Hunger Rates Similar Between Blacks in America and in African Nations

One in three people in Black America have difficulty feeding their families. And nearly the same amounts of residents of Sub-Saharan Africa are affected by chronic hunger.

Hunger affects African-Americans in similar amounts to individuals in African nations, though the impacts are more severe in Africa, according to a new report released this month.

Bread for the World, a Christian organization which seeks to end hunger globally, released “Shared History, Shared Experiences: Hunger and Poverty Among African-Americans and Africans” [PDF] this month. As of 2010, nearly one-third of African-American homes have difficulty feeding their families. One in three people in Sub-Saharan Africa, about the size of North America, suffer from chronic hunger.

The report compares Virginia, Texas and Ohio to African countries Liberia, Tanzania and Malawi. The report says:
Liberia is about the same size as Virginia, but its poverty rate is nearly quadruple that of African-Americans in that state. Similarly, three times as many Tanzanians live in poverty as do African-Americans in Texas. At 40 percent, the poverty rate in Malawi is slightly higher than the African-American poverty rate in Ohio (31 percent), but the degree of poverty is substantially greater in Malawi, where more than 40 percent of the population lives on less than $1 (U.S.) per day.

“Hunger and poverty among African-Americans mirror the unjust circumstances many people in African nations endure,” said Rev. Derrick Boykin, associate for African-American leadership outreach at Bread for the World, in a press release. “However, hunger and poverty impacts many African nations more severely, often resulting in disease or even death.”  

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(Photo: John Moore/Getty Images)