“Keeping Food on the Table” – Volume One, Spring 2009

On Monday, March 30th, 2009, Hunger Solutions Minnesota released the premier issue of a newly developed quarterly report. “Keeping Food on the Table” is a periodic review that tracks the state of hunger in Minnesota.

The report looks at food shelf usage, Food Support, federal commodities, suburban hunger and other factors contributing to the rising issue of hunger in Minnesota. This first issue reviews the year 2008.

Findings of the report include:

• The year 2008 was the first time we’ve seen over 2 million visits to food shelves in Minnesota.
• The year also saw hunger escalate significantly in the Twin City suburbs.
• For the first time since 2000, more than 300,000 Minnesotans are using food stamps.
• Food shelves and other emergency food programs are under pressure to meet the unusual demand for food assistance from middle class families suffering from unemployment, underemployment, home foreclosure, food cost inflation and other financial strains.

Colleen Moriarty, Executive Director of Hunger Solutions Minnesota, reports, “The number of hungry people in the state is astounding. We have seen a 15% increase statewide in visits to food shelves in Minnesota from 2007. Even more troubling is the 19% increase in food shelf visits by senior citizens.”

Click here to read the first volume of “Keeping Food on the Table” in its entirety.