Human Services News

From EurekAlert! - Breaking News:

While thirty-five million Americans feel the physical effects of hunger each day, every household and individual in our nation feels the economic effects.

So finds a new study released today by the Sodexho Foundation and researchers affiliated with Harvard University School of Public Health, Brandeis University and Loyola University.

The study, titled "The Economic Cost of Domestic Hunger: Estimated Annual Burden to the United States," finds that the U.S. pays more than $90 billion annually for the direct and indirect costs of hunger-related charities, illness and psychosocial dysfunction and the impact of less education/lower productivity.

Distributed on an individual basis, it means that on average, each person residing in the U.S. pays $300 annually for the hunger bill.

The study found that the lion's share of the overall cost, $66.8 billion, resulted from illness associated with hunger, said Brandeis health economist Donald Shepard, who led the economic analysis.

"What was unusual about hunger was the wide range of problems associated with it, which included not only the illness burden, but also expenses on food pantries and other charities to mitigate the problem, and lost productivity due to hunger's adverse impact on learning," said Shepard.

The Sodexho Foundation commissioned the study in partnership with the Public Welfare Foundation and Spunk Fund, Inc.

Their goal is to educate policymakers and the public to build national commitment that will ultimately end hunger.

The Sodexho Foundation (www.helpstophunger.org) is an independent charitable organization that is leading the fight against hunger by supporting initiatives that focus on eliminating the root causes of hunger in the United States.

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