THE FACE OF HUNGER

"On the Pulse of the Morning"
Maya Angelou's Inauguration Day Poem

Lift up your faces, you have a piercing need
For this bright morning dawning for you.
History, despite its wrenching pain,
Cannot be unlived, but if faced
With courage, need not be lived again.

Lift up your eyes
Upon this day breaking for you
Give birth again
To the dream.

During these times of economic uncertainty, hunger and the threat of hunger is growing in Western North Carolina. America's Second Harvest estimates that 23.3 million Americans were receiving emergency food aid in 2001 just before the economic downturn and September 11th.

Finding ways of reducing food waste in our country and in WNC can help bring food to the tables of those in need. Gleaning, soliciting, storing and distributing surplus, donated food and related commodities to certified charitable 501 (C) (3) tax exempt agencies involved in feeding the needy is our main focus.

Hunger in North Carolina

According to the United States Government Census in 2000, there were 958,667 people in North Carolina living in poverty, 15.7% of them children; 564,477 people living in rural communties.

In Western North Carolina, 68,527 people seek food assistance during the year with 20,657 seeking assistance each week. This means many of the same people, out of necessity, are coming back.

What is your Hunger IQ?

  1. What percentage of the world's population is too poor to afford an adequate diet and other necessities?
    a) 7%  b) 13%  c) 18%  d) 23%
  2. How many of the world's children aged five and under die of malnutrition and related preventable diseases each day?
    a) 87  b) 3,500  c) 18,000 d) 35,000
  3. How many people in the US live below the poverty line (earn less than $14,343 for a family of four)?
    a) 17,000,000  b) 27,000,000 c) 37,000,000  d) 47,000,000
  4. What percentage of US children under age eighteen are poor?
    a) 10% b) 15% c) 20% d) 25%

    Answers: 1-d, 2-d, 3-c, 4-c

Giving Hunger a Face: What have we learned from Hunger in America 2001?
  • Hunger is prevalent, growing and silent.
  • Hunger affects the most vulnerable of our population: children and the elderly.
  • People are making hard choices--food or heat; food or the mortgage payment; food or prescription drugs; food or getting the car repaired.
  • Hunger is not discriminatory; it affects people of all walks of life, people who are going to work everyday, trying to feed their families.
     

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MANNA FOODBANK
627 Swannanoa River Road
Asheville, NC 28805-2445
Phone 828-299-3663
Fax 828-299-3664
Email mannafb@secondharvest.org

www.secondharvest.org

FRANKLIN BRANCH
509 Depot Street
Franklin, NC 28734
Phone 828-369-2550
Fax  828-369-7773

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