Hunger in Central Texas:
Central Texas Hunger Report
The Largest, Most Comprehensive Hunger Study Ever Completed Reveals the Face of Hunger
The Capital Area Food Bank, in association with America's Second Harvest – The Nation's Food Bank Network, surveyed more than 200 emergency feeding programs (food pantries and soup kitchens) in Central Texas in an effort to better understand the urgency of hunger and food insecurity in the Food Bank's service area, allocate resources, determine appropriate programming and measure outcomes.
KEY FINDINGS INCLUDE:
Who's getting the food?
- Approximately 175,000 people receive food through CAFB's efforts.
- 38% of recipients are White/Anglo; 34% are Hispanic; 25% are African-American.
- 43% of the households include at least one employed adult.
The poor we serve are younger than the rest of Texas in general.
- While the child poverty rate in Texas is 23.2%, for the CAFB service area, 35% of the household members receiving food are children.
- While 12.4% of Texans in poverty are elderly, only 7% of households receiving food through CAFB are elderly.
Poverty and hunger
- 76% of households report incomes below the federal poverty level.
- 82% of recipients are food insecure.
- 49% of recipients experience outright hunger.
- 36% of recipients report having to choose between paying rent/mortgage and buying food.
- 49% report having to choose between paying for utilities and buying food.
- 34% report having to choose between buying medicine or medical service and buying food.
Who's serving our hungry?
- 71% of the pantries and 37% of the soup kitchens are run by faith-based agencies.
- 59% of pantries and 12% of soup kitchens are entirely volunteer run with no paid staff.
- CAFB is by far the most important source of food for the agencies, accounting for 76% of food for pantries, 38% for soup kitchens.
Download the Hunger In America 2006: Central Texas Report. (799KB)
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