CU-CitizenAccess.org (https://www.cu-citizenaccess.org/tag/poverty/)
The nonprofit organization Feeding America has projected Champaign County’s food insecurity rate to increase by 31% by the end of 2020 in comparison to data collected in 2018. Feeding America is a nationwide network of more than 200 food banks that feed more than 46 million people through food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, and other community-based agencies.
The number of children receiving free and reduced-cost lunches in Champaign County is on the rise as numbers across the country decline.
Of the school districts that reported, more than 51 percent of children in the county are receiving free or reduced cost lunches, up 2 percent from 2014, according to state education data.
The Head Start and Early Head Start programs in Champaign County spent about $6.8 million last year to prepare young children from low-income families for kindergarten.
But it is not enough.
Although the programs serve nearly 600 children, there are still 230 on the waiting list.
This map shows the percentage of residents in each of Champaign County’s 30 townships living below certain income levels. The figures for 2005 to 2009, taken from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, are estimates of the average number of residents living at each income level during the five-year period. The figures for 2000 are taken from the 2000 U.S. census. All income levels have been adjusted for inflation and are given in 2009 dollars. Residents living in extreme poverty earn less than 50 percent of the federal poverty level.