35.5 million: Number of Americans who went hungry in 2006.
2.5 million: Increase over 2005 in the number of Americans who went hungry.
1 in 10: Number of American households now considered “food-insecure.”
60: Percentage of USDA’s spending that goes to food stamps and other public nutrition programs.
1 in 5: Number of Americans affected by those programs.
66,200: Annual number of Vermonters who receive emergency food assistance.
8.8: Percentage of Vermont households considered food-insecure from 1996 to 1998.
9.5: Percentage of Vermont households considered food-insecure from 2003 to 2005.
15: Vermont’s food-insecurity rating among the ?50 states. The higher the number, the more “food-insecure.”
2: Percentage of Vermont households considered to have “very low food security” from 2000 to 2002.
4.3: Percentage of Vermont households considered to have “very low food security” from 2004 to 2006.
1 in 3: Number of Vermont households seeking emergency food assistance that include at least one employed adult.
?$48 million: Total amount of food stamps issued in Vermont in 2006.
?38: Percentage of Vermont Foodbank clients who must choose between paying for food and paying for utilities or heating fuel.
?33: Percentage of Vermont Foodbank clients who must choose between paying for food and paying their rent or mortgage.
28: Percentage of Vermont Foodbank clients who must choose between paying for food and paying for medicine or medical care.
?Sources: USDA, Vermont Foodbank, America’s Second Harvest
This article appears in Nov 21-27, 2007.
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