Feeding Florida | Florida's Food Bank Network

Hunger & Food Access

Why are people hungry?

One "bad month" can be enough to plunge a household into missing meals. Lay-offs at work, unexpected car maintenance or an accident on the job can suddenly force a family to choose between buying food and paying bills. Working families across America face countless situations that can result in hunger.

That’s why many working families, including thousands of households who don’t qualify for federal nutrition assistance, depend on the Feeding America network of food banks to help make ends meet during difficult times. The Feeding America network serves nearly every community in the United States, helping more than 46 million people — including 12 million children and 7 million seniors.

See Real Stories of Hunger

What are the effects of hunger?

Lack of access to healthy food can have a wide impact, depending on each individual’s circumstances. Some of the most common, yet complex, effects of hunger include:

  • damage to a child’s ability to learn and grow

More on Nutrition

How can we end hunger?

Part of what makes hunger so difficult to solve it is a symtom of a larger issue — poverty and lack of resources. Not having adequate access to healthy food simply adds more stress to a household that may already be wrestling with instability and unpredictability.

Feeding America is leading the fight to end hunger in America. In addition to feeding people who face hunger, we work to raise awareness about the issue, advocate for policies to protect people in need and conduct in-depth research to find solutions to hunger.

See Our Solutions

Compromises and coping strategies

The median annual income for households served by the Feeding America network is $9,175. In our 2017 Hunger in America study, the people we serve told us about the choices they face due to limited resources.

  • 73% of food-assisted households had to choose between food and their home utilities.
  • 69% of food bank assisted households had to choose between food and transportation.
  • 2.8 Million Floridians are lack access to healthy food, 800,000 are children.

Who goes hungry?
