The Idaho Food Bank IFB will release the Idaho Hunger Report as well as the quadrennial national Hunger Report Wednesday morning in the Statehouse in Boise.

Karen Vauck, president and CEO of IFB, will speak about the ramifications of the study and report on increased number of people seeking food assistance since the last report was released in 2006.

The primary study, the national Hunger Report, conducted by Feeding America, will provide the first comprehensive results tying the recent economic downturn to hunger problems in the country.  Feeding America is a network of food banks, including IFB, that coordinates efforts on every level to provide Americans with food aid.

According to Feeding America:

Feeding America provides food to 37 million Americans, including 14 million children, annually. This is an increase of 46 percent since 2006, when they were feeding 25 million Americans, including 9 million children, each year.

That means one in eight Americans now rely on Feeding America for groceries.

Feeding America's nationwide network of food banks is feeding 1 million more Americans each week than we did in 2006.

Thirty-six percent of the households served have at least one person working.

More than one-third of households report having to choose between food and other basic necessities, such as rent, utilities and medical care.

IFB spokesman David Proctor says Vauck will report  that Idaho’s hunger trends are almost lockstep with national trends  and that IFB will report “dramatic growth in the number of people we’re feeding.”

The United States Department of Agriculture reports that of the estimated 144,000 Idahoans at risk of hunger, approximately 65,000 of those are children.

The meeting will be held in room WW5 in the lower west wing of the Capitol.  It is open to the general public, legislators, and the media.