Did You Know ….

Did you know that for every $100 All Faiths Food Bank receives, they can provide for 159 meals? In other words, $500 will provide for 794 meals.

Did you know that 35% of the people served by All Faiths Food Bank have at least one working member in their household? Many are single parents trying to raise their children on one income.
Statistically, of children under age six in female-headed families, 59% are poor.
If we want to break the cycle of poverty, children need to focus on education, not food.
Did you know that 48% of the people served by All Faiths Food Band are children?
Hungry children do not do as well in school as those that are well fed.

Did you know that 41% of the people  served by All Faiths Food Bank  have to choose between buying medicine or food?
Did you know that as per the latest figures 12.9% of Sarasota County residents are living below the poverty level and that 29.6% of single parent households (no father present) with children under 18, live below poverty line ?
The percentage of families in America living below the poverty line was 9.20% and that according to the most recent survey,1,506 families are living below the poverty line in Sarasota.
Did you know that 5 million pounds is the amount of food distributed by AFFB in fiscal year ending 2011?
Did you know that demands for services from AFFB has increased by 20% in the last year?

Excerpts taken from

‘Of Mice and Men — does Sarasota know the difference?’

by Lynda M. Martin

One in every one-hundred Americans will experience homelessness this year

Not I, we say, and many of us believe it. We must believe it, for surely, the thought of joining the shadow world of the homeless will rob us of sleep, and we will toss and turn in our comfortable beds, gripped in a nightmarish scene: in need, unnoticed, spurned, treated as vermin, driven from place to place by the playing of opera music. What hell that will be!

Well, it could happen. Statistically speaking, one per cent of us will face homelessness this year. Let’s see, there are 307,973,000 people living in the United States according to the U.S. Population Clock’s estimate for October of 2009. That will mean 3,079,730 homeless by the end of the year.

Chances are, at least one of you reading this article will face the nightmare.

Considering that existing shelters and help programs will cover only 23% of this number, leaving the rest to the tender mercies of the street, you’d better develop a taste for opera.

Who are the homeless?

Accurate statistics on homelessness are difficult, if not impossible to ascertain.Those figures available are from shelters, where head counts and surveys are possible, and as only an estimated 20-30% of the homeless are in shelters, the rest is pure guess work. Here are the best figures to be found:

In general:

The homeless population is about 50 % African-American, 35% White, 12% Hispanic, 2% Native American and 1% Asian.

Children under 18 make up 39% of the homeless population; People between the ages of 30 and 50 makeup 51% of the homeless population; people between the ages of 55 and 60 account for 2.5%.

Single adults who are homeless are most likely to be men — 45%; single women make up 14%

Families with children are now the fastest growing group of the homeless population, they account for about 40% of the people who become homeless each year. 38% of the people already homeless are families with children.

Families constitute around 41% of the homeless.

65% of these families are headed by females and of those, 50 percent report fleeing domestic abuse. Most battered women and children have nowhere to go, so they reside in the streets. There are not enough shelters for homeless families in general, nor room for all the victims of domestic violence in those specialized shelters. There are waiting lists but they are much too long, and people are difficult to contact when there is space if they live in the street.

The main cause of these homeless families is the lack of affordable housing.

Homelessness among families upsets nearly every part of the family’s life. It disrupts children’s education and development. It also affects much of the emotional and physical health of the family. A family’s homelessness often causes the members to separate.

They are the fastest growing segment of the homeless population.

Children – 39% of the homeless

Children under the age of 18, represent 39 percent of the homeless. 42% of these children are under five years of age. Imagine yourself as one of these children, at best, living in a shelter, at worst, living on the street.

Many teachers, at schools in places with a high rate of homeless, are used to seeing children falling asleep at their desks. These children may not be able to sleep because they are in a room with seven or eight people, and some could be infants. They may have woken up to a baby screaming at four a.m. in the morning. In the cafeteria, when the kids eat like they’re starving, or ask for seconds and thirds, maybe it’s because they didn’t eat dinner last night — or maybe they didn’t eat all day. They live with the constant threat of violence, and in fear of losing what little possessions they own, including books, to theft.

These children could be in their third or fourth school that year. They suffer from chronic fatigue, malnourishment, nervous disorder and the stigma of being a ‘homeless kid.’

The homeless of Sarasota

Here are some statistics for Sarasota county, and please note, these only reflect those homeless who applied for and received assistance in 2008:

“Over 18,000 people were served by our homeless service providers in 2008.

This is a slight decrease from 2007, primarily due to decreases in funding * (emphasis the author’s. Note: those in need did not decline – only the number the agency could afford to help).

Of the clients served, 18% or 3,482 were children.”

Here is one day:

498 Children… 1,381 family members… 150 Seniors… 192 Veterans… received supportive services in Sarasota county.

http://hubpages.com/hub/Of-Mice-and-Men-does-Sarasota-know-the-difference