Hunger Statistics
In Metro Detroit
U.S. Census Bureau data shows that:
- The number of people living in poverty in the tri-county area has grown by 21% in the last five years.
- There are now 533,354 people (13%) in the tri-county area living below the poverty level.
- More than 204,000 children younger than 18 in the tri-county area live in poverty.
- The plight of Detroit-area children has only worsened in the past five years. The number of children ages 0-17 living in poverty in Wayne County has risen to 30.3%, while the number of children living in poverty in the City of Detroit is now a startling 45%.
- One of every five children in the tri-county area, and nearly half of all children in the City of Detroit, lives in poverty and is thus at high risk of hunger and under-nutrition.
- America’s Second Harvest, the nation’s association of food banks and food rescue organizations, defines the level of “food insecurity” at 185 percent of the poverty level.
Hunger in America 2005, a study commissioned by America’s Second Harvest, shows that:
- 72% of individuals and families served by Forgotten Harvest agencies have to choose between paying for food and paying for utilities; 68% have to choose between paying for food and paying for medicine or medical care.
In the United States
- According to the USDA, hunger remains a pervasive problem in the United States with more than 35 million Americans, including 12 million children, living on the brink of hunger.
- Children in over one-quarter million households experienced hunger in 2005.
- Michigan is one of 25 states that exhibit higher food insecurity rates (11.5%) than the national average (11.4%).
- About 70% of people seeking emergency food assistance are living below the federal poverty line; nearly 40% have at least one adult working in their household.
- 70% of clients are living in food-insecure households.
- Approximately 4.5 million different people receive emergency food assistance from the A2H system in any given week.
