Fact Sheet

The America’s Second Harvest Network

America's Second Harvest — The Nation’s Food Bank Network provides emergency food assistance to more than 25 million Americans—including nearly 9 million children (36.4 percent) and 3 million seniors (10 percent)—annually.
Since 2001, the number of clients the America's Second Harvest Network serves annually has increased by 8 percent.
Each week, approximately 4.5 million people receive emergency food assistance from an agency in the America's Second Harvest Network.

Clients

70 percent of client households served are food insecure, meaning they do not know where they will find their next meal. 33 percent of these households are experiencing hunger, meaning they are completely without a source of food.
Of the more than 25 million people the America's Second Harvest Network serves:
- 39 percent are Non-Hispanic White; 38 percent are Non-Hispanic Black; and 17 percent are Latino or Hispanic.
- 66 percent are living below the federal poverty line.
- 36 percent have at least one adult in the household working.
- 12 percent are homeless.
More than 40 percent of the clients served report having to choose between paying for utilities or heating fuel and food; 35 percent said they had to choose between paying for rent or a mortgage and food; nearly 32 percent report having to choose between paying for medical bills and food.
More than 90 percent of clients report that they are satisfied with the quality and quantity of food they receive.

Food Distribution and Agency Capacity

An America's Second Harvest Network Member food bank or food-rescue organization provides 74 percent of the food distributed by food pantries, 49 percent of the food distributed by soup kitchens and 42 percent of the food distributed by emergency shelters in the United States.
Nearly 74 percent of pantries, 65 percent of soup kitchens, and 43 percent of emergency shelters are run by faith-based agencies affiliated with churches, mosques, synagogues and other religious organizations.
65 percent of pantries, 61 percent of soup kitchens, and 52 percent of shelters report an increase since 2001 in the number of clients who come to their emergency food program sites.
As many as 90 percent of food pantries, 86 percent of soup kitchens and 71 percent of shelters in the America's Second Harvest Network use volunteers.
More than 66 percent of food pantries and 40 percent of soup kitchens rely entirely on volunteers and have no paid staff.

Role of Federal Government

Nearly 70 percent of food pantries, 49 percent of soup kitchens and 46 percent of emergency shelters receive food from government commodity programs.
35 percent of the client households are receiving Food Stamp Program benefits.
Among the households with school-age children, 62 percent participate in the federal school lunch program and 51 percent participate in the school breakfast program.

Methodology

Hunger in America 2006 is a scientific study conducted through 52,000 face-to-face interviews with people seeking emergency food assistance from one of the nearly 50,000 agencies that an America's Second Harvest Network Member food bank or food-rescue organization serves.
About 32,000 agencies also participated in Hunger in America 2006 by completing an agency survey.