Nearly 19 percent of Michigan residents reported a time in the past 12 months when they lacked enough money to buy food.
The statistic comes from a national Gallup survey of more than 530,000 Americans asked about food hardship experienced by themselves and their families. The Food Research and Action Center,a non-profit group working to eliminate hunger and under nutrition, analyzed the 2010 Food Hardship Report that was released in January.
Michigan’s food hardship level was close to the nation’s average.
Approximately 18 to 19 percent of respondents across the United States had trouble accessing enough food in 2009, according to the report. The rate was 18.5 percent for the last three months of the year.
“This data is as recent as it can be,” said Rachel Cooper, senior policy analyst at the Food Research and Action Center. “And the number one thing that stands out in this report is that food hardship is everywhere.”
The report ranks states, congressional districts and the 100 largest metropolitan statistical areas. Michigan was ranked 23rd in the country.
Southern states held 13 of the top 15 places with the greatest percentage of food hardship.
Mississippi ranked highest with 26.2 percent. Arkansas, Alabama and Tennessee followed consecutively.
Twenty states had hardship percentages greater than 20 percent. One in five respondents in these states reported not having enough food at some point in the last year.
Most of the Great Lake states fell below this level, with Indiana and Ohio ranking highest in the region with 20.7 percent and 20 percent respectively.
But the situation seems worse than the report indicates, according to the region’s food assistance agencies.
A growing problem
Michigan’s Center for Civil Justice’s food and nutrition hotline reported twice as many callers in 2009 than the previous year.
The toll-free number helps Michigan citizens learn about eligibility for food assistance programs, such as food stamps and the Women, Infants and Children Nutrition Program.
“We tell people, based on their situations, if they should qualify for assistance and explain how to apply,” said Terri Stangl, executive director of the Center for Civil Justice, a Michigan non-profit organization advocating for low-income residents. “Many of them tell us they never thought they would turn to this kind of help.”
The hotline receives between 3,000 and 5,000 calls a month.
“We know the demand for food assistance is at record highs,” she said.
Stangl’s experience shows a direct correlation between the region’s unemployment and food hardship. While there used to be one in 10 people calling because of a loss of income, it is now a reason for four out of 10 callers, she said.
“The economic situation is hitting people where they are having a shortage of food in their household,” Stangl said. “What will really help is when there is actually jobs for folks, but that is going to take a while to get back in place.”
Michigan’s unemployment rate was 14.6 percent in December, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Families and food hardship
Children increase a household’s food hardship, according to the report.
Families with children had an 8.6 percent greater food hardship average than those without children.
“We know people with children are taking the brunt of this problem,” Cooper said. “You are just simply stretched further with children and unless a government nutrition program can be accessed, it’s a real struggle for families to put food on the table.”
And families are seeking the help.
Between August 2008 and August 2009, more than seven million people nationwide joined the food stamp program, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program , according to January report by the Brookings Institute.
The 24 percent increase between 2008 and 2009 brought the total number of people relying on food stamps to more than 36.5 million, according to the non-profit public policy organization.
Half of the 36.5 million are children, the report said.
“It is still amazing to me to realize in a country with as much food and resources as we have that many people and that many children don’t know week to week if they are going to have adequate food,” Stengl said.
The amount a household receives in food stamps increases by $150 for each additional person, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Help from home
Officials in Kent County, Mich. have seen a 10 to 12 percent increase in use of local food pantries, according to the county’s Essential Needs Task Force, a group of organizations working to provide food, shelter, transportation and utility needs to citizens.
“The food pantry network has seen a significant increase for the past two years,” said Liz Gensler, food security network coordinator for the Essential Needs Taskforce. “The food pantries are traditionally looked at as a source of emergency food, but for some families, it is becoming supplemental food.”
A Feeding America survey in September showed 99 percent of regional food banks across the nation have seen an increase in people seeking help.
The Community Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Indiana reports that 21,100 different people in nine counties come to the bank each week.
That’s a 7,000-person increase from four years ago.
“It is sad….all these highly trained folks are out of work right now all these people who are saying they did the right thing, they put the six month living expenses in the bank just in case, they did everything the right way,” said Caroline Johnson, communications and advocacy manger with Community Harvest. “They are having to come to Community Harvest for the first time, even when they may have been donors in the first place.”
But the same reasons causing food hardship in individuals and families are also affecting the agencies created to help them.
“These food pantries are going to be dealing with the effects of the recession and unemployment well beyond the point that the nation says we are out of the recession and into recovery,” Gensler said.
The September Feeding America survey also found more than half of the nation’s food banks had to turn people away last year.
The number of organizations that donate food to the banks has also decreased, according to the Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoney Valley in Youngstown, Ohio.
And at the same time, the 253 churches, food pantries and other agencies that the Youngstown Second Harvest serves have seen a 32 percent increase in customers.
“I think we always have to remain optimistic about our efforts to get people food that need it,” said Rebecca Martinez, director of resource development at Youngstown’s Second Harvest. “But hunger is about poverty and that means jobs, and I honestly don’t see much on the horizon in that regard locally.”
The Food Hardship Report ranks the Youngstown area third for food hardship among the 100 largest metropolitan areas of the country. Memphis, Tenn. and Bakersfield, Calif. rank first and second.
Honolulu, Hawaii had the smallest percentage.
“I think people think of this as someone else’s problem, a poor people problem,” Cooper said. “But there is not one place where people are not having problems accessing enough food.”
Gensler was surprised the local information in the 2010 Food Hardship report wasn’t worse.
“Across the board, all of Michigan pretty much looks dismal,” she said. “We are looking forward to things getting better and generally, people feel that they have to get better at some point…but no one is really sure when that is going to happen.”