Despite the recent stock market boom, the number of city residents who lack sufficient food, as well as the number forced to use charitable soup kitchens and food pantries, continued to soar, according to a new report by the New York City Coalition Against Hunger (NYCCAH).

During the most recent three year time period (2003-2005), 1,256,000 of the city's residents -- one in six -- lived in households that could not afford to purchase an adequate supply of food, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data analyzed by NYCCAH. During this time, 15.4% of city residents lived in those food insecure households, representing an approximately 112,000-person increase over the 2000-2002 time period, when 14.0% of New Yorkers lived in such households.

Statewide in New York during that same time, the number of people living in food insecurity climbed from 9.4 % to 10.4%, representing a roughly 180,000-person increase. In 2005, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, New York was the only state in the nation in which both poverty and overall earnings income increased, making the state a leader in inequality of wealth.

The number of people served by the city’s charitable food pantries and soup kitchens rose by an estimated 11% in 2006, on top of an estimated 6% increase from 2004-2005, according to the Coalition's annual survey of these agencies. Because the agencies were unable to obtain enough food, money, staff, and volunteers to meet their growing need, nearly half (46%) were forced to ration food by turning people away, reducing portion sizes, and/or limiting hours of operations.

“In a year when the stock market went through the roof -- and the number of billionaires in the city nearly doubled -- it is unconscionable that 1.3 million New Yorkers, including many children, did not have enough to eat,” said Joel Berg, executive director of the Coalition, an umbrella group for the city's more than 1,200 pantries and kitchens. “When the number of people forced to obtain food from charities continues to skyrocket, we know it’s time to rapidly reverse the failing public policies and harmful economic trends that cause this increasing hunger.”

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