The Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest Pennsylvania was one of 156 food banks in the United States that participated in “Hunger in America 2006”, the most-comprehensive national study ever conducted on emergency food distribution.

The study was commissioned by America ’s Second Harvest, the largest charitable hunger-relief organization in the country with more than 200 food banks and food-rescue organizations serving fifty states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico .

Karen S. Seggi, executive director of the Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest Pennsylvania , said the local study was conducted by face-to-face interviews during a four-month period in 2005. The report indicated that at least 52,000 area residents  obtain emergency food assistance each year from the Second Harvest Food Bank. Nearly 30 percent are children under the age of 17, and 11 percent are seniors.

The local study revealed that hunger in northwest Pennsylvania continues to be a problem for the working poor which removes the stereotype that a typical hungry American is homeless, drug-dependent or chronically unemployed.

Many of the working poor who participated in the interviews reported having to make choices between food and everyday necessities.  Nearly 32 percent of the clients had to choose between buying food or making a rent or mortgage payment; 29 percent needed to choose between buying food and paying for medicine or medical care; and 40 percent were forced to decide between buying groceries and paying for utilities or heating fuel.

Seggi said people are utilizing emergency food pantries and soup kitchens because they don’t have enough money to pay their bills and feed their families at the same time.  “Families find that once all their bills are paid, they do not have enough money to buy food.  So food becomes a discretionary budget item and they end up getting food from a food pantry or skipping meals,” she said.

This study also found that in northwest Pennsylvania , 86 percent of the clients have their own housing; 28 percent indicated they own their home.  Of the clients employed, 21 percent indicated that they are currently working or have worked previously in managerial or professional jobs.  Only 4 percent reported that they have never worked, and only 6 percent of the clients served are receiving federal welfare assistance.

The majority of those served by the Second Harvest Food Bank agencies are female.  70 percent are white, 24 percent are African American, and 3 percent are Hispanic.

Seggi added that about 75 percent of the clients seeking emergency food assistance from the 241 Second Harvest member agencies are living below the federal poverty line, and approximately 29 percent of the clients have at least one adult working in their household.