About Hunger
When most people think about hunger, they think of a starving child in a third-world country. Or perhaps they think of a long line of homeless people waiting outside an inner-city soup kitchen.
The truth is that hunger in United States is a huge problem. In a country known for its wealth and prosperity, 50 million Americans struggle to find their next meal.
The face of hunger has changed. No longer is it just the homeless man on the street reaching out for a helping hand, but millions of everyday people struggling to feed their families. No one is a stranger to the economic hardships of today.
They are all around us! Hunger is not limited to a single demographic or geographic region of the country. It is not a problem only affecting the homeless or the poorest of the poor. Hunger is everywhere, and the numbers are staggering.
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1.5 million New Yorkers rely on soup kitchens and food pantries
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58,000 different people in San Antonio receive emergency food assistance each week
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1 in 2 children living in Washington DC go to bed hungry every night. This is our nation’s capital, mind you!
The face of hunger has changed. As the economy continues to put a strain on our wallets, people are being forced to make extremely difficult decisions.
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It is your father-in-law who just got laid off and now struggles to pay his mortgage and put food on the table
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It is your elderly neighbor who now must choose between buying groceries and heating her home
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It is your child’s classmate who goes to school each day without lunch and is too embarrassed to ask for help
Most people tend to think about hunger during the holiday season. We see a ton of food drives occur right around Thanksgiving. But what happens during the rest of the year? Food insecurity is a year-round issue facing many families and individuals across the country.
The summer months are actually the most difficult time for our nation’s food banks. Children are out of school, and do not have access to the free or reduced price meals that many receive in schools. In fact, 18 million children will face a greater risk of hunger during the summer due to a lack of development and funding for summer meal programs.
More For Hunger works to rescue food from people’s homes that would otherwise be thrown away and deliver it to local food banks. The summer is the busiest season for the moving industry, giving Move For Hunger a great opportunity to fill the shelves of our communities’ food banks.
