Hunger in America 2006 Local Report Prepared for The Northern Illinois Food Bank

This report presents information on the clients and agencies served by the Northern Illinois Food Bank. The information is drawn from a national study, Hunger in America 2006, conducted for America's Second Harvest (A2H), the nation's largest organization of emergency food providers. The national study is based on completed in-person interviews with more than 52,000 clients served by the A2H food bank network, as well as on completed questionnaires from more than 30,000 A2H agencies. The study summarized below focuses mainly on emergency food providers and their clients who are supplied with food by food banks in the A2H network.Key Findings: The A2H system served by the Northern Illinois Food Bank provides food for an estimated 187,500 different people annually. 33% of the members of households served by the Northern Illinois Food Bank are children under 18 years old (Table 5.3.2).38% of client households include at least one employed adult (Table 5.7.1). Among client households with children, 79% are food insecure and 32% are experiencing hunger (Table 6.1.1). 35% of clients served by the Northern Illinois Food Bank report having to choose between paying for food and paying for utilities or heating fuel (Table 6.5.1). 30% had to choose between paying for food and paying for medicine or medical care (Table 6.5.1). 20% of households served by the Northern Illinois Food Bank report having at least one household member in poor health (Table 8.1.1) The Northern Illinois Food Bank included approximately 368 agencies at the administration of this survey, of which 257 have responded to the agency survey. Of the responding agencies, 207 had at least one food pantry, soup kitchen, or shelter. 71% of pantries, 73% of kitchens, and 56% of shelters are run by faith-based agencies affiliated with churches, mosques, synagogues, and other religious organizations (Table 10.6.1). 79% of pantries, 72% of kitchens, and 65% of shelters of the Northern IllinoisFood Bank reported that there had been an increase since 2001 in the number of clients who come to their emergency food program sites (Table 10.8.1). For the Northern Illinois Food Bank, 89% of pantries, 88% of kitchens, and 75% of shelters use volunteers (Table 13.2.1)