Hunger is a painful physical and mental condition that results from not eating enough food, due to lack of resources.

Hungry people eat less, skip meals, and may go for an entire day without food.

The causes of hunger in the United States include: unemployment, high housing costs, poverty and lack of income, high medical and health care costs, mental health problems, and substance abuse problems.

The effects of hunger in children include: unwanted weight loss; fatigue; inability to concentrate; frequent illness; increased risk of health, psychological, emotional, behavioral, developmental, and academic problems; increased risk of obesity and diabetes (due to consumption of low-quality foods); and increased risk of poor adult health.

The effects of hunger on adults and seniors include: increased risk of chronic health problems such as cancers, heart disease, and diabetes; increased risk of stroke; and increased risk of obesity (due to consumption of low-quality foods).

Food insecurity is a lack of access to enough nutritious food for a healthy life, through non-emergency sources.

Food insecure people worry about where they will get their next meal and may experience periods of hunger.

Malnutrition is an insufficiency of one or more nutritional elements necessary for health, due to a poorly balanced diet.

Malnutrition can result from poor eating habits, even when food is plentiful.

Obesity, or severe overweight, can co-exist with hunger or food insecurity in the same households and same individuals.

People with insufficient resources to purchase adequate food can become overweight or obese due to:

• the need to maximize caloric intake - stretching the food budget by purchasing lower-cost, high-calorie processed foods rather than healthier, fresh foods;
• the trade off between food quantity and quality - lower-cost foods may not provide all the nutrients needed for health;
• overeating when food is available;
• physiological changes - the body can compensate for periodic food shortages by becoming more efficient at storing calories as fat.

Health risks of obesity include increased risk of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, hypertension, arthritis-related disabilities, some cancers, and other chronic health problems.

Locally

• Hunger and food insecurity have increased in the Central Coast region since 2001.
• The number of local adults reporting that they went for an entire day without food for lack of money tripled between 2001 and 2005.
• The number of households reporting that their children have skipped meals or experienced hunger in the past 12 months more than tripled between 2001 and 2005.
• The costs of living on the Central Coast - especially housing, medicine, utilities, and fuel - have increased while wages have stagnated, squeezing the food budget of low-income families.
• More local people are choosing between buying food and paying for medicine today than in 2001.

Statewide

• Since 2001, rates of hunger and food insecurity have increased throughout California due to inadequate resources, wages, and incomes and rising costs of living.
• More than one-third of low-income adults (over 2.9 million) are food insecure.
• More than one in ten low-income adults experiences episodes of hunger due to lack of resources.
• Low-income Latinos have higher proportions of food insecure adults than low-income whites.
• Twenty percent of low-income seniors (65 years and older) were food insecure in 2003.
• Over forty percent of low-income pregnant women were food insecure in 2003.

Nationwide

• Over 38 million Americans - representing 1 in 10 households - are hungry or at-risk of hunger each year.
• More than 14 million children live in a household where they have to skip meals or eat less to help their family make ends meet.
• Requests for emergency food assistance increased an average of 12 percent across the nation between 2004 and 2005.
• Over half of those requesting emergency food assistance are members of families with children.
• Forty percent of adults requesting emergency food assistance are employed.

Worldwide

• Hunger is increasing- 852 million people across the globe were hungry in 2005, an increase of 10 million since 2004.
• 815 million people in the developing world are undernourished.
• Everyday, more than 16,000 children die from hunger-related causes - one child every 5 seconds.