Hunger in Our Region

Although Spooky’s two-part mission emphasizes building and strengthening the CSRA community, we do this by bringing attention to Hunger in our area and focus our work on alleviating Hunger in our own backyard. We often get questions like this:

• Are there really people in this region who need food help?
• Who actually gets the food we collect?

Some local residents are shocked to learn about the food challenges faced by many people in our region. Those of us who live typical suburban lives may have little or no exposure to those working poor, elderly, and children who make up the vast majority of food support recipients. We may not realize that 17% of people in our region live below the poverty line or that 29% of those served by food agencies are employed.

In 2005 alone, Golden Harvest Food Bank distributed over 9,600,000 pounds of food in a 25 county area of Georgia and South Carolina. Food is distributed to needy individuals and families through food pantries, elderly homebound programs, after school programs, and many more direct service agencies, providing food to an average of 1 in every 10 CSRA residents (over 76,000 people). The proceeds of It’s Spooky To Be Hungry allowed for the distribution of over 248,000 meals to area needy.

To read more about Hunger in our region, visit the Golden Harvest Food Bank website.


A GLANCE AT HUNGER IN AMERICA

The need is great! According to America’s Second Harvest (A2H), in 2004, 38.2 million people lived in food-insecure households, including 13.9 million children, and the numbers continue to rise. Over 30-40% of those assisted by food programs have to regularly choose between buying food or paying utilities, housing or medical/drug expenses. In any given week, approximately 4.5 million different people receive emergency food assistance from the A2H system. With these challenges comes the need for active volunteers to work in and administer food programs. Approximately 82% of Pantry, 58% of Kitchen, and 17% of Shelter Programs rely almost solely on volunteers to provide their services.

To read more about Hunger in America, visit the America’s Second Harvest website.