Arizona Hunger Facts
In our new weekly series, we want to share the important facts about LAMA’s policy priorities. This week, we are focusing on Hunger in Arizona!
The Lutheran Perspective: Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread
Throughout the Gospel, food is an important part of many stories. Jesus eats with people, cooks for them, and feeds them. He commands his followers to also feed the hungry. In Matthew 25, we are told that caring for those in need is not just a way we serve God, but the way to serve God.
Lutherans have been involved in hunger relief since the very beginning of our movement; Martin Luther himself wrote that, “we are bound to each other in such a way that no one may forsake the other in his distress but is obliged to assist and help him as he himself would like to be helped.”
ELCA World Hunger was adopted in 1987, at the very convention that formed the ELCA. It has been in operation for the last 50 years— before the ELCA was even formed.
In 1974, Lutherans founded Bread For The World because it has become clear that policy decisions have massive influence on those facing food insecurity. This is the work that we continue today.
“God’s reign is not a new system, a set of prescriptive laws, or a plan of action that depends on what we do. Nor is it a spiritual realm removed from this world. In Jesus Christ, God’s reign intersects earthly life, transforming us and how we view the systems of this world. Our faith in God provides a vantage point for critiquing any and every system of this world, all of which fall short of what God intends. Human impoverishment, excessive accumulation and consumerism driven by greed, gross economic A Social Statement on Economic Life disparities, and the degradation of nature are incompatible with this reign of God. Through human decisions and actions, God is at work in economic life. Economic life is intended to be a means through which God’s purposes for humankind and creation are to be served. When this does not occur, as a church we cannot remain silent because of who and whose we are.” – ELCA social statement on Economic Life
Quick facts:
“Food security” means that every member of a household has access, at all times, to enough food for an active, healthy life. At a minimum, food security includes:
Ready availability of healthy, safe, nutritious foods.
The ability to get this food in socially acceptable ways (that is, without resorting to emergency food supplies, scavenging, stealing, or other coping strategies).
“Food insecurity” means that some or all members of the household have limited or uncertain access to healthy, safe, nutritious foods, or an inability to acquire these foods in socially acceptable ways. (Life Sciences Research Office, 1990)
Over 700,000 people in Arizonans are experiencing food insecurity at any given moment (Feeding America, AzFBN)
In one year, as many as 2 million Arizonans will have dealt with food insecurity at some point (St. Mary’s Food Bank)
Due to the rising cost of living, 51% of people experiencing food insecurity are over the SNAP threshold but are still unable to consistently access food they need (Feeding America: Map the Meal Gap)
14% of Arizona children grow up facing food insecurity (Feeding America)
Children facing food insecurity are more likely to struggle in the classroom
Childhood hunger is linked to higher rates of Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and obesity later in life (St. Mary’s Food Bank)
Hunger rates in Arizona have fallen in the last decade ( 25% of children were in hungry homes in 2016). However, as we see an end to pandemic era-assistance programs, a new tax structure, grocery inflation, and cost of living increase, homelessness, hunger, and especially childhood hunger are spiking again
What we’re advocating for:
Policies addressing the burden of poverty
