Growing Need In Eastern Massachusetts

Since 2008 there has been an acute increase in hunger among low-income families and individuals in Massachusetts. According to an annual report by Project Bread, over 8% of households in Massachusetts experience “food insecurity -” the inability obtain adequate nutritious food for a healthy life.  “High food prices combined with the current economic crisis are driving a crisis in food insecurity that is broader and deeper than we’ve seen before in this state,” says Ellen Parker, the organization's executive director.

Survey research sponsored by Project Bread found that 1/3 of school children in Massachusetts high poverty communities live in food-insecure families. Children who are poorly fed do not learn as well in school and are more prone toward obesity and associated health problems such as diabetes and high blood pressure.  

• Data currently being collected from Food for Families, a Project Bread-funded hunger screening project located in the pediatric service of seven community health centers in low-income neighborhoods, reveals that more than 70 percent of the families have run out of money to make a meal. Nearly one third of the families say they cut the size of their children’s meals or a child missed a meal because there was not enough money. 
   

• Reports from emergency food providers — soup kitchens, food pantries, food banks, and food salvage operations funded by Project Bread — show increases in the number of families seeking help. From July to September 2008, calls to Project Bread’s FoodSource Hotline, an emergency food assistance line available in 160 languages, were 22 percent higher than in the same period of 2007.