Who are the hungry? 

 Hunger World Wide 
The statistics related to world hunger and poverty are
mindboggling. Below are just some of the most amazing figures:

 Hunger continues to plague an estimated one billion people--one
in five persons--around the globe. Yet the world produces more
than enough food to feed everyone.

 No famine, flood or earthquake has ever claimed the lives of
250,000 children in a single week. But malnutrition does just
that every week.

 One-third of the grain grown in the world and one-half of the
fish caught are fed to animals in wealthy countries.

 UNICEF estimates that within a decade, it should be possible to
bring an end to child malnutrition, preventable disease, and
widespread illiteracy. The estimated cost: $25-billion per year.
This amount is significantly less than the $31-billion Americans
will spend this year on beer.

 Worldwide, 1.2 billion people live in absolute poverty.

 The top fifth of the people on the global economic ladder enjoy
60 times the goods and services of the lower fifth.

 Developing nations now owe the world's wealthiest countries
$1.3 trillion. An estimated half-million children die each year
because of the international debt crisis.


 Poverty in America 

The 1990 census catalogued the egregious 13.1 percent poverty rate in
the United States. According to the report
entitled Poverty
in the United: A Statistical Brief, while the situation has improved
from the 13.7 rate in 1969, the eighties saw the  rise  from
12.4%.  
  


 10's of Millions go hungry every day in the United States, the
land of opportunity.
 Hunger has dramatically increased in the United States.


Number of emergency food provider agencies in New York City, 1981       
30
Number of emergency food provider agencies in New York City, 1987              500
Millions of Americans living in hunger, 1985                            
20
Millions of Americans living in hunger, 1992                            
30
Percentage of children in New York City who are living in poverty       
40




 Information on hunger outside of the US from From the National Student News Service, November 19, 1993 Vol. 8, Issues 6 & 7 and Oxfam. Graphic from the
Bureau of the Census.


Compilation and HTML by Daniel_Zalik@brown.edu