16.1% of PA Respondents Face Food Hardship
Wednesday, December 29, 2010

New data show that over 16 percent of respondents in Pennsylvania reported in the first half of 2010 that there were times during the prior twelve months that they did not have enough money to buy food that they needed for themselves or their family, according to the Food Research and Action Center’s (FRAC) analysis of data from the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index.

The data were gathered as part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index project, which has been interviewing 1,000 households daily since January 2008. People were asked, “Have there been times in the past twelve months when you did not have enough money to buy food that you or your family needed?” The full analysis by FRAC of the Gallup data is available at www.frac.org.

For the months of January through June 2010, sixteen states had food hardship rates of 20 percent or higher – at least one in five persons contacted in those states answered that there had been times in the past twelve months when they did not have enough money to buy food that they or their family needed. Forty-seven states, including Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia had rates of 14.15 percent or higher – in other words, one in seven or more of those surveyed experienced food hardship.

The report also compares the rates for the twelve months from July 2008 through June 2009 to the twelve months from July 2009 through June 2010, and finds that food hardship in Pennsylvania remained relatively unchanged over that time period. FRAC chose these twelve month periods in order to ascertain which states saw a statistically significant change from the heart of the recession to the first year of the recovery, albeit a recovery that all agree has been very weak.

“It’s modestly comforting to see that our food hardship rate did not increase, but the very high rate which remains shows how huge numbers of families still are struggling to afford the basic necessities of life.” said Joe Quattrocchi, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Hunger Action Center.

“As we look to the start of a New Year, these numbers underline that far too many people in our state are struggling to put food on the table,” said Quattrocchi. “Our state will be facing many fiscal challenges next year, yet unemployment, poverty and food hardship remain very, very high. Our state leaders must protect programs for low-income families. We also urge state leaders to look at smart and cost-effective ways to connect more families to the federal nutrition programs – strategies like taking advantage of options in the federal SNAP (food stamp) program to get more people enrolled, making new choices to feed children in school and after school from the recently passed child nutrition reauthorization law, and getting a head start on summer food outreach to raise awareness of the program.”

The full report is available at www.frac.org

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About This Report
This report is the third in the Food Research and Action Center’s (FRAC) series of analyses of survey data on food hardship collected by Gallup as part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. This particular analysis looks at the most recent available food hardship rates by state for the first half of 2010 – and how the late 2009/early 2010 rates by state compare to the prior twelve months (July 2008 - June 2009). The report thereby provides the most up-to-date examination yet at the state level of the struggle that very large numbers of American households are having affording enough food. This new analysis updates and builds on state data concerning food hardship in 2008-2009 that FRAC released in January 2010.

This is a request to National, State, and Community-based organizations to sign on now to a new letter urging Senate leadership to pass a robustly funded Child Nutrition bill that meets President Obama's commitment of $10billion/10 years in additional funding, with the right mix of funding, before the end of the 111th Congress.

Go to http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5118/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=2968 (copy and paste in your web browser) to read the letter and sign on today!

More than 15.9 percent of households in Pennsylvania reported in 2009 not having enough money to buy food that they needed during the prior twelve months for themselves or their family, according to a new report released by the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC).

For the first time, data on food hardship – the inability to afford enough food – is available for every state, every Congressional District and for 100 of the country’s largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs). In Pennsylvania, each of the 19 Congressional Districts had more than one in ten residents reporting food hardship in 2008-2009. For households with children, it was reported that 22.4 percent reported food hardship.

“These new data reaffirm what we’re seeing in our local communities and provides a current, on-the-ground look at how pervasive households’ struggle with hunger have become in today’s economy,” said Joseph Quattrocchi, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Hunger Action Center. “These findings increase the drumbeat that more must be done, and quickly, to help this state’s and this nation’s struggling families.”

The report analyzes survey data that were collected by Gallup and provided to FRAC. The ability to provide such localized data and such up-to-date data comes from Gallup’s partnership with Healthways, interviewing 1,000 households per day almost every day since January 2, 2008 as part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index project. Through December 2009, more than 650,000 people have been asked a series of questions on a range of topics including emotional health, physical health, healthy behavior, work environment and access to basic services. Specific to this report, more than 530,000 people were asked whether there were times over the preceding year that they did not have enough money to buy food they or their family needed.

The Gallup survey question on food hardship is very similar to one posed by the Census Bureau and analyzed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in its official measure of food insecurity, but because of sample size Gallup provides us with a closer, more localized and more recent look at food hardship. Official government data on food insecurity have a nearly one-year time lag and do not go below the state level.

“The data in this report show that food hardship – running out of money to buy the food that families need – is truly a national problem. It is a national problem in the sense that the rate for the nation is so high,” said Jim Weill, president of FRAC. “And it is a national problem in the sense that rates are high in virtually every state, Metropolitan Statistical Area, and Congressional District.”

These new numbers are especially relevant as Congress looks at jobs legislation and other strategies to mitigate the damage of the recession, and reauthorizes child nutrition legislation this year. The Pennsylvania Hunger Action Center has joined FRAC in calling for improvements in a range of federal nutrition programs, including SNAP/ Food Stamps and child nutrition programs, and for more efforts to boost the economy, create more well-paying jobs and reduce unemployment.

“President Obama has set a goal of ending childhood hunger by 2015,” Mr. Quattrocchi said. “As we can see with these new data, the struggle with hunger is a serious problem here in Pennsylvania for children and adults. Not a minute can be wasted between now and 2015 if we’re to reach that goal. All corners of government, the private sector and nonprofits must work together in order to implement long-term strategies that will battle our nation’s hunger crisis.”

The full report is available at www.frac.org.