For Immediate Release: 9/9/15
Contact: Celia Cole, 512.590.0659 or ccole@feedingtexas.org
Austin, TX – One in six Texas households struggled to avoid hunger in 2012-2014 despite a fully-recovered economy, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture report released today. 17.2% percent of Texas households were found to have experienced hunger or engaged in coping mechanisms to avoid it, significantly higher than the national rate of 14.3%.
In raw numbers, 1.7 million Texas households were food insecure, more than any other state except California. The state’s food insecurity rate was once again statistically unchanged from the prior three-year period.
“We are faced with a chronic hunger problem in the U.S.,” said Celia Cole, CEO of Feeding Texas. “Year after year, these numbers remain far too high. To solve this problem we need to create more opportunities for struggling families to earn a living wage, and increase our investment in programs designed to supplement lower earnings.”
According to the report, 87% of food insecure Americans lived in a household earning less than 185% of the federal poverty line, the equivalent of $37,000 for a family of three and the cut-off for many federal programs.
“We have proven programs to supplement the needs of families who earn too little to make ends meet,” said Cole. “We must reinvest in these programs, and take a hard look at why our economy is not producing enough jobs that allow workers to stop worrying about their next meal.”
The USDA report is available here. Feeding Texas leads a unified effort for a hunger-free Texas.