FOOD for Lane County - Facts and Figures About Hunger

Facts and trends about hunger and food insecurity

Hunger in Lane County (pdf) This 2007 fact sheet includes information about hunger in Lane County, what FOOD for Lane County is doing to address it and what you can do to help.

Hunger in Oregon

In January 2004, about 417,000 Oregonians received Food Stamps.

One in 11 Oregon children does not have health care coverage.

Oregon’s housing values shot up 129 percent during the past decade.

The gap between the rich and poor grew four times faster in Oregon than nationally.

The changing nature of employment in Oregon has resulted in fewer family-wage industrial jobs and more low-wage service jobs.

Rural Oregonians are more likely to be seasonally employed, which equals lower annual incomes overall.

46,702 Lane County residents 14.4 percent live below the poverty level.

In the past 20 years, Oregon's population has grown nearly 30 percent.

A 2002 state health survey showed that 45 percent of Latino adults in Oregon lived in food insecure households. By contrast, just 12 percent of non-Latino adults lived in food insecure households.

Hunger in the United States and around the world

In the United States 12.1 million children, or 16.7 percent of all children under age 18, were poor - a larger percentage than any other age group.

10.4 percent of all Americans 65 and over, or 3.6 million elderly, are poor.

USDA research reports that every $1 in 100 percent federally-funded food stamps generates $2 of economic activity in a state.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 10 million people across America live in households that suffer from hunger.

The USDA estimates that there are 6.6 million adults and 3.4 million children across the nation living in households that suffer from hunger.

Since welfare reform, fewer poor people are receiving the food stamps they need to survive (68 percent in 1996 versus 58 percent in 1998).

The length of participation in the Food Stamp Program is less than two years for 71 percent of those receiving food stamps. Half of all new recipients stay on the program no more than six months, and 57 percent end participation within one year.

Receiving food stamps increases the nutritional value of a low-income household's home food supplies by 20 to 40 percent.

Food Stamp households participating in the program on average spend more on food and acquire more food than low-income non-participating households.

The Food Stamp Program serves an average of about 18 million people per month, with an average benefit of $75 per person.

Over half of Food Stamp Program participants are children, and almost 80 percent of benefits go to households with children. Although almost a fourth of food stamp recipients are elderly or disabled adults, over a fourth of all food stamp households have earnings.

Last year, 49 percent of food stamp households with children and an able-bodied, non-elderly adult were working.

A family of four earning the minimum wage full-time year-round will only reach 75 percent of the poverty level.

On a typical school day, 16 million US children receive free or reduced price lunches at school.

The richest 3 million Americans put together are nearly 40 times richer than 113 million of the rest of us.

One in 10 households in the United States are living with hunger or are at risk of hunger.

We have the means. The financial costs to end hunger are relatively slight. The United Nations Development Program estimates that the basic health and nutrition needs of the world's poorest people could be met for an additional $13 billion a year. Animal lovers in the United States and Europe spend more than that on pet food each year.

42 percent of households receiving emergency food assistance have one or more family member currently employed.

Hunger is becoming a growing problem among the working poor.

Nationwide, an estimated 23 million people per year receive help from food banks, while only 19 million receive government food stamps.

Child poverty is more widespread in the United States than in any other industrialized country.

One in five children, compared to one in 10 adults, live in households where someone suffers from hunger or food insecurity.

More than 840 million people around the world are undernourished.

31,000 children worldwide die from hunger-related causes every day.

Our food system

Of the 76,782 acres harvested in Lane County in 1999, less than 20 percent were food crops.

Oregon loses 11,860 acres of farmland every year to development.

A food item travels an average of 1,500-2,500 miles from where it’s produced to where it’s consumed.