The Hartford Food System

Background · Importance · Staff · Newsletter

Why Is The Work Of Hartford Food System Important?

The evidence continues to grow that most Americans don't eat well. Public health statistics report increasing rates of diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease, as well as other health concerns that are strongly linked to diet. Rates of these illnesses are much higher in low-income communities than in high-income communities. Millions of Americans are classified as food insecure -- they lack easy access to nutritious and affordable food. Despite the efforts of concerned organizations and individuals, the need for food security and education about nutrition is rising.

National figures show:

22.5% of all Americans qualify as clinically obese, up from 14.5% in 1980
the number of Americans with diabetes has increased six-fold since 1958.
the vast majority of children are not meeting the federal guidelines for a healthy diet

In Connecticut, food security issues are wide-ranging:

230,000 people in Connecticut are food insecure(6.8%) and almost 90,000 people are hungry at some point during the year.
In greater Hartford, 100,000 people receive food from food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters, and 40,000 of them are children.
Hartford is the second poorest city in the nation based on the percentage (31%) of residents living below the poverty level. Almost 44% of the children in Hartford, or 16,000 kids, live below the poverty level. Poverty in Hartford County has increased 47% since 1989 to 97,538 people.
In Hartford, only 34% of children are receiving free and reduced price school breakfast compared to free and reduced price school lunch.(2003)
Over 17% of Latino children between the ages of one and six in Hartford are obese. They report eating 6.63 servings per day of sweet products and only 3.24 servings per day of fruits and/or vegetables.
Connecticut Food Bank and Foodshare together distributed 18.8 million pounds of food to 930 local charitable feeding programs, food that resulted in 14 million meals. This was an increase of one million pounds of food from the previous year.
Federal food assistance programs are underfunded and in some cases they are underutilized because of access and enrollment issues. End Hunger Connecticut! reports that 40% of households eligible for food stamps currently do not receive them.
In 2002, over three million meals were served to elderly people eligible through Meals on Wheels or congregate meal sevices in Connecticut.
Results from a City of Hartford Advisory Commission on Food Policy survey have found that those who are dependent on buses for their food shopping generally experience more difficulty than those who are not transit-dependent. Difficulties most often cited are not being able to buy enough food to feed their family and/or buy sufficient quantities of perishable items such as produce and dairy products.
Between 1997-2002 Connecticut lost 12.08% of its farmland, the largest percentage loss of any state in the United States. This amounted to a loss of 700 farms of all types.
HFS targets these problems, as well as the larger socioeconomic issues that effect the production and distribution of food.

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