The Northland’s Hungry

Today in America over 46.5 million people* live in food insecure households – 12 million are children and 7 million are seniors. But it’s not just a national problem. Hunger exists right here in the Northland.
In fact, nearly 600 people per day** receive food from a Northland food shelf or soup kitchen.

Right here in Northeastern Minnesota and Northwestern Wisconsin:

  • Fifteen percent (15%) of our population, or 51,298 people, live in poverty***
  • Twelve-and-a-half percent (12.5%) of people are food insecure meaning they don’t have access at all times to enough food to live a healthy, active life****
  • Twenty-and-a-half percent (20.5%) of children are food insecure****
  • Thirty-five percent (35%) of people receiving assistance have a post-high school education (license, certification, some college, a two-year or four-year degree)
  • Twenty percent (20%) of households served have a member who served in the US Armed Forces, military reserve or National Guard.
  • Sixty-seven percent (67%) of households served have a monthly income of $1,000 or less
  • Sixty-three percent (63%) of people served report choosing between paying for food and medicine or medical care; 59% utilities, 51% rent or mortgage
  • Fifty-two percent (52%) of households report working for pay in the last 12 months
  • Ninety-eight percent (98%) live in non-temporary housing (apartment, house, townhouse, military housing, mobile home, rented room)
  • Thirty-eight percent (38%) report a member of their household with high blood pressure; 19% with diabetes
  • Sixty-eight percent (68%) report participation in SNAP

Hunger in America

How can 46.5 million people face hunger in a country that wastes billions of pounds of food? Here in America, there is more than enough food to feed every man, woman and child, yet one in six people, including more than one in five children, face hunger.

Fortunately, by rescuing surplus food from national and regional manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, growers and restaurants, Second Harvest Northern Lakes Food Bank provides a solution to hunger right here in the Northland.

 

*Feeding America™, Hunger in America 2014
**Second Harvest Northern Lakes Food Bank, Monthly Agency Service Statistics, 2016
***US Census Bureau, Population and Poverty Statistics, 2014
****Feeding America™, Map the Meal Gap 2015
*****Second Harvest Northern Lakes Food Bank, Hunger in America 2014

“I know you love me because you give me food,”
– Kindergartner, BackPack Program

“Social security just doesn’t stretch far enough, your program helps keep food in the house.”
– Allan