Philly, here’s four stats about emergency food providers that need our attention.

In Philadelphia one in four people faces food insecurity. With over 700 food pantries, soup kitchens, and other providers, addressing this issue is vital to the city.

Every other year, The Coalition Against Hunger conducts a survey of Emergency Food Providers. The Coalition’s Emergency Food Provider Survey is aimed at identifying the issues these programs face and determine what we can do to improve food access for all.

Here are a few notable facts from this year’s report:

89.7 percent of emergency food programs surveyed either ran out of or had to provide less food to clients at some point in the last 12 months.

This survey reached 232 organizations addressing food insecurity, including 181 from Philadelphia county.

58.2 percent of feeding programs reported seeing more people now compared to the same time last year.

34.1 percent said the number remained roughly the same, while only 4.7 percent reported seeing fewer people.

60 percent of those surveyed have had to resort to staff and volunteers spending their own money to keep their feeding program running properly.

Lack of volunteers or staff