Advocacy
Hunger in Los Angeles
Astonishingly, even in the wealthy first world city of Los Angeles, there is still a significant portion of the population that cannot afford to meet their most basic needs. According to the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, approximately 15% of all country households are food insecure, meaning that they have limited or uncertain access to nutritious food, and nearly 6% of households experience actual hunger.
To define these terms, food insecurity means limited or uncertain access to nutritionally adequate and safe foods or limited uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways. Food insecurity with hunger is the uneasy or painful sensation caused by an involuntary lack of food.
A recent report from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research entitled Policy Brief concluded that hunger in Los Angeles County affects over 200,000 low-income adults (not including children) and another 560,000 are at –risk of being hungry. They are termed food insecure. Almost one in three low-income adults in Los Angeles County (29.8%) frequently cannot afford to put food on the table.
Los Angeles County, the state’s most populous county, is home to about one-third of California’s low-income adults, or 2.6 million, with almost 40% living below 200% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL), including nearly 20% living below 100% FLP. A family of four with income below 200% FPL earns less than $36,200 per year.
Here are some illuminating statistics about our area. The total Los Angeles County Population is about 9.5million persons and the child population (0-17 years) is about 2.7 million. We have a disproportionate number of persons living below the Federal Poverty Level (FPL):
- United States: 11.3%
- California: 16.0%
- Los Angeles County: 20.5%
As far as children in poverty:
- United States: 16.2%
- California: 24.6%
- Los Angeles County: 30.5%
A report published by the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, Hunger in Los Angeles County 2001, stated that people who seek food assistance are among the most vulnerable in our community – children and senior citizens. Their report concluded that taking into account all individuals in recipient households:
- 24.9% are children under 18 years old.
- 54.8% are adults age 18 to 64.
- 20.3% are seniors age 65 and older.
Furthermore,
- 35.6% of recipient households have at least one member younger than 18.
- Among recipient households with children younger than 18, 34.5% are single-parent households.
- 10.1% of households have one or more children age 0-5.
- 42.4% of households have at least one member age 65 or older.
- This means that one in seven residents in Los Angeles County is food insecure and one in 17 residents experiences hunger at some time.
- Recent studies show increasing numbers of working poor struggling with food insecurity and hunger. Many recipient households have at least one working member. However, recipient households have very low incomes. 71.6% of all households have incomes under the federal poverty level.
