Study: 4 Million Californians Struggle to Afford Food

By Joe Ybarra, KSEE24 News

July 12, 2012 Updated Jul 12, 2012 at 7:08 PM PDT

There are many faces of hunger, the homeless, the unemployed, the working poor. People like Consuelo Robles.

In Spanish Robles said, "It's very hard, especially at the end of the month to purchase food for my kids."

According to a UCLA study, there were 4 million Californians just like Robles during the recession. More than half were Spanish speakers, also living on a low income.

Dayatra Latin with the Community Food Bank says the problem hasn't gone away, especially here in the valley. "We've been devastated from everything like water issues, the drought and all of this and we still see that ripple effect."

To put things into perspective, when the recession started the Food Bank distributed 7.5 million pounds of food a year. That number skyrocketed to 22 million in 2011.

"There's still not enough jobs, we're looking at unemployment at about 15%," Latin added, "so if you're not working it's harder to put food on the table even if you have assistance from the CalFresh program."

The Food Bank distributes food everyday. At Einstein park in Fresno, it's every Thursday. It's a weekly relief for Robles.

The Food Bank serves 90,000 people a week.

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