Tyson Foods is the proud sponsor of America’s Second Harvest Network’s The Almanac of Hunger and Poverty in America 2007  which will help fill a void in the hunger-relief community by providing a source for all hunger and poverty-related data; and it will take us one step closer to ending hunger in America.

• More than 25 million Americans—including 9 million children and nearly 3 million seniors—receive emergency food assistance each year from the America’s Second Harvest Network.
• About 70% of the clients seeking emergency food assistance are living below the federal poverty line, and nearly 40% have at least one adult working in their household.
• Seventy percent of A2H clients are living in food insecure households and 33% of those clients reported experiencing hunger.
• More than 40% of the clients served report having to choose between paying for utilities or heating fuel and food;
• 35% had to choose between paying for rent or a mortgage and food;
• 32% report having to choose between paying for medical bills and food.
• Volunteers and faith-based organizations are the lifeline of America’s emergency food distribution system. More than 65% of food pantries and 40% of soup kitchens rely entirely on volunteers and have no paid staff.
• As many as 90% of food pantries, 86% of soup kitchens and 71% of shelters in the America’s Second Harvest Network use volunteers. Additionally, nearly 75% of pantries, 65% of soup kitchens, and 45% of emergency shelters are run by faith-based agencies affiliated with churches, mosques, synagogues and other religious organizations.

The study findings have been cited as authoritative research by the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, House and Senate Budget Committees, House and Senate Agriculture Committees, and the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means Committee in various public events and legislative hearings over the last few years. Researchers from across the political spectrum – from The Heritage Foundation to the Urban Institute – have cited our study as an authoritative source on the subject of hunger in America.

For more information on Hunger in America 2006 and to download the full report, please visit the hunger study website at www.hungerinamerica.org.