Hunger Looks Like Me

There is a tremendous need to address the growing epidemic of hunger in and around Chicago. A family of four that is poor by the federal government's definition has an annual income below $22,050. A family that is extremely poor has an annual income below $11,025.

The number of our neighbors who are poor and hungry already tops more than two million people in the six-county Chicago region alone.

  • 936,259 men, women and children now live in poverty.
  • 1,277,860 are at risk of falling into poverty.

This is not a problem simply facing the homeless - in fact, 61 percent of working poor families cope with the inability to afford food for themselves and their children.* This means that each night, countless children in Chicago are going to bed hungry. Meanwhile their parents are making hard decisions about whether to buy food for their children or to pay for a roof over their heads.

For just $132, the Chicago Metropolitan Division can provide enough groceries to feed a family of four for a month.

Your contribution can help fund the feeding programs
provided by The Salvation Army throughout the Greater Chicagoland area:

  • Food distributions to families and individuals
  • Mobile feeding programs and feeding center meals for the homeless
  • Home-delivered and residences meals for seniors
  • Day-care and after-school meals for children

Make a Donation

 

Take Action

Hunger Looks Like Me Challenge Your Friends Start a Team Join a Team Make A Donation Get involved by creating your own personal fundraiser. Invite your friends and family. Make it a competition to see who can get the most donations and fill up a grocery bag.

 

Stop Hunger in The Greater Chicagoland area

Hunger in the News

 

 

Did you know...

  • 36.2 million Americans struggled with hunger last year... including 12.2 million children.
  • 3 million seniors sought meal services last year.
  • Many Illinoisans, even some of those who are employed, can't afford enough food to feed their families without assistance.
  • In Cook County alone, visits to food pantries increased 33 percent in the last quarter of 2008 compared to the same period the year before.
  • The Salvation Army provided more than 60 million meals and snacks to hungry people nationwide last year...12 million were children.
  • Last year, 1,836,998 meals were delivered to hungry individuals in the metropolitan Chicago area, mostly to children and to the elderly.
  • Each month, our mobile feeding vans deliver 7,000 meals to men, women and children who are homeless and living on the streets.

 

*According to a 2005 study conducted by the Greater Chicago Food Depository and the University of Chicago