What a year it’s been in the fight against hunger as more Americans scrambled to stretch their budgets. Here at Feeding America, the Hunger in America 2010 study showed us that Americans were indeed reeling from the state of the nation, with 37 million individuals turning annually to our network of more than 200 food banks. Astonishingly, this is a 46 percent increase from numbers reported in the 2006 report. As a network entrusted with serving our community through the help of our benevolent partners and donors, we are reaching more people now than we ever have in over 30 years of food banking. But with 50 million individuals struggling with hunger, we knew this was our year to step up our efforts.
As the year ends, news outlets have been abuzz about new data released by Pew Research that found the oil spill, the economy, health care reform and extending jobless benefits all dominated 2010’s news. People followed the media with some trepidation as many weren’t gaining jobs as fast as they had hoped and thousands lost jobs when, five years after Hurricane Katrina, citizens along the southern coast were struck with another disaster. No matter how much or how little we had, we wanted to know who would be fiscally responsible for our physical health and our budgets. Many of these issues affected our work here at Feeding America.
It’s been great to do the work that we do here, and we weren’t left to endure the fight alone. Join us as we look back at the year of domestic hunger-relief.
And as we say goodbye to 2010, we here at Feeding America want to thank you for all of your support.
