Hunger in Utah

In a country with the greatest bounty and wealth in the world, it is appalling and disturbing that hunger should persist. Yet persist it does. In a report on hunger and food insecurity in America, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that in 2010:

• 48.8 million people lived in households considered to be food insecure in the United States.
• Of those 48.8 million people, more than 16.2 million were children.
• Utah’s food insecurity rate is 13%, which is very near but just lower than the U.S. average.  The average rate of households with very low food security in Utah was 4.8% of Utah.

The impact of the current recession on hunger and food insecurity in Utah has been devastating. We can see that record number of Utahns (pdf) have been utilizing Food Stamps during the recession.

Although USDA data indicate that Utah’s rate of food security is on par with or higher than the national average, most federal nutrition programs are still woefully underutilized in Utah. The most recent USDA data indicates that just over half of Utah households eligible for Food Stamps actually use the program. Utahns leave over $180 million in unclaimed Food Stamp benefits on the table every year, or roughly three times the annual output of the Utah Food Bank. Utah also ranks very low in our utilization of school lunch programs, and last in the country in our rate of school breakfast participation among impoverished children.