Hunger in the United States makes no sense.
Food insecurity causes poor health, emotional stress, and is a mental burden. It inhibits an adult’s ability to work and a child’s ability to learn. Hunger gnaws at the fabric of family life by forcing impossible choices among food, shelter, and safety.
One in seven Americans is food insecure. Wherever you are, people in your community – friends, family, neighbors, or colleagues – do not have enough to eat. And yet, in the face of this crippling challenge, the volume of food supply thrown away every year is unfathomable.
Human Impact
Hunger isn’t an abstract problem, nor is it a mere inconvenience. It affects individuals – children, women, and men – on a fundamentally personal level. Without enough food, human beings cannot survive. And that threat to survival exists in the United States on a scale that cannot be ignored.
50,000,000+
Million Americans are food insecure
1 IN 5 CHILDREN
Younger than five years old are food insecure
Food Waste in the US
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American Food Supply
Each year, the United States throws away 40% of its food supply.
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Billion
Wasted food is worth $165 billion every year.
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Billion Meals
Annual wasted meals could feed 36.5 million people three meals every day of the year.
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Billion Pounds
That’s 67.58 billion pounds of waste that ends up in landfill, damaging our environment with harmful methane gases.
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Pounds per Person
The average weight in the United States is 166 pounds. That means that a person throws away 1.4x his or her weight in food each year.
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Full Meals per Person
The average person wastes one full meal every 2.3 days. That’s like taking your dinner and simply dumping it in the trash every Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday.
The Simple Solution
Hunger in the United States makes no sense because in our digitally connected world, bridging the gap between excess and access isn’t just possible. It’s simple.