Statistics

Texas

Texas has a household food insecurity rate that is significantly higher than the national average (along with six other states). 18.5% 2009-2011¹
In 2010 there were 4,672,780 food insecure people in Texas.²
Texas was ranked as the Number 1 Congressional District (29) in Food Hardship in 2010-2011³
Texas's Child Food Insecurity Rate in 2010 was 27.1% which includes 1,845,670 children and places Texas 11th highest in child food insecurity in the nation.⁴
Nearly one in five Texans, 4.6 million people (18.5%), lives in poverty. That's 2.6% higher than the national average.⁵
More than 6 billion dollars of private and state funds designated for hunger related programs in Texas went unused in 2010.⁶
In 2009, less than 70% of Texans who were eligible for SNAP participated in the program. ⁷
Of the more than 2.3 million Texas students who get a free or reduced price lunch at school in 2011-2012, only 59.7% participate in the school breakfast program.⁸
Only 9.4% of the 2.3 million Texas children who qualify for free or reduced priced meals during the school year participate in the Summer Meals program.⁹

National

In 2011, 14.9% of U.S. households (17.9 million households) were food insecure.¹⁰
In 2007, 6.2 million households with children were food insecure at some time during the year.¹¹
Every $5 in new SNAP benefits generates $9.00 in total community spending.¹²
23.5 million Americans live in low-income areas that are more than a mile from the nearest supermarket and lack access to healthy foods.¹³

Updated 1/30/2013

^{1. USDA. Coleman-Jensen, A., Nord, M., Andrews, M., & Carlson, S. Household Food Security in the United States in 2011↩}
^{2. Gundersen, C., Waxman, E., Engelhard, E., & Del Vecchio, T. Map the Meal Gap 2012: Food Insecurity Estimates at the County Level. Feeding America, 2012.↩}
^{3. FRAC. Food Hardship in America 2011. February 2012.↩}
^{4. Gundersen, C., Waxman, E., Engelhard,E., & Del Vecchio,T. Map the Meal Gap: Child Food Insecurity 2012. Feeding America, 2012.↩}
^{5. U.S. Census Bureau. Bishaw, Alemayehu .Poverty 2010 and 2011. September 2012.↩}
^{6. TFBN. Hunger by the Numbers: A Blueprint for Ending Hunger in Texas. August 2012↩}
^{7. USDA. Building A Healthy America: A Profile Of The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. April 2012↩}
^{8. THI. Texas School Breakfast Report Card. November 2012.↩}
^{9. FRAC. Hunger Doesn't Take a Vacation. June 2012↩}
^{10. USDA. Coleman-Jensen, A., Nord, M., Andrews, M., & Carlson, S. Household Food Security in the United States in 2011.↩}
^{11. USDA. Nord, M. Food Insecurity in Households with Children. September 2009.↩}
^{12. Hanson, Kenneth. (2010). The Food Assistance National Input-Output Multiplier (FANIOM) Model and Stimulus Effects of SNAP. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. ↩}
^{13. USDA Economic Research Service. Access to Affordable and Nutritious Food. June 2009↩}