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Senior Hunger Research Findings
In March 2008, the Meals On Wheels Association of America Foundation (MOWAAF) made public a groundbreaking research study entitled “The Causes, Consequences, and Future of Senior Hunger in America.” The MOWAAF-sponsored study, which was underwritten by the Harrah’s Foundation, was officially released at a hearing of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging in Washington, DC. Conducted by Co-Principal Investigators James P. Ziliak, Ph.D., Gatton Endowed Chair in Microeconomics and Director of the Center for Poverty Research, University of Kentucky and Craig Gundersen, Ph.D., then Associate Professor, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Iowa State University, the work was groundbreaking because it was the most comprehensive national research study to look exclusively at senior hunger in the United States.
Economist Dr. Eugene Smolensky, Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, characterizes it as a “first class report… using up to the minute methodology and the latest available data, which finally takes us beyond anecdote, and small and partial studies, to a reliable picture of [senior] hunger nationwide. Tragically, the reliable picture that the study paints is both clear and disturbing. It finds senior hunger to be a national problem of dramatic proportion. Today in America 1 in 9 seniors— an astonishing 5 million people—is at risk of hunger. And the situation is likely to worsen significantly if we do not act."
"Senior Hunger in the United States: Differences across States and Rural and Urban Areas," a follow-up to the groundbreaking 2008 report entitled The Causes, Consequences and Future of Senior Hunger in America, updates the findings on the extent and distribution of senior hunger across the nation using data from 2001-2007.
“In our updated report released today I regret to inform you that national outlook in terms of hunger has gotten worse for our seniors. Specifically, with two additional years of data we find a discernable upward trend in the fraction of seniors facing the threat of hunger, rising from 11 percent in 2001 to 11.5 percent in 2007. Put another way, as of 2007 there were nearly 6 million seniors facing the threat of hunger, or 1 million more than in 2001.”
-Dr. James Ziliak’s statement before the House Hunger Caucus on November 19, 2009.
Research Links:
The Causes, Consequences, and Future of Senior Hunger in America
Senior Hunger in the United States: Differences across States and Rural and Urban Areas
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