NYC Hunger Experience

NYC Hunger Experience 2011: Sacrifice and Support
 In 2011, more than one in three New York City residents (35 percent), or 2.9 million people, experienced difficulty affording needed food. Although the percentage of New York City residents having difficulty affording food has dropped since the height of the recession in 2008, when it stood at 48 percent, it has increased by 40 percent since the start of the poll in 2003 (25 percent), indicating an entrenched hunger and food poverty problem. The decline in the percentage of residents reporting difficulty affording food can be attributed, in part, to cutbacks to the quantity and quality of food being consumed and increased participation in the food stamp program (also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP).

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From the Front Lines to the Bread Lines
 The Food Bank's latest report, From the Front Lines to the Bread Lines: Food Poverty Among Veterans, shows that 25 percent of all households with a military veteran in New York City are experiencing difficulty affording food. This special report reveals that veterans’ households are making a range of sacrifices in order to make ends meet: more than 1 in 10 are unable to buy food because of rent or utilities; many more are reducing the quantity and quality of food they are purchasing. Further, the data show more than one third of veteran households would not be able to afford food for their families within three months of losing their household income.

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NYC Hunger Experience 2010
NYC Hunger Experience 2010: Less Food on the Table finds that three million New York City residents – or 37 percent – experienced difficulty affording food in 2010, a slight decrease from 2009. But the report shows New Yorkers are only maintaining their ability to afford food by making sacrifices such as reducing food intake, choosing between food and other basic necessities, and using savings. The 2010 edition of the NYC Hunger Experience report investigates what a jobless recovery has meant for low-income New Yorkers and the lengths to which families are going to keep food on the table.

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NYC Hunger Experience 2009
NYC Hunger Experience 2009: A Year in Recession, reveals that 40 percent of New Yorkers, 3.3 million people, are having difficulty affording food, a 60 percent increase since 2003. At the same time, 93 percent of food pantries and soup kitchens in the city have seen an increase in first-time visitors over the past year. With many of the measures that have supplied increased food assistance over the past year, such as the economic stimulus, set to expire, sustainable solutions are needed to address the underlying causes of the entrenched food poverty problem.

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NYC Hunger Experience 2008 Update
NYC Hunger Experience 2008 Update: Food Poverty Soars as Recession Hits Home shows that the number of city residents experiencing difficulty affording needed food doubled from approximately 2 million to approximately 4 million from 2003 to 2008, representing almost half of all city residents (48 percent). The number having difficulty increased by almost 1 million (26 percent) in 2008 alone, the highest increase in the history of the poll until then. Findings also show that 3.5 million city residents were concerned about needing food assistance (food from soup kitchens, food pantries and/or food stamps) during the upcoming year, including 2.1 million (59 percent) who had never accessed food assistance in the past.

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NYC Hunger Experience 2008
According to NYC Hunger Experience 2008, the fifth of a series of reports tracking difficulty affording needed food among New Yorkers, the number of New York City residents experiencing difficulty affording food increased 55 percent since 2003 — to 3.1 million in 2007.

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NYC Hunger Experience 2006
According to NYC Hunger Experience 2006, since 2003 (the earliest year data is available) the number of city residents who experienced difficulty affording needed food in the previous year increased steadily from approximately two million to almost three million in 2006.

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