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Appendix B: Details of Calculation of the Number of People Served in Subgroups of A2H Clients

Much of the body of this report examines the percentage distribution of A2H clients by various characteristics and categories.  In certain instances, however, absolute numbers of clients are also reported. 1   For easy reference, all absolute number tables are numbered with an added suffix “N” (for example, Table 5.3.2N ).

We calculated estimates of absolute numbers of clients by applying percentage distributions to a table containing counts of total households and persons, disaggregated by A2H provider type and by whether the people are adults or children.  This appendix provides details of how this underlying table, shown as Table B.1, was derived.

The first row for pantry clients, 8.6 million, is the estimated total number of A2H adult clients at program sites, based on the midpoint of estimates presented in Chapter 4 of this report.  Since the client base of pantries includes all members of households, this figure itself is of limited use, except that the number of households served by A2H affiliated pantries is equal to this number.  This is because the sampling frame for pantry clients was constructed to use the household rather than the individual as the unit by interviewing only one adult from each sampled household.  This explains why the first row of the pantry adult column is equal to the third row of the pantry total column.  Using this total number of households and percentage information contained in this report, we calculated the number of households with specific characteristics, such as households with at least one child younger than age 18 or households currently receiving food stamps.

The second row of the pantry total column, 23.2 million, is a midpoint of the estimated total number of persons served by A2H programs.  The details of its derivation are discussed in Chapter 4 and Appendix A of this report.  Using the age distribution presented in Table 5.3.2 among pantry clients, we broke down the total number into the number of adults (66%) and that of children (34%).

TABLE B.1
ESTIMATED NUMBER OF DIFFERENT PEOPLE AND HOUSEHOLDS SERVED IN A GIVEN YEAR

	Adults	Children	Total
Pantry Clients
Number of Clients at Program Sites	8,600,000	n.a.	8,600,000
Number of All Members of Client Households	15,300,000	7,900,000	23,200,000
Number of Client Households	n.a.	n.a.	8,600,000
Kitchen Clients
Number of Clients at Program Sites	1,000,000	300,000	1,300,000
Number of All Members of Client Households	1,500,000	400,000	1,900,000
Number of Client Households	n.a.	n.a.	1,000,000
Shelter Clients
Number of Clients at Program Sites	670,000	130,000	800,000
Number of All Members of Client Households	820,000	120,000	940,000
Number of Client Households	n.a.	n.a.	670,000

Note:   
Number of pantry programs:              29,647
Number of kitchen programs:               5,601
Number of shelter programs:                4,143

n.a. = not applicable.

As for kitchens and shelters, the client base was defined to be the persons who were present at program sites.  The midpoint of the estimated total number of clients is 1.3 million for the kitchens, and 0.8 million for the shelters.  These estimates also include children who come to kitchens and shelters accompanied by adults.  As discussed in Chapter 4, we estimate that there are, on average, 3 children per 10 adults at kitchen programs and 2 children per 10 adults at shelter programs.  The breakdowns of adults and children in the first row for the kitchens and shelters were based on those estimates.
We obtained the totals in the second row for the kitchen and the shelter columns by multiplying the total in the first row by the average household sizes (1.9 for kitchen clients and 1.4 for shelter clients).  Then, the age distribution in Table 5.3.2 was used to break the total into adults and children.  For the third row, we used the number of adults at the program sites to approximate the number of client households both for the kitchens and for the shelters. 2

1 Numbers presented in Table B.1 and tables with a suffix “N” are based on the midpoint of estimated ranges of numbers of different clients or households served in any given year.  Readers should consider standard errors and confidence intervals associated with these estimates, which are presented in Appendix A .

2 It is an approximation because more than one adult from the same household could have been interviewed at kitchen and shelter sites.