Hunger Facts

Spring cleaning can finally begin now that the winter has released its firm grip on the suburbs. As we start emptying our cabinets and throwing away unwanted items, the National Association of Letter Carriers’ annual Stamp Out Hunger food collection is a reminder that we live among neighbors who cannot afford nutritious foods for their… Read more »

November is here, which unfortunately means drastic cuts to food stamp benefits. According to USA Today, “a family of four that gets $668 per month in benefits will find that amount cut by $36…Vulnerable populations [such as the elderly and children] will be hardest hit by the cuts.” How will this affect individuals in our… Read more »

Thanks to our community partners, Loaves & Fishes is able to feed our neighbors daily through our Community Food & Nutrition Program. On October 16th, we join together, as part of an international initiative, to strengthen our efforts to eradicate hunger. According to Lester R. Brown, President of the Earth Policy Institute and contributor for… Read more »

We are all guilty of throwing away food; however, you may not be aware of the national and global extent of this problem. As Megan Bedard, Food Contributor for TakePart, states, “There are 870 million people in the world today who are undernourished, according to the World Food Programme…Globally, we’re wasting four billion tons of… Read more »

Could you take the SNAP challenge? Loaves & Fishes supplements SNAP (food stamps) with all of the food we provide our client families. from the Chronicle of Philanthropy: “The number of Americans who are too financially strapped to pay for food has grown to an unconscionable number, but still the problem gets little attention in… Read more »

from The Far Edge of Promise on December 27, 2012: As the U.S. federal government approaches the January 1 “fiscal cliff” deadline, there continues to be discussion around closing tax “loopholes” in an effort to increase tax receipts.  As has been discussed previously, the charitable gift deduction has gotten swept up into this conversation.  It would… Read more »

from Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce December 7, 2012 By: Susan Frick Carlman This might sound like a broken record, but the Loaves & Fishes Community Services has broken its own grim record. Again. During November, the Naperville hunger relief agency fed 1,972 families in need, some of whom turned to the pantry more than… Read more »

from the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA): This time of year we hear a lot of rhetoric and debate about taxes from politicians and pundits. One topic missing from this debate, though, is a discussion of the tax credit programs that greatly benefit low-income families, mainly the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the… Read more »

During our last fiscal year (July 1, 2011- June 30, 2012), Loaves & Fishes Community Pantry helped nearly 1,500 single mothers of 3,500 children. From NPR, by Pam Fessler: Once a thriving railroad hub and factory town in southeast Pennsylvania, Reading has a poverty rate of 41.3 percent and is labeled America’s poorest city with a population of 65,000 or more. “Single mothers have an especially hard time getting out of poverty. Households headed by single mothers are four times as likely to be poor as are families headed by married couples. Still, many of these women are trying to get ahead. Some know instinctively what the studies show: Children who grow up in poor families are far more likely to become poor adults. These mothers often rely on a network of support — not just from food stamps, housing subsidies, welfare, or other government programs people usually think of. They also depend on charities, churches, family, friends, personal drive, ambition and even luck to stay afloat.” Read full article here .

Here in the United States, growing numbers of people can’t afford that most basic of necessities: food. More Americans said they struggled to buy food in 2011 than in any year since the financial crisis, according to a recent report from the Food Research and Action Center, a nonprofit research group. About 18.6 percent of people — almost one out of every five — told Gallup pollsters that they couldn’t always afford to feed everyone in their family in 2011. One might assume that number got smaller wrapped up with the national unemployment rate falling for several consecutive months. In actuality, the reverse proved true: the number of people who said they couldn’t afford food just kept rising and rising. The findings from FRAC highlight what many people already know: The economic recovery, in theory now more than two years old, has done little to keep millions of Americans out of poverty and deprivation. Incomes for many haven’t kept pace with the cost of living, and for a large swath of the country, things today are as bad as ever, or worse. Read .