Southeastern Pennsylvania Hunger and Poverty Facts

2007 Survey of Philadelphia Community Feeding Programs

From early September to early November, 2007, the Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger (GPCAH) in coordination with the SHARE Food Program, Inc. conducted a survey of 198 community feeding programs. Here are some of our results:

Key Points:

  • 58% of the community feeding programs responded that they “generally did not have enough food to distribute to meet their current demand.” This increased from 42% last year.
  • 78% said that they had more people coming to their feeding program in the past year compared to the year before.
    • Reasons for this increase included:
      • people losing jobs and are unable to find new jobs;
      • a poor economy; “uneven distribution of wealth”;
      • people working jobs that do not pay enough;
      • seniors raising their grandkids; increased cost of utilities, rent and food;
      • minimum wage is too low for people to support themselves;
      • closing of other feeding programs in area;
      • “many elderly and homebound left on their own because their children and families have moved away in search of better job opportunities”.
  • Due to a lack of enough resources such as money, food, equipment, and volunteers, 66% said that they had to reduce the amount of food distributed to each person and 37% said that they had to turn people away.
  • Unfortunately, only 2% of community feeding programs expected to see a decrease in clients coming to them for food.
  • 84% responded that they anticipated that the demand for food from their feeding program will increase in 2008.
  • Additionally, 81% responded that they expect the demand for food from their feeding program by families with children will increase.