Working Poor

One of the most common misconceptions is the assumption that if someone is hungry, that means they do not have a job and are living on the streets. What most people don’t understand is that anyone can experience hunger. It is a silent epidemic that affects more than 49 million Americans.

According to the US Census Bureau, in 2008, 19 million people lived in working-poor families. In fact, 36 percent of client households served by the Feeding America network have one or more adults working.

-Female-headed households were more than twice as likely to be among the working poor than male-headed households in 2007.

-Married-couple families with children under 18 were almost 5 times as likely as families without children to be among the working poor in 2007.

-Thirty-nine percent of all adult clients served by Feeding America have completed high school or equivalent degree with no further education beyond high school.

-Thirty-four percent of all client households served by Feeding America have had to choose between paying for food and paying for medicine or medical care.

-In 2002, 1 in 4 low-income families with one full-time, full-year worker was food insecure and housing insecure.