Hunger stalks millions of poor Americans

Hunger stalks millions of poor Americans

By Chris Bryant in Washington

Published: April 24 2008 21:24 | Last updated: April 24 2008 21:24

An escalating global food crisis could bring the problem of hunger home to the US and other developed countries.

Millions of poor Americans risk going hungry if food prices continue to rise and food agencies struggle to cope with rising costs, dwindling resources and a huge increase in demand.

Already more and more poor people in the US are turning to charity and government assistance as they struggle with rising food costs and soaring fuel bills. Even some stores are restricting bulk rice purchases as the grain reached a fresh high on Thursday.

Laurie True, executive director of the California Women Infants and Children Program Association, said local agencies were reporting a sharp increase in new enrolments. “That’s the canary in the coal mine,” she said. “These are people that don’t normally claim benefits.”

The Congressional Budget Office forecast the number of Americans on food stamps would next year reach 28m, the highest number since the programme began more than 40 years ago.

James Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center, said the actual number was likely to be much higher because the number of claimants had already reached 27.7m in January, an increase of more than 1.3m in the past year. The measure does not count all those in trouble as only about 65 per cent of those eligible for food stamps seek help.

The impact will be felt most acutely by the 35m Americans – 10.9 per cent of all households – who already struggle to put enough food on the table each year. About 11m of these are thought to have “very low food security”, meaning someone in their home went hungry for lack of money to buy food, according to government data from 2006.

Campaigners fear the food situation could deteriorate further if House and Senate negotiators fail to pass an additional $10bn (£5bn, €6.4bn) in funding for national food aid programmes.

Measures to broaden eligibility for food stamps and increase emergency food provision are contained within a $288bn farm bill which has been held up for months by divisions on how to pay for budget increases.

The Senate on Thursday approved another one-week extension to the 2002 bill so that negotiations could continue.

“I don’t know what we’ll do if [the bill] doesn’t pass,” said Anne Goodman, executive director of the Cleveland Food Bank. “We’ve got a mounting tragedy going on here which is being exacerbated by the rising cost of food and fuel.”

The cost of foodstuffs poor Americans tend to buy have risen more rapidly than those bought by their richer neighbours.

Average food prices rose 5.1 per cent between February 2007 and 2008 but the cost of a basket of food used as a benchmark for food stamp benefits rose 6.5 per cent in the same period.

Bob Dolgan, spokesman for the Greater Chicago Food Depository, said rising food prices were affecting “those people who live on the margins, living pay cheque to pay cheque”.

Filling the gap where government help does not reach is a network of 200 regional food banks that distributes food to about 30,000 churches and soup kitchens around the country. America’s Second Harvest, the body that oversees the network, estimates the number of people seeking its help has risen by up to 25 per cent in the past year.

About 40 per cent of the 13m working-age adults served by the organisation come from households where at least one family member has a job, said Vicki Escarra, chief executive.

“The face of poverty and hunger has changed in the past few years. The notion that it’s just homeless people is inaccurate.”

Food agency resources are stretched because rising fuel prices have increased the cost of transporting supplies and both public and private donations have started to fall.

The government used to buy large quantities of surplus farm commodities to support market prices, which it would distribute to food banks. As prices have climbed over the past four years these donations have dropped by 75 per cent, leaving food banks scrambling for resources.

“[Stores] are pretty empty right now,” said Lindsey Buss, president of Martha’s Table, a food charity in Washington.

“At the same time as demand is going up, the cost for us to meet that demand is going up as well.”