Some Informative Statistics

1. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in 2006, 38 million people in our nation – 13.9 million of them children – live in households that suffer from hunger or live on the edge of hunger.


2. 13.4 million American children receive food stamp benefits.


3. The number of people in the worst-off household in 2006 increased to 11.1 from 10.8 in 2005.


4. A child in Florida is abused or neglected every 4 minutes.


5. A child in Florida is born into poverty every 15 minutes.


6. A child in Florida dies before his or her first birthday every 6 hours.


7. A child or teen in Florida is killed by gunfire every 3 days.


8. Florida ranks 28th among states in the percent of children who are poor.


9. There are 4,003,290 children who live in Florida; 688,812 of them are poor.


10. For every $1 million of state funding: Over $6.05 million of housing is built and/or sold; 10.35 million of economic activity is generated; $4.05 million of earnings/income are paid;106 jobs are created; and almost $100,000 of sales tax is paid back to the State.

Information Sources
1. www.frac.org Food Research and Action Center
2. www.strength.org Share Our Strength
3. www.shareflorida.org SHARE
4-9. www.childrensdefense.org Children's Defense Fund - State Statistics
10. www.flimpact.org Florida Impact

An excellent resource on statistics for each county in the state can be found in the Feeding Florida: Responses to Hunger in the Sunshine State. This gives the most comprehensive, up-to-date statistical resource for each county's need and use of the federal food programs, including how much in federal dollars is not being used. This can be downloaded here.