Community Food Security - read the Hunger Commission's food access study and download free food access study materials including curriculum for nutrition education workshops.

Hunger and Food Access

According to a USDA report, in 1998, 10.5 million households or about 10.2% of all households in the United States experienced food insecurity. Food insecurity, as defined by The Food Security Institute at Tufts University is, whenever the availability of nutritionally adequate and safe food, or the ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways, is limited or uncertain. Behind this alarming statistic is chilling evidence that despite the current booming economy and record low unemployment rates, many Americans basic needs simply are not being met. Deborah Leff, CEO of America's Second Harvest, pointed out at a recent anti-hunger conference, that despite the nation's present wealthy state, between 1996 and 1998 national poverty rates only decreased by 2%. Ms. Leff also reported that forty percent of the people served in soup kitchens, pantries, and shelters are employed. Fifty percent of those working, worked full-time, sometimes two jobs, and still could not stretch their food dollars to the end of the month.

Sacramento's statistics only further illustrate this national trend. Over 15% of Sacramento's population --or 173,865 people-- lived below the poverty line in July 1996. And though, following the national trend, there is a relatively low unemployment rate of 4%, approximately one in four children receives public assistance, one of the highest rates in California. And while the number of people receiving food stamp assistance is plummeting (approximately 25% fewer people are receiving food stamp assistance in Sacramento County than just three years ago) and thousands of people are leaving the welfare roles, requests for emergency food assistance continue to rise. In many cases, a free bag of food from a local emergency food closet, once intended as a one-time stopgap measure while a family waited for their food stamps to arrive, is now a critical supplement to a family's regular monthly food budget. It is unclear how long emergency food providers will be able to bear the weight of this current trend. One of the two major food banks in the county, Senior Gleaners, reported that the organizations they serve distributed 6.3 million bags of food in Northern California in 1999, compared to 4.1 million in 1997— a 50% increase.

It appears, however, that there are more factors involved in making a family food insecure, than simply lacking money or food stamps. In addition, factors such as lack of transportation and availability of fresh foods close to home are also drastically affecting the lives of families who live in low-income neighborhoods. To effectively research the effects secondary factors to money have on a family's food security, the Hunger Commission narrowed the scope of study, to two low-income neighborhoods in Sacramento County.

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