Newest Hunger Report in the U.S.

This is a report that came out just yesterday. I also heard it on television last night. We're beginning to see the effects of this in our area. Living Water is projected to purchase 71 TONS of food this year through the High Plains Food Bank. If you'd like to be a partner with us and help purchase some of that food, please use our completely secure Donation button to the right! As you can imagine, we are over-budget this year because of the great need.

By Amy Goldstein Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, November 16, 2009; 3:14 PM
The number of Americans who lack dependable access to adequate food shot up last year to 49 million, the largest number since the government has been keeping track, according to a federal report released Monday that shows particularly steep increases in food scarcity among families with children.In 2008, the report found, nearly 17 million children — more than one in five across the United States — were living in households in which food at times ran short, up from slightly more than 12 million youngsters the year before. And the number of children who sometimes were outright hungry rose from nearly 700,000 to almost 1.1 million.Among people of all ages, nearly 15 percent last year did not consistently have adequate food, compared with about 11 percent in 2007, the greatest deterioration in access to food during a single year in the history of the report.Taken together, the findings provide the latest glimpse into the toll that the weak economy has taken on the well-being of the nation’s residents. The findings are from a snapshot of food in America that the U.S. Agriculture Department has issued every year since 1995, based on Census Bureau surveys. It documents both Americans who are scrounging for adequate food — people living with some amount of "food insecurity" in the lexicon of experts — and those whose food shortages are so severe that they are hungry."These numbers are a wake-up call . . . for us to get very serious about food security and hunger, about nutrition and food safety in this country," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said during a briefing of reporters.

This is one of the darlings we've helped feed this year.

And this is a group of volunteers busy preparing groceries to give away.