Rate this Article
Statistics on poverty &
food wastage in America
By Samana Siddiqi
Poverty in America? One of the richest countries
in the world?
Yes, poverty is a reality in America, just
as it is for millions of other human beings on the planet. According to
the US Census Bureau, 35.9 million people live below the poverty line in America,
including 12.9 million children.
This is despite abundance of food resources.
Almost 100 billion pounds of food is wasted in America each year. 700
million hungry human beings in different parts of the world would have
gladly accepted this food.
Here are some statistics on the nature of poverty
and the waste of food and money in America.
-In 2004, requests for emergency food assistance
increased by an average of 14 percent during the year, according to a
27-city study by the United States Conference of Mayors.
-Also in this study, it was noted that on
average, 20 percent of requests for emergency food assistance have gone
unmet in 2004.
-According to the Bread for the World Institute
3.5 percent of U.S. households experience hunger. Some people in these
households frequently skip meals or eat too little, sometimes going without
food for a whole day. 9.6 million people, including 3 million children,
live in these homes.
-America's Second Harvest (http://www.secondharvest.org/),
the nation's largest network of food banks, reports that 23.3 million
people turned to the agencies they serve in 2001, an increase of over
2 million since 1997. Forty percent were from working families.
33 million Americans continue to live in households
that did not have an adequate supply of food. Nearly one-third of these
households contain adults or children who went hungry at some point in
2000.
U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, March 2002, "Household
Food Security in the United States, 2000"
Wasted food in America
-According to America’s Second Harvest,
over 41 billion pounds of food have been wasted this year.
-According to a 2004 study from the University
of Arizona (UA) in Tucson,
on average, American households waste 14 percent of their food purchases.
Fifteen percent of that includes products still
within their expiration date but never opened. Timothy Jones, an anthropologist
at the UA Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology who led the study,
estimates an average family of four currently tosses out $590 per year,
just in meat, fruits, vegetables and grain products.
Nationwide, Jones says, household food waste
alone adds up to $43 billion, making it a serious economic problem.
- Official surveys indicate that every year
more than 350 billion pounds of edible food is available for human consumption
in the United States. Of that total, nearly 100 billion pounds - including
fresh vegetables, fruits, milk, and grain products - are lost to waste
by retailers, restaurants, and consumers.
-“U.S.-Massive Food Waste & Hunger
Side by Side” by Haider Rizvi
-According to a 1997 study by US Department
of Agriculture's Economic Research Service (ERS) entitled "Estimating
and Addressing America's Food Losses", about 96 billion pounds of
food, or more than a quarter of the 356 billion pounds of edible food
available for human consumption in the United States, was lost to human
use by food retailers, consumers, and foodservice establishments in 1995.
Fresh fruits and vegetables, fluid milk, grain
products, and sweeteners (mostly sugar and high-fructose corn syrup) accounted
for two-thirds of the losses. 16 billion pounds of milk and 14 billion
pounds of grain products are also included in this loss.
Food that could have gone to millions
According to the US Department of Agriculture,
up to one-fifth of America's food goes to waste each year, with an estimated
130 pounds of food per person ending up in landfills. The annual value
of this lost food is estimated at around $31 billion But the real story
is that roughly 49 million people could have been fed by those lost resources.
(For your persona jihad against wastage, see A
Citizen's Guide to Food Recovery)
(The figures below are 1998 figures)
- Proportion of Americans living below the
poverty level: 12.7 percent (34.5 million
people)
- The average poverty threshold for a family
of four: $16,660 in annual income
- The average poverty threshold for a family
of three:
$13,003 in annual income
- Poverty rate for metropolitan areas:
12.3 percent
- Poverty rate for those living inside central
cities: 18.5 percent
- Poverty rate for those living in the suburbs:
8.7 percent
- Percentage and number of poor children:
18.9 percent (13.5 million)
- Children make up 39 percent of the poor
and 26 percent of the total population.
- The poverty rate for children is higher
than for any other age group.
