The Face of Hunger Will Surprise You!

This past week, Food Bank CEO and Rotarian Amy Pezzani presented the Face of Hunger to RCFC members.  Amy started with statistics that say 42,880 (14%) people in Larimer County are food insecure.  There is a misperception that Food Bank clients are the homeless and the unemployed, when in fact few clients are homeless.  In fact, most are employed and more often are either retired seniors trying to get by on less than $1,000 per month or working families making less than 185% of poverty.  Last year the Food Bank provided over 170,000 healthy meals and snacks to eligible children. 

 

The Food Bank for Larimer County (FBLC) recently conducted a gap analysis, starting with a geographic analysis of roughly 11,000 households that visited their pantry in 2015.  Surprisingly, they found that hunger lives in every neighborhood and on nearly every street in Fort Collins and Loveland.  For Larimer County, the poverty line is defined as $24,250 for a family of four. To be eligible for Food Bank support, a family can make up to 185% of that number, or $44,955, yet families may still be unable to make ends meet, due to child care and housing expenses.  In Larimer County, the cost of daycare for one child is more than college tuition and the median rent is now $1,400.  Rent and daycare can easily cost $30,000/year leaving many people coping just to feed their families.

 

As a reality check, 1 in 4 jobs (34,290 out of 145,440, or 24%) Larimer County jobs pay less than $13 per hour ($520 weekly, $2,253 monthly, $27,040 annually – 112% of poverty), making self-sufficiency completely out of reach for many.   Food Bank’s Gap Analysis is driving their future decision making and leading them to new models of client service delivery.  We thank Amy for an excellent and informative presentation.