African-Americans in Arizona face more hunger than rest of state

PHOENIX — African-Americans in Arizona have a harder time putting food on the table than most other African-Americans in the U.S.

According to a recent report from the non-profit Bread for the World, Arizona is the fourteenth-hungriest state in the nation for African-Americans.

The report, called “Hunger and Poverty in the African-American Community,” found that, while hunger declined for the rest of the population in the last year, 153,000 more African-American households in the U.S. experienced hunger during that same time period.

In addition, one in four African-American households in Arizona — or 22 percent of African-American households in the state — are living at risk of hunger, compared to one in seven households in the rest of Arizona.

Eric Mitchell, a spokesman for Bread for the World, told KTAR News 92.3 FM that some of the factors that contribute to hunger in African-American households include high incarceration and unemployment rates, poor education and higher amounts of low-wage jobs.

Mitchell said solving the problem of hunger in African-American households — both in Arizona and across the nation — deals with “unpeeling those onions.”

Those “onions” include increasing access to good jobs, access to education, access to quality food and access to public transportation.

Other factors, such as health care, are also affected by hunger rates. Mitchell said a lack of access to nutritious food leads to chronic diseases like diabetes, obesity, which African-Americans disproportionately face higher rates of.

Mitchell said there are policies in place to ensure that African-Americans get access to those needs, but voters need to elect or push elected officials to support those policies and close those gaps.

“It’s a domino effect,” he said.

KTAR News’ Bob McClay and Jeremy Foster contributed to this report. 

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