Child poverty:
- -for children under age 6 living in families
with a female householder and no husband present: 54.8 percent
- -for children under age 6 in married-couple
families: 10.1 percent
- Poverty rate for African Americans:
26.1 percent
- Poverty rate for Asians and Pacific Islanders:
12.5 percent
- Poverty rate for Hispanics of any race:
25.6 percent
- Poverty rate for non-Hispanic whites: 8.2 percent
A JIHAD AGAINST POVERTY
& WASTAGE:
 See
Page on Poverty
Statistics
on Poverty & Food Wastage
Aisha,
the Mother of Homeless in Chicago
Quran
and Hadith on Helping the Poor
Jihad
Against Food Wastage: How tos
9
Things Families can do for the Poor
Tips
for Imams on How to Help the Poor
12
Tips for Teens on How to Help
Start
a Zakat Clinic
Five
Tips for your Zakat Committee
See
our Money Page
Your Comments
, -
wrote on 8/22/2010 3:40:41 PM
Rating: 
Comment: I am truly amazed at some of the comments that were just written by some of the most uncaring people in this country, well maybe not the most but pretty darn close. You may be young now but there will come a time when you are not and since you do not seem to realize that the poverty in the United States is the hardest on the children that are growing up. Do you know that malnutrition causes a child to be stunted in growth and retards there cognitive development, bet not. Did you know that these two factors prevent these children from reaching their full potential as adults, bet not. Malnutrition and malabsorption cause people to be either obese or very skinny, bet not. Of course you can waste food and make rude comments but if and when the shoe is on the other foot, remember this day. I will pray for you that the same kind of people that you are, will not be the ones taking care of your well being. May God forgive you.
Naomi Fields, Weather, Texas -
wrote on 8/22/2010 3:38:59 PM
Rating: 
Comment: I am truly amazed at some of the comments that were just written by some of the most uncaring people in this country, well maybe not the most but pretty darn close. You may be young now but there will come a time when you are not and since you do not seem to realize that the poverty in the United States is the hardest on the children that are growing up. Do you know that malnutrition causes a child to be stunted in growth and retards there cognitive development, bet not. Did you know that these two factors prevent these children from reaching their full potential as adults, bet not. Malnutrition and malabsorption cause people to be either obese or very skinny, bet not. Of course you can waste food and make rude comments but if and when the shoe is on the other foot, remember this day. I will pray for you that the same kind of people that you are, will not be the ones taking care of your well being. May God forgive you.
Naomi Fields, Weather, Texas -
wrote on 8/22/2010 3:38:14 PM
Rating:
Comment: I am truly amazed at some of the comments that were just written by some of the most uncaring people in this country, well maybe not the most but pretty darn close. You may be young now but there will come a time when you are not and since you do not seem to realize that the poverty in the United States is the hardest on the children that are growing up. Do you know that malnutrition causes a child to be stunted in growth and retards there cognitive development, bet not. Did you know that these two factors prevent these children from reaching their full potential as adults, bet not. Malnutrition and malabsorption cause people to be either obese or very skinny, bet not. Of course you can waste food and make rude comments but if and when the shoe is on the other foot, remember this day. I will pray for you that the same kind of people that you are, will not be the ones taking care of your well being. May God forgive you.
Naomi Fields, Weather, Texas -
wrote on 8/22/2010 3:37:18 PM
Rating:
Comment: I am truly amazed at some of the comments that were just written by some of the most uncaring people in this country, well maybe not the most but pretty darn close. You may be young now but there will come a time when you are not and since you do not seem to realize that the poverty in the United States is the hardest on the children that are growing up. Do you know that malnutrition causes a child to be stunted in growth and retards there cognitive development, bet not. Did you know that these two factors prevent these children from reaching their full potential as adults, bet not. Malnutrition and malabsorption cause people to be either obese or very skinny, bet not. Of course you can waste food and make rude comments but if and when the shoe is on the other foot, remember this day. I will pray for you that the same kind of people that you are, will not be the ones taking care of your well being. May God forgive you.
