1.  Federal guidelines set the poverty level at $22,050 for a family of four.

 2.  According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 38 million Americans (13 percent of the population) were below the poverty level in 2007.  The Census estimates that 14.3 percent of North Carolinians, including 19.5 percent of North Carolina children, lived below the poverty level in 2007. North Carolina’s poverty rate is 13th worst in the nation.

 3.  The federal minimum wage is $7.25 (as of July 24, 2009); this equals $290/week or $15,080/year for full-time (40 hours) every week of the year.  In 2007, 45.6 million or 15.3 percent of Americans did not have health insurance.

 4.  Because the Federal poverty guidelines are so low, many more people actually live in poverty than are documented by the Federal government and state agencies. To better reflect the income needed for seven essentials of: housing, food, childcare, health care, transportation, other necessities and taxes, the NC Budget and Tax Center developed the Living Income Standard (LIS). According to this standard, the necessary income for a family of four in NC is $41,184 in 2008 (201 percent of federal poverty level). To meet that level, the adults in the average family would need to earn a combined $19.80 per hour for every working hour of every week of the year. The income of more than 37 percent of North Carolina families is below this level. The percentage is greater among women, African Americans, Hispanics and immigrants. 

 5.  Using the Living Income Standard, for a family of four to meet basic expenses in the least costly North Carolina County requires a minimal income of 1.55 times the federal Poverty level or $34,145 (which is 2.26 times the federal minimum wage or $16.42 per hour).   

 6.  2007 census data show poverty rates of over 20 percent in 21 NC counties for all persons in the county. Sixty-eight counties have poverty rates of over 20 percent for children under 17 years old.

 7.  Robeson County is home to the highest poverty level in North Carolina, with 28.6 percent of the population living below the Federal poverty guidelines. In addition, the poverty rates of many of North Carolina’s far western and far eastern counties’ poverty rate exceeds the state average of 14.3 percent. Many of the families living in rural counties lack everyday necessities like indoor plumbing or adequate access to clean water and sanitation.

 8.  There are 6 regional Feeding America Food Banks in North Carolina along with the Interfaith Food Shuttle in Raleigh which distribute food to clients in all NC counties with the help of 2749 programs and agencies. In 2007-08, these organizations distributed over 84 million pounds of food.  North Carolina Food Banks Include:

• Second Harvest of Metrolina (Charlotte) www.secongharvestmetrolina.org

• Food Bank of Central and Eastern NC (Raleigh) www.foodbankcenc.org

• Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest NC (Winston-Salem) www.hungerwnc.org

• MANNA Food Bank (Asheville) www.mannafoodbak.org

• Food Bank of the Albermarle (Elizabeth City) www.afoodbank.org

• Second Harvest Food Bank of Southeast NC (Fayetteville)

www.ccap-inc.org

• Interfaith Food Shuttle (Raleigh) www.foodshuttle.org

 9.  Clients of the agencies and programs served by the food banks often must choose between paying for food or for utilities and heating fuel, food or the rent/mortgage, food or medicine and medical care. Most are the working poor. Most have children in the home. Most are below the federal poverty level.

 10.  Food insecurity is simply the having limited ability to secure adequate food. More specifically, it is “limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods or limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways.”

• Food Insecurity rate in NC, 12.9 percent;

• Child food insecurity rate, 19.4 percent,

• Children under 5, 24.1 percent.

1.  US Department of Health and Human Services, http://aspe.hhs.gov/POVERTY/09
fedreg.pdf

2.  U.S. Census Bureau. XLS download at http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/threshld/thresh08.html

3.  US Census Bureau, www.uscensus.gov, “Income Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States, 2007” (issued August 2008) http://www.census.gov/prod/2008pubs/p60-235.pdf

4.  NC Justice Center, http://www.ncjustice.org/sites/default/files/1169_2008lisreportmar.pdf;

National Center for Children in Poverty at http://nccp.org/publications/pub_876.html. This standard still uses the lowest estimates for each budget item and considers essentials only.

5.  NC Justice Center, “Living Income Standard, 2008: Making Ends Meet on Low Wages” http://www.ncjustice.org/sites/default/files/2008%20LIS%20report%20(Final%20
March%2025).pdf.  Figures are adjusted using the 2009 FPL and the minimum wage increase effective July 24, 2009.

6.  US Census Bureau, http://www.ers.usda.gov/Data/Povertyrates/PovListpct.asp?Longname=North+Carolina&ST=
NC&SF=2A

7.  US Census Bureau; http://poverty.suite101.com/article.cfm/poverty_in_north_carolina; Laura Kleinhenz, “Surviving Rural Poverty,” www.sightphoto.com/sightphoto/Kleinhenz/kleinhenz_
warren.html.

8.  Feeding America, www.feedingamerica.org

9.  Food Insecurity and Hunger in the United States: An Assessment of the Measure at http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/FoodSecurity/NASsummary.htm and http://www7.nationalacademies.org/cnstat/Concept_and_Definition_of_Hunger_Paper.pdf with both reference with both reference Anderson, S.A. (1990). The 1990 Life Sciences Research Office (LSRO) Report on Nutritional Assessment defined terms associated with food access. Core indicators of nutritional state for difficult to sample populations. Journal of Nutrition. 102:1559-1660. Statistics for NC are from Feeding America at feedingamerica.org food bank search http://feedingamerica.org/
foodbank-results.aspx?state=NC