Hunger on the Rise
People are considered food insecure and at risk of hunger in the United States when they do not always know where their next meal will come from, or have to cut back on the types and amount of food they eat because they do not have enough money. In 2003, more than 36 million people were at risk of hunger.
Patricia is one face of hunger in the United States. A 51-year-old single woman in Anaheim, CA, Patricia works taking care of the elderly. She earns $200 a week and pays $700 a month in rent. Patricia’s annual income is above the poverty line for a single person and she does not qualify for food stamps. She finds it hard to scrounge up the money to feed herself. She knows that many families with children are also struggling.
“But there are a lot of single people too that are just getting by,” Patricia says.
In our country, hard working people should not be forced to choose between paying rent and buying food. The United States is the only industrialized country in the world that puts up with widespread hunger. During the 1960s and early 1970s, under both Democratic and Republican administrations, our country undertook initiatives and put in place programs that substantially reduced the number of people who struggle to feed their families in our nation. However, for the last 20 years, under both Democratic and Republican administrations, the United States has been spinning its wheels in the fight against hunger. For three decades the percentage of hungry people in our country remained largely unchanged. In recent years, the number of people at risk of hunger has increased steadily, from 31 million to more than 36 million, and a greater percentage of Americans are at risk.
In late 2003, national organizations working to end hunger in the United States united to invigorate a renewed commitment to the fight. The National Anti-Hunger Organizations (NAHO) issued The Millennium Declaration to End Hunger in America 
, calling upon our nation’s leaders and all people to join together to end hunger in this country. NAHO followed up with A Blueprint to End Hunger , which sets forth a targeted strategy to cut food insecurity in half by 2010 and to end hunger in the United States by 2015.
Bread for the World is pursuing some important goals of the Blueprint through our 2005 Offering of Letters, Make Hunger History. Working with America’s Second Harvest: The Nation’s Food Bank Network, MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger, the End Hunger Network, and others, the Offering of Letters will mobilize leadership at the national, local and grassroots levels to fight U.S. hunger. The campaign and accompanying legislation will call on Congress and the president to recommit to cutting U.S. food insecurity in half by 2010 and commit to ending hunger by 2015. The legislation will also strengthen grassroots anti-hunger groups across the nation, empowering organizations and individuals who are on the frontlines of this battle. It will also ensure that research will be able to show us how best to improve our national programs to effectively serve people in need.
Churches, charities, businesses, state and local governments, our nation’s leaders, and hungry people themselves all have roles to play in ending hunger. But churches and charities cannot do it all. We need to get our government to do its part.