AnneMarie, Los Angeles -
wrote on 8/20/2010 1:11:10 PM
Rating: 
Comment: We have to remember that the poorest among us are obese. Also, the poorest among us have the highest number of children. The children are also tend toward obesity. How bad could it be??
AnneMarie, Los Angeles -
wrote on 8/20/2010 1:10:49 PM
Rating:
Comment: We have to remember that the poorest among us are obese. Also, the poorest among us have the highest number of children. The children are also tend toward obesity. How bad could it be??
Daniel, Chicago -
wrote on 8/13/2010 12:35:18 AM
Rating: 
Comment: I am a college student in my second year who is also holding a full-time job. But, I am not struggling in any way. I come from a family of Doctors from Barrington, Il, I believe fate has set me up just fine. But, when I read these statistics and do further research to realise they are true that strikes a note. It hits me in the heart and then in the mind. And it stuns me that others can not feel the same way, not think the same way, but FEEL the same way. Are we not human? Are we all not endowed with that same basic gift of conscience? As a person of olbvious wealth, I am not trying to gloat, it seems to me that this incredible gift is a responsiblity. A responsibilty set upon me by fate, God, humanity, whoever to help my co-human. That child who sits next to me, that father who works long hours and sees nothing for it, or that mother who does the double shift while loving and caring for her children. For some people life is difficult and harsh and mean. For others it is a bliss of freedom and excess. Yet, it strikes me that those with freedom and excess should strive to better themselves by supporting and helping those who struggle. For are we not defined as human first and as such require the fulfillment of the need to help others? To those whose comments I read, that were less than flattering, I ask you "are you human or a robot who seeks their own comfort?" Whether you believe in a God or not there is a conscience (and if you do not believe in that go make a child cry and tell me you don't feel a tinge of loathing and regret towards yourself) and that conscience is hardwired in a way that demands social justice and freedom. When you can look a starving child in the face while you eat or go and visit the slums of Africa and not feel some sort of regret and despairity, then you are not human. You are a form of evil unbeknown to me and hopefully an evil that does not exist. For a human without a conscience is not a human but a demon, an evil that has no right to life or freedom.
rick, edinburg -
wrote on 7/20/2010 12:56:05 AM
Rating:
Comment: I believe USA is a poor country not because people dont have what to eat. I believe USA is poor, because we don't have a strong and original culture, white people are not having family, and Minorities are going to be the future of this country. We are not appreciating the benefits of the mixture of cultures, we are not accepting the Spanish language as our second language, we are not legalizing the immigration, we are not creating a healthy society, instead we are creating intolerance, racism, division among cultures and our new generations are extremely stupid with no identity. Our new young people, dont want to create jobs, they just want to work to obtain a check and get fun over weekends, the issue of the family and values are totally lost in our new generations. And, all these factors, is going to contribute in many ways, that our country is going to be poor in about 30 or 40 years. I know all this is very hard to understand, but in my opinion, our society is very poor, if we compare it to an European society or with a Asian society. The USA is getting stupid!
Sambhunath Tiadi, Bhubaneswar(Orissa) -
wrote on 7/10/2010 12:52:19 PM
Rating:
Comment: I was searching for it. Excellent. Vital information. God bless you.
Rubina Iqbal, Vallejo Ca -
wrote on 6/12/2010 12:14:40 AM
Rating: 
Comment: Wow San Saeteurn that is the exact ignorance that keeps these children starving. You are privileged enough to have the foods you desire, yet feel like you deserve it. You should be thanking God that you are blessed enough to eat. Children do not choose to be homeless and starving. They are just born into the wrong families, being blessed should make you grateful and want to help those who cant help themselves and helping those who can realize it. Your half eating stake can be put in the fridge for lunch tomorrow, not thrown away and then you make a new meal and throw half of that away. That is horrible that people are knowingly wasteful and I cant believe people think like that and believe that it makes any sense. Its just sad.
More Comments
|
 |
 |
| Search |
|
| Search The Quran |
|
| Something to Ask... | O Allah!
I seek refuge in You from the evils of my hearing, the evils of my seeing, the evils of my tongue; the evils of my heart and the evils of passions. |
|
 |
|
|
