Hunger in America: Food insecurity disproportionately affects African-Americans

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In an effort to provide a solution to the problem of so many without food, Mayhue-Greer says her organization began a mobile pantry distribution where workers and volunteers travel to those in need to provide the necessary food and resources.

However, despite the high number of blacks in need, their turnout in the distribution lines fell below Mayhue-Greer’s expectations.

“When we started doing mobile pantry distribution there wasn’t a single African-American in line because they didn’t know about it,” she says. “That’s the biggest issue, African-Americans are not aware of the resources available to them when often they are the ones most in need.”

Aid provided from government organizations 

Government assistance also plays a large role in providing affordable food and resources to those in need.

While, Engelhard says SNAP is often the first line of defense for low-income Americans, many African-Americans who are eligible for benefits are not enrolled.

Data shows that 26 percent of the black families Feeding America serves report no contact from SNAP. That’s compared to 15 percent of the white families the organization serves.

In many cases, those who receive aid from their local food banks are immigrants who don’t have the language skills to get a good job or have a non-citizen status that excludes them from receiving benefits, Stampas says.

“An immigrant status can mean no access to food support,” she adds. “A lot of people come to the country to work but jobs available to them as non-citizens are not necessarily the best paying jobs and a low wage job doesn’t get you very far in places like New York.”

That’s where the efforts of local food banks and other services come in.

“We try to identify some of the black churches and partner with them,” says Mayhue-Greer, who manages a large portion of the food programs available in Mississippi — a state that is home to Holmes County, which has the highest food insecurity rate of any county in the country.

Still, Mayhue-Greer says they have not received the support they originally hoped to from partnering with some of the states’ predominately black churches.

“Some of the black churches don’t have a mission focused to this cause,” she says. “Some say that they just don’t have the time to do it or their church is too small to dedicate the necessary resources.”

The affects of food insecurity on children

Fraser says Feeding America’s mission is to feed hungry people – who run the gamut of those who are homeless and have no income and no home to those who have recently become unemployed.