In 2010, the Food Trust found:
- Only 8% of African Americans have a grocery store in their census tract.
- 24% of African Americans, 17% of Latinos, and 13% of Asian Americans do not own cars, making grocery shopping more time-consuming.
- Food stores in communities of color are often further away and have fewer healthy high-quality options.
While hunger and food insecurity can strike anyone, larger percentages of people of color suffer from hunger due to the neighborhoods that they live in, the concentrations of poverty in which they can afford to live.
The fact of hunger has serious effects on people’s lives. Margo Nitschke, the Emerson National Hunger Fellow at the Alliance to End Hunger noted that: “Lacking access to nutritious foods can cause disease and poor health outcomes that shorten life expectancy and cause burdensome debt.
- Low proximity to supermarkets correlates with high rates of obesity, diabetes, and diet-related diseases.
- Elderly people of color are twice as likely as their white counterparts to be hungry, making them more likely to have to choose between food and medical care. 44% of Latinos and 34% of African Americans did not see a doctor when ill for financial reasons.”
Especially in times like these, those who experience food insecurity for the first time need to remember that it is a permanent part of the lives of many others, a fact that has consequences in the quality and length of life that they can enjoy.
This is why Food For Greater Elgin has always believed in being a resource where anyone can get the food that they need to thrive. But more than that:
- We need volunteers who are Hispanic or African American so that our guests discover us as a place of empowerment, and not another reminder that they are among the have-nots of our society.
- We are working to deliver food to neighborhoods where people lack access to other sources of food, including our pantry.
- We deliver food to people who are shut-in for reasons of medical status or physical disability.
In a country with many virtues, there are also problems that we have not yet been able to solve. Food For Greater Elgin is committed to being part of the solution.
Are you ready to volunteer with us? Visit foodforgreaterelgin.org/volunteer to sign up today.