Facts on Hunger in D.C
One in eight District households is struggling against hunger, and while the nation's federal nutrition programs have a wide reach in Washington, D.C., too many adults and children continue to slip through the nutrition safety net.
Food insecurity occurs whenever the availability of nutritionally adequate and safe food, or the ability to acquire such food, is limited or uncertain.
Very low food security occurs when one or more people in the household were hungry over the course of the year because they couldn't afford enough food.
Hunger is the serious situation where one or more family members suffer the uneasy or painful sensation caused by a recurrent or involuntary lack of food. Over time, hunger may result in malnutrition.
The ability to obtain enough food for an active, healthy life is the most basic of human needs. Without access to adequate healthy food, people are likely to be hungry, undernourished, and in poor health, with high rates of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and other nutrition-fueled health problems.
Washington, D.C.
Facts on Hunger - The District ranks 18th out of 51 states in terms of the number of households facing food insecurity.
According to USDA's report: Household Food Security in the United States, 2008
- More than 12 percent of all households in the District of Columbia were food insecure in 2006-2008. That's an increase from 2003 - 2005, when 11.4 percent of all households were considered to be food insecure.
- Among the 12.4 percent of District of Columbia households struggling with hunger, 4.2 percent were considered to have "very low food security."
According to FRAC's Report: Food Hardship: A Closer Look at Hunger (pdf):
- Over 19 percent of respondents in D.C. experienced food hardship (reported not having enough money in the past twelve months to buy food for themselves or their family) in 2008-2009.
- Even more shocking, among households with children the food hardship rate is 40.6 percent.
Facts on Food Access - Access to affordable healthy food is a challenge for many District residents.
- Along with hunger, lack of access to healthy food contributes to obesity and poor health outcomes.
- Wards 7 and 8, which have the District's highest poverty rates, also have the city's highest obesity rates and are home to large "food deserts."
- Of the city's 43 full-service grocery stores, only two are located in Ward 4, four in Ward 7, and three in Ward 8. By contrast, Ward 3 - the highest-income Ward - has eleven full-service stores.
- Only two of the city's 26 farmers' markets is located east of the Anacostia River.
While thousands in the District benefit from federal food and nutrition programs, too many low-income households are not connected to these critical safety nets. For example:
- While D.C. has the fourth highest participation rate in SNAP/Food Stamps compared to states, only 43 percent of eligible working poor participate, ranking the District sixth worst among among states on that criteria. (Source: USDA/FNS Reaching Those in Need: State Food Stamp Participation in 2006, (pdf) November 2008)
While school breakfast participation has grown by 29 percent over the past 10 years, still only 49.5 percent of eligible low-income children participate in the School Breakfast Program in Washington, D.C. (Source: Food Research and Action Center, School Breakfast in America's Big Cities: School Year 2006-2007, (pdf) January 2009)
- About 92,000 - nearly one out of every six - D.C. residents live in poverty, including 25,500 children. That's one out of every five children. (Source, Food Research and Action Center, State of the States: 2008, (pdf) November 2008)
- More than 57,000 D.C. residents live in extreme poverty. For a family of four, that means they live on less than $28 a day for all their expenses - including food, rent, transportation, heat, and health care.
Nationally
- More than 49.1 million people lived in households struggling against hunger in 2008, compared to 36.2 million in 2007 and 33.2 million in 2000.
- The number of people in the worst-off category - the hungriest Americans - has more doubled since 2000, from 8.5 million to 17.3 million.
(Source: Food Research and Action Center, Hunger and Food Insecurity in the United States.)
