Posted on 06/06/2007 4:04:19 AM PDT by Pharmboy
Cost to nation is $90 billion, cost per household $800
WASHINGTON, D.C., June 5, 2007 — While thirty-five million Americans feel the physical effects of hunger each day, every household and individual in our nation feels the economic effects. So finds a new study released today by the Sodexho Foundation and researchers affiliated with Harvard University School of Public Health, Brandeis University and Loyola University.
The study, titled “The Economic Cost of Domestic Hunger: Estimated Annual Burden to the United States,” finds that the U.S. pays more than $90 billion annually for the direct and indirect costs of hunger-related charities, illness and psychosocial dysfunction and the impact of less education/lower productivity. These costs are borne by all Americans.
Distributed on an individual basis, it means that on average, each person residing in the U.S. pays $300 annually for the hunger bill. Distributed on a household basis, it means that the annual cost is closer to $800 each year. And calculated on a lifetime basis, each individual’s bill for hunger in the nation is nearly $22,000.
The study found that the lion’s share of the overall cost, $66.8 billion, resulted from illness associated with hunger, said Brandeis health economist Donald Shepard, who led the economic analysis. These illnesses included iron deficiency, colds and depression, and other causes of fair and poor health.
“What was unusual about hunger was the wide range of problems associated with it, which included not only the illness burden, but also expenses on food pantries and other charities to mitigate the problem, and lost productivity due to hunger’s adverse impact on learning,” said Shepard.
“The Cost of Hunger study is a call to action for communities, legislators, the private sector and individuals to look at hunger as more than a social issue – hunger also is an economic issue,” said Stephen J. Brady, president of the Sodexho Foundation. “As such, it is everyone’s responsibility to end hunger. The first step is to be aware of the magnitude of the impact of hunger on every American.”
### The Sodexho Foundation commissioned the study in partnership with the Public Welfare Foundation and Spunk Fund, Inc. Their goal is to educate policymakers and the public to build national commitment that will ultimately end hunger.
For a full copy of the report, please visit www.sodexhousa.com.
About the Sodexho Foundation
The Sodexho Foundation (www.helpstophunger.org) is an independent charitable organization that is leading the fight against hunger by supporting initiatives that focus on eliminating the root causes of hunger in the United States. Administrative costs are paid by Sodexho, Inc. to ensure that 100 percent of funds raised are directed to those in need. Established in 1999, the Sodexho Foundation has been a leading force in the pursuit of a hunger-free nation with its ongoing efforts to provide support to individuals and families facing poverty, unemployment, lack of education and food insecurity. Since its inception, the Foundation has raised and contributed more than $9.2 million to hunger related and advocacy organizations nationwide.
Why should there be anyone in this country who is hungry? Poor people can get food stamps, can't they? Tell me what I'm missing here, folks...
Yes, millions go to bed hungry every night. They’re on diets.
Got to school, get a better job and eat better.
Out of tears too.
Perhaps the article is preparing us for the 35 million poor hungry folks to be named as illegals. Hey, the numbers magically match up. Time to shell out more tax dollars.
As long as there are grocers who pay cash for food stamps, there will be hunger.
As long as there are urban elderly afraid to go out or let anyone in, there will be hunger.
Unless we force feed the mentally ill, the addict, the drunk, there will be hunger.
Hunger is the real cost of freedom, so we must ask the question, would you rather be a well-fed slave, or go hungry sometimes as a free man?
Does anyone question the motives of a study conducted by Sodexho? They provide foodservice to government facilities, so extra tax dollars spent by government (us) to “battle hunger” go straight to their bottom line.
Or am I being too cynical?
I have a real tough time buying this study as well. I know of two people with two kids that have not worked in years. They have two daughters that are overweight (seems like lack of food is not the problem, could it be diet selection perhaps?). I know they get no assistance from their family so all the money/benefits they have they get are from the state. They do seem to have money for cigarettes because they are puffing up a storm everytime I see them.
We absolutely cannot have the safety net become a desirable condition. If we do, then what motivation exists for anyone to work. If you are on state aid, you should be hungry and scared and ready to go out and get a job.
Also letting 20 million uneducated people who are the most likely to need aid to become citizens will only make our situation worse. Thanks Bush and the rest of the idiot Republicans. I expect such behavior from the Democrats, but not them. I no longer have a party.
I get hungry everyday! Technically I’d qualify.
These poor people always have money for cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, tattoos, piercings, racing shirts. None of which I spend money on. I might be on to some great poverty fighting innovation!
It’s a big party in my little town of 25,000 here in Ohio every first of the month when the checks come out. You see the “poor” people walking through town with bottles in brown paper bags and crowding the diners.
If you’re in America and of healthy body and mind and you stay poor, you deserve it. The worst thing you can do is make it comfortable for people to be poor, being poor is supposed to SUCK!
Absolutely.
They also provide prepared food services for large cooperations.
We affectionately refer to them as "SODEX WHORE"
Bring back the “poor houses”.
While thirty-five million Americans feel the physical effects of hunger each day
What exactly doe the phrase "effects of hunger" mean? It's almost noon time and your stomach is growling? You catch a whiff of bbq in the wind and start drooling?
Not at all. Follow any trail long enough and 99 and 44/100% of the time it's about the money.
"You fools! This was supposed to be released next year!"
“The worst things you can do for those you love are the things they could and should do for themselves.”
John Wooden
That I know of, Wal Mart and MacDonalds are still hiring, not to mention many other companies. And that commodities truck still pulls into town to pass out foodstuffs to the documented, card-carrying poor who need them. I sense the Poverty Industry is at work here, shoveling it fast and furious as usual.
In any other country, or at any time in the past in this country, our poor people would not even be considered poor. Yes our so called ‘poor’ are in fact, overweight. Can Cuba say that? Can Africa? What about just 75 years ago in this country? By any reasonable measure, we have no poor, we ‘won’ the war on poverty decades ago. What we do have is a thriving middle class, and a upper class whose lifestyle gets better all the time. Others who choose not to work in this job rich environment are only ‘poor’ by comparison.
I was pretty darn hungry yesterday before lunch. Man, I was feeling some SERIOUS “food insecurity.”
I would argue that the only way you aren’t eating in the U.S. is if you are too stupid or lazy to take advantage of one of countless programs designed to feed you.
Sometimes you will miss meals. I make a comfortable living and *I* miss meals sometimes. It just happens. C’est le vie.
“That I know of, Wal Mart and MacDonalds are still hiring, not to mention many other companies....”
There’s this “homeless” guy who panhandles at the bottom of the off ramp on my way home from work. Right across the street? A KFC that *always* has a now hiring sign up because they can’t get enough help.
Incidentally, this homeless guy isn’t completely disgusting. He’s changing his clothes and bathing somewhere on a regular basis...
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