The Multnomah County Child Hunger Coalition has released an interactive map of food resources to help families facing food insecurity and hunger. The map includes locations, service hours and contact information for emergency food pantries, harvest shares, community gardens and other food related programs.
Despite a national dip in hunger nationwide, the number of Oregon families that don’t know where their next meal will come from and who can’t afford all the food they need is on the rise.
Nearly one in six Oregon households, about 16.1 percent, were “food insecure” between 2013 and 2015, up from 13.6 percent in the preceding three year period.
The increase is being driven by factors including high unemployment and rising rents.
According to Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon:
- About three in five families who experience food insecurity aren't regularly skipping meals, but may use strategies like purchasing cheaper but less nutritious food to stretch the food budget or relying on food assistance at the end of the month.
- For an estimated 103,000 households in Oregon, these coping strategies aren’t enough; they are forced to skip meals. This represents 6.6 percent of households in Oregon, experiencing what USDA calls "Very Low Food Security" (2013-2015). That's up from 5.8 percent from 2010-12.
- If all 103,000 households experiencing hunger comprised a city, it would be the second-largest city in Oregon.
- Oregon's hunger rate is not the highest in the country. That distinction belongs to Mississippi at 7.9 percent. Oregon now has the eighth highest rate of hunger in the nation.
- Oregon was the only state in the United States to see a statistically significant increase in food insecurity from 2010-12 to 2013-15.