As a follow-up to a prior post, a press conference was held today at which The U.S. Conference of Mayors and Sodexho, Inc. released the results of the 2007 Hunger and Homelessness Survey (PDF).
This report documents the problem of hunger and homelessness during the period of November 1, 2006 through October 31, 2007 based on information provided by the following U.S. cities -- Boston, MA; Charleston, SC; Charlotte, SC; Chicago, IL; Cleveland, OH; Denver, CO; Des Moines, IA; Detroit, MI; Kansas City, MO; Los Angeles, CA; Louisville, KY; Miami, FL; Nashville, TN; Philadelphia, PA; Phoenix, AZ; Portland, OR; Providence, RI; Salt Lake City, UT; San Francisco, CA; Santa Monica, CA; Seattle, WA; St. Paul, MN; and Trenton, NJ.
In summarizing the findings on hunger, the report states (page 10):
Overall, it appears that the need for emergency food assistance programs is continuing to increase and that cities are facing many challenges in responding to the demand for assistance. However, cities are also making progress toward eliminating hunger by increasing capacity at current programs, advocating for funding, and implementing creative responses to the problem.
A link to the complete 2007 report is provided below. This report also contains the questionnaire used in the survey.