Why are there so many hungry people in Southwest Florida?
In the Food Bank’s service area, the causes of hunger include under-employment, low-paying jobs, our current housing slump, the high costs of childcare, and the increasingly high medication costs faced by seniors. In Southwest Florida, the fastest growing segments of need include: 1) Children (40% of those served) 2) the working poor; and 3) Seniors with fixed incomes (SSDI). During the past two years most of our Partner Agencies have experienced a significant increase in requests for emergency food assistance which has more than doubled in some cases. Most of these increases are directly attributable to the housing slump and the corresponding surge in unemployment. In fact, Lee County has been cited in the New York Times and elsewhere as the hardest hit of any U.S. county by the housing/mortgage crisis. According to a recent article by CNN.com/US (2009, February 23), Lee County, Florida, is one of the hardest-hit areas in the country and presents a microcosm of the national housing di
