Hunger Statistics

The Central Pennsylvania Food Bank participated in a national project that focused on surveying those who are hungry in America. Locally, more than 40 volunteers gave more than 500 hours of time to be trained in specific interviewing techniques, and then surveyed 400 clients that directly receive food through member agencies in our 27-county service territory. These powerful results provide a snapshot about the people who struggle to find food in our local communities. The entire report from the Hunger in America 2006 project is available by calling Agency Relations at 717-564-1700, or by accessing this PDF document.

Pennsylvania Hunger Statistics:

  • The emergency food programs served by the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank provide food for an estimated 159,100 different people annually.
  • Approximately 36,800 different people receive assistance in any given week.
  • 32% of the members of households served by the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank are children under 18 years old.
  • 12% of the members of households are children age 0 to 5 years.
  • 8% of the members of households are elderly.
  • 55% of pantries, 51% of kitchens, and 66% of shelters of the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank reported that there had been an increase since 2001 in the number of clients who come to their emergency food program sites.
  • Nearly 67% of the clients that access emergency feeding programs are women.
  • More than 70% of the households surveyed are "food insecure" which is defined as having "limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods or limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways.”

National Hunger Statistics:

  • In 2005, more than 25 million Americans—including nearly 9 million children and nearly 3 million seniors—requested emergency food assistance from America's Second Harvest—The Nation’s Food Bank Network, representing an 8 percent increase since 2001.
  • Children are especially vulnerable to issues of hunger and poverty. Thirteen million, or approximately 17.8% of children in the U.S., live in poverty. The rate of poverty for children under 18 remains higher than those aged 18 to 64 and for those aged 65 and over.(2)
  • Scientific evidence supports good nutrition as critical to the health and life quality of America’s seniors.(4) Because of issues that relate specifically to age, including decreased mobility and limited outside assistance, the elderly are especially vulnerable to hunger and malnutrition.(5) Because of fixed and low incomes—9.8 percent of the elderly live below the poverty line —the elderly are among America’s most vulnerable citizens.(6) An estimated 3.4 million elderly people were poor, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Nearly 3 million of the people served by America's Second Harvest are ages 65 and older.
  • Despite a strong economy in the 1990’s and continued recovery from the 2001 recession, Americans are still finding it hard to make ends meet. In 2005, more than one-third (36%) of all households served by the America’s Second Harvest Network had one or more adults working, that is nearly 5 million people, or 28% of all adults served through the Network.
  • Unfortunately, for many recipient working households, income from employment is too often not sufficient to make ends meet. Half of all recipient households (51%) reported incomes of less than $10,000 in the previous year.

(2) DeNavas-Walt, Carmn, B.D. Proctor, C.H. Lee U.S. Census Bureau,. Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2004 (P60-229), August 2005.

(4) Nutrition, Aging, and the Continuum of Care, from The Journal of the American Dietetic Association 2000, 100:580-595.

(5) USDA’s Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, Food Insufficiency and the Nutritional Status of the Elderly Population, May 2000.

(6) DeNavas-Walt, Carmn, B.D. Proctor, C.H. Lee. U.S. Census Bureau,. Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2004 (P60-229), August 2005.