Painting a picture of hunger
Survey provides a look at who’s seeking food aid in S.J. County
STOCKTON – A new survey of the county’s hungry released Thursday gives a clearer picture of those queueing up for help from public agencies and private charities to put food on the table.
Returned by about 900 people waiting in lines outside food banks and other locations, mostly in Stockton and Lodi, the survey describes a population that is less healthy than the rest of the county and extremely impoverished, with 45 percent of respondents saying they lived in households earning less than $5,000 a year.
More than a third said they sought emergency food because of a recently lost job; nearly a quarter said they couldn’t afford to give their child a balanced meal; and about one-fifth said an adult in their household had gone a whole day without eating in the 12 months preceding the survey, which was conducted from late September to mid-December…