“You can’t think when all you do think about is being hungry.”
In Lane County, forty-four percent of households do not earn enough to cover their basic needs. This is according to Lane County’s 2016 ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) Report. Thirty-seven percent of Lane County residents qualify for an emergency food box (Census 2016). One in seven Oregonians and one in five children in Oregon are food insecure (USDA 2017).
The economy is improving, but too many people in Lane County struggle to feed themselves and their families. The rate of hunger in Oregon is going down. Oregon now ranks 12th in the country, according to the USDA. But hunger remains persistently high throughout the state. Lane County has the second highest rate of hunger in Oregon after Coos, Jackson and Union counties, which are tied for first.
Hunger doesn’t discriminate. All types of households struggle, but some are more vulnerable than others — especially seniors and people with disabilities living on fixed incomes, children and single mothers.
- 77% of Hunger Factors Survey (HFS) respondents say that the food they buy doesn’t last, and there is not enough money to buy more (HFS 2018).
- 81% of respondents worry that food will run out before they have money to buy more (HFS 2018).
- When asked what would make food assistance less necessary, 30% of survey respondents say employment, 23% say health care and benefits and 11% say lower housing costs and living expenses (HFS 2018).
Source: FOOD for Lane County Hunger Factors Survey March 2018