'If you dont work you can't eat' - A Staggering number of Americans turn to food banks

From [HERE] In the land of plenty, a "staggering" number of Americans are turning to food banks to help feed themselves and their families, including a growing sector of the middle class seeking aid for the first time.

A report issued Thursday by Feeding America — a nationwide network of food banks and the largest hunger-relief charity in the United States — found that 16.6 percent of the country's population, or nearly 50 million Americans, can't afford enough food to meet their basic needs at least some of the time. That so-called "meal gap" would require $21.3 billion a year to close.

The report marked the first time researchers have revealed a county-by-county portrait of hunger in America and the first time anyone has put a dollar value to the need, the nonprofit said. Ethnicity, too, has a strong correlation with the problem. 

In Central Florida, where the jobless rate has remained stubbornly high, the picture was even grimmer. The number of residents in need ranged from 17.4 percent in Volusia County to 17 percent in Orange and 16.9 in Osceola. Only in Seminole County, where 15 percent of residents struggle to get enough to eat, was the average better than the nation as a whole.

And for Orange County alone, the cost of providing food to all those who need it was tallied at $77 million a year.

"I think it's hard to imagine, in a nation that grows much of the world's food, that people cannot always afford to feed themselves or their kids," said Vicki Escarra, Feeding America's president and CEO. "But the fact is that domestic hunger is a serious problem. It impairs children's ability to learn in school, it affects the productivity of our work force, and it threatens the prosperity of our nation."

Escarra said there has been a "staggering" increase of nearly 50 percent in the number of Americans fed by her charity's network of food banks — from 25 million in 2006 to 37 million in 2010 — in large part because of unemployment.

"We've always known that there's a gap between the supply of food and the people in need," said Dave Krepcho, president and CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida, which is a member of the Feeding America network. "But this is a staggering gap. It has never been calculated like this before in terms of dollars."

Second Harvest has witnessed historic increases in demand in recent years as the region's foreclosures and personal bankruptcies soared. Even now, amid early signs of recovery, Krepcho said many residents are seeking help for the first time.

Henry Bereks, a 36-year-old Oviedo artist, is one of them. Though a physical disability has kept him from working full time for years, he refused to apply for food stamps until he found himself going days without eating.

"It was emotionally stressful to apply," Bereks said. "You start to feel like you've failed. It took me two weeks after I had gotten information on where to go for help before I actually went."

And while he waits for his food-stamp application to be approved, he continues to eat at near-starvation levels. On Wednesday, his total intake was two boiled eggs, a piece of toast and a cup of coffee.

Escarra said recent unemployment often has a more profound effect on what the government calls "food insecurity" — referring to those who can't afford an adequate quantity or quality of food — than does poverty. Americans who have spent years at or below the federal poverty limit are more likely to know where to seek help and whether they qualify for benefits.

Ethnicity, too, has a strong correlation with the problem. The researchers found communities with the highest concentrations of Hispanic or African-American residents typically had the highest rates of food insecurity. In fact, some of the richest agricultural counties had residents with the greatest needs.

Ironically, too, there is often a correlation between food insecurity and the nation's obesity epidemic.

"People who have the least ability [to afford food] oftentimes are those who eat way too many [sugary or fat-laden] carbohydrates, because it's all they can get," said Howard G. Buffett, whose private foundation funded the research. "In the U.S. … children don't get the kind of micronutrients and proper protein they need. If you're eating a bag of potato chips because it's the cheapest thing you can get, that's not very healthy."

But Buffett, eldest son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett, also said the nation lacked only the political will to beat hunger at home.

"Whether we have to shame our politicians into it, whether we have to embarrass people to deal with it, or whether we have to ask a neighbor for help, we need to do it," the philanthropist said.