Working families across the country, the state and Lower Middlesex County struggle because they earn too much for government assistance, but not enough to provide for themselves. When a household budget is pared down to the bone - barely enough to keep a roof overhead, the lights on, and the children warm at night - the family food budget is often the only area left to squeeze.
While there is no shortage of hunger statistics, it is sometimes difficult to see the human side. It may be that the face of hunger is harder to look at than the numbers, and may be too much like our own. To see the face of hunger is simple: visit your child’s school, go to work, or spend time at the senior center. Hunger affects everyone whether experienced personally or because of its effect on children, healthcare and society.
Millions of people in the United States need assistance at some point due to a range of issues including job loss or reduction, medical issues, or living on a fixed income. Many in the current economy suddenly find themselves a guest of a food pantry or meal site they used to support.
In an effort to more clearly describe the problem the USDA uses the term “food insecurity.” “Hunger” describes that rumbling in the belly which can be quieted with a meal. Not always having access to that meal is “food insecurity.” A recent USDA study measured food security on a scale from “food secure” to “very low food security” through a survey of 50,000 families. The largest group found to live with very low food security is those with incomes below the poverty threshold. The second largest group is households with children headed by single women.
The government defines poverty and decides who is eligible for benefits using a formula based on an outdated pie chart of household expenses. According to the formula’s developer, Mollie Orshansky who died in 2006 at 91, the 1960’s formula was not meant to decide who receives social service benefits, but was a research tool. Her formula takes the cost of a bare-bones food plan and multiplies it by three to figure out how much income a family needs to survive. The figures have been adjusted for inflation yearly. In the 1960’s when food did take up about a third of household funds, it may have been a fair measure. Families today spend only about one seventh of their income for food, while other slices of the budget “pie” such as transportation, housing and utilities have gotten larger.
The government considers a family of four earning less than $22,350 per year poor. Connecticut and other states decide eligibility for benefits such as SNAP (formerly food stamps) using percentages of the same formula. Connecticut families earning below 185% of the poverty threshold are eligible for SNAP, $41,347 in the example above.
Families who fall through the hole in the social safety net rely on private organizations such as Shoreline Soup Kitchens and Pantries to help feed their families. The gap between assistance-eligible and self-sufficient continues to widen, leaving more people in need of private food assistance.
(Published in the Shoreline Soup Kitchens and Pantries Spring 2011 newsletter)