Hunger in N.C.

SNAP is the Best Tool in Fight Against Hunger

Even when you have a steady job, it can be tough to put enough food on the table. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, also known as FNS or food stamps) is the nation’s best anti-hunger tool. It helps keep food on the table and in fridges so that children, families, and vulnerable adults do not go hungry.

With the increase in the kind of jobs that don’t pay enough to afford the basics, it can be tough to put enough food on the table even when you have a steady job. In 2016, SNAP reached more than 1.5 million North Carolinians, targeting the most vulnerable folks to help ensure that older adults, veterans, and children get enough to eat each day. SNAP benefits help to stimulate the state’s economy too, pumping upward of $2.2 billion into the economy last year. On average, from 2011 to 2014, SNAP benefits lifted 175,000 North Carolinians, including 81,000 children, out of poverty.

Who’s Hungry in Your District?

Every night, people in nearly 590,000 North Carolina households don’t have enough to eat. North Carolina has the 10th highest rate of food insecurity in the nation. The Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, is responsible for lifting more than 160,000 people out of poverty each year. Additionally, more than 9,700 grocers and retailers participate in the program, pumping $2.14 billion in the NC economy last year.

Since peaking at 17.3 percent in 2013, North Carolina’s food insecurity rate has slowly declined, yet still remains well above pre-recession levels of 12.6 percent. Today, 5.6 percent, or 228,000 households, report missing meals. That’s almost twice the number of all households in Durham, NC.

Click on the link below to see who is going hungry in your district. (Look up what district you are in.)

Additional Resources