- Other than a very modest decline last year, the proportion of people living in poverty has steadily been on the rise since 2000. Today, almost 37 million people live in poverty in the United States.
- The government defines poverty as an annual income of only $16,227 for a family of three.
- Hunger is a symptom of poverty. More than 1 in 10 households in the United States is “food insecure,” which means that these households don’t have access to enough food for an active, healthy life on a consistent basis.
- Of the 50 states and District of Columbia that the US Department of Agriculture studies, New Jersey had the 48th worst rate of participation in the federal Food Stamp Program in 2004 (the last year for which USDA has issued the data). If New Jersey just matched the national rate of 60% participation, about 80,000 low-income people would be added to NJ’s food stamp program, bringing about $80 million per year of new federal funds into the state, while also having a positive impact on nutrition and food and economic security.
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- When it comes to the subset of working poor families, NJ again ranked 48th. Only 38% of eligible working poor people received food stamp benefits, compared to 51% nationally.
- Over the past 2 years, the number of children who lack health insurance has risen. 1 million more children were uninsured in 2006 than in 2004 because employer-based coverage of children continued to decline while the availability of funding for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) became more scarce.
- The number of people in the U.S. without health insurance has grown to 47 million, the highest level on record. This includes more than 1 in 6 full-time workers and almost 9 million children.
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Source: “Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States:2006,” U.S. Census Bureau, Aug. 2007; “State of the States:2007,” Food Research and Action Center, June 2007 |
