organizations committed to these issues.

The most important of these conditions is the subjugation of women. When the education and well-being of women improves – and when women gain voice in decision making – birth rates plummet.

When The Hunger Project started, this understanding of the links between hunger, poverty and population were a “minority” view. By 1993, however, at the Cairo Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), the world community aligned on this understanding. In the Plan of Action, there were four major goals, in this order:

• Universal Education: “all countries are urged to ensure the widest and earliest possible access by girls and women to secondary and higher levels of education, as well as to vocational education and technical training”, bearing in mind the need to improve the quality and relevance of that education.”
• Reduction of Infant and Child Mortality. “By 2015, all countries should aim to achieve an infant mortality rate below 35 per 1,000 live births and an under-five mortality rate below 45 per 1,000.”
• Reduction of Maternal Mortality. “Countries with the highest levels of maternal mortality should aim to achieve by 2005 a maternal mortality rate below 125 per 100,000 live births and by 2015 a maternal mortality rate below 75 per 100,000 live births.”
• Access to Primary and Reproductive Health. “All countries should strive to make accessible through the primary health-care system, reproductive health to all individuals of appropriate ages as soon as possible and no later than the year 2015.”

These are goals that are being met in the thousands of villages mobilized by The Hunger Project, and we intend to use our influence and strategies to catalyze the process of achieving them throughout the developing world.

From: http://www.thp.org/issues/

HUNGER FACTS

Scope of the problem
An estimated 852 million people in the developing world currently do not consume enough calories to sustain healthy bodies.

What is hunger?
Hunger is when people do not get enough food to provide the nutrients (carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, minerals and water) for active and healthy lives.

Malnutrition results from a lack of calories and/or inadequate consumption of one or more nutrients such as Vitamin A or iodine.

Famine is a situation of extreme scarcity of food, potentially leading to widespread starvation, which is defined as extreme suffering or death from prolonged lack of food.

Hunger kills
Did you know every day 24,000 people die from hunger and hunger-related causes? Of those, 18,000 are children. One person dies of hunger every 3.6 seconds. That is more than 16 people each minute; 1,000 each hour; which translates into 8,760,000 every single year! One in six people on the planet is hungry.

More fatal than war
An estimated 17 percent of all deaths in the world are due to malnutrition and unsafe water. In the last 50 years, more than 418 million people have died from hunger and poor sanitation–nearly three times the number of people who died in all wars of the 20th century.

Chronic hunger
Chronic hunger reduces the body’s ability to function and leads to a weakened state, leaving a person more susceptible to disease. It’s these preventable illnesses that often lead to death. When hunger progresses into starvation, the body literally eats up all its reserves of protein and energy. At this point, even with intervention, a victim may be so weak that he or she may not recover.

Hungers real causes
World population is not the reason for itcontrary to what some might believe. The real reason nearly one billion of the planets six billion people are undernourished is because of food-distribution problems, natural disasters, government policies
civil unrest, inequitable trade policies, lack of knowledge and greed.

What were doing
Food for the Hungry currently impacts individuals in 46 countries, attempting to alleviate hunger and malnutrition in the world. At Food for the Hungry, we are accountable before God and before our donors to use gifts in the best way possible. We give 93 percent of our resource income to field programs and relief interventions.

What you can do
Food for the Hungry offers many ways to help. Perhaps you want to sponsor a child or join our Prayer Network. Or you can join our overseas volunteers for a few weeks with our Short-term Team Ministry or a few years through our Hunger Corps program. Or, you can donate online www.fh.org or by calling 1-800-2-HUNGERS.

About Us
Food for the Hungry currently impacts individuals in 46 countries providing emergency relief and implementing development programs throughout the world. This includes our field programs, exploratory programs and presence of our local-country offices (National Organizations). We help the world’s most disadvantaged people through child-development programs, agriculture and clean-water projects, health and nutrition programs, micro-enterprise loans and education; teaching communities to become self-sustaining. We are a Christian organization founded in 1971 by Dr. Larry Ward. For more information please visit www.fh.org