Child Hunger in Michigan

In southeast Michigan, more than 300,000 children receive free or reduced-price meals in school.

According to Kids Count in Michigan 2010:

• One in five children in Michigan live in poverty.
• The number of children eligible for reduced-price school lunch jumped 26 percent from 2006 to 2009. To be eligible, kids must live at 185 percent of poverty, or about $40,000 a year for a family of four.
• More than 701,000 Michigan children – 27.6 percent – live in households enrolled in the Food Assistance Program (food stamps).

The following are links to just a few of the many documents that describe the immediate and long-term effects of hunger on children.

Hunger In Our Schools:
Share Our Strength’s Teachers Report

The second annual survey among K-8 public school teachers nationwide.
PDF of report: http://www.strength.org/school_breakfast/pdfs/report_full.pdf
Additional resources: http://www.strength.org/teachers/

Child Food Insecurity in the United States: 2006-2008

A 2010 Feeding America report on the state of child food insecurity in our nation, based on analysis of USDA food security data by Boston Medical Center researcher, John Cook, Ph.D.
http://feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/hunger-studies/~/media/Files...

Child Food Insecurity:
The Economic Impact on our Nation

A report on research on the impact of food insecurity and hunger on child health, growth and development commissioned by Feeding America and The ConAgra Foods Foundation
Authors: John Cook, PhD, Project Director and Karen Jeng, AB, Research and Policy Fellow
PDF available at http://feedingamerica.org/SiteFiles/child-economy-study.pdf

The ConAgra Foods Foundation website lists other resources on child hunger, health and nutrition:
http://www.conagrafoodsfoundation.org/conagra-foods-foundation-news/reso...

Other partners in our work:

Feeding America

Feeding America is the nation's largest charitable hunger-relief organization consisting of a network of more than 200 Member food banks and food-rescue organizations serving all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.  Feeding America secures and distributes nearly 2 billion pounds of donated food and grocery products annually. Feeding America supports approximately 50,000 local charitable agencies operating more than 94,000 programs including food pantries, soup kitchens, emergency shelters, after-school programs, Kids Cafes and BackPack Programs.

To learn more about Feeding America, go to www.feedingamerica.org.

Food Bank Council of Michigan

The Food Bank Council of Michigan (FBCM) is a statewide organization that gathers food and funds to help stock Michigan's food banks. FBCM helps provide food banks with millions of pounds of surplus vegetables, fruits, and other grocery items, that for one reason or another cannot be sold.

To learn more about the Food Bank Council of Michigan, go to www.fbcmich.org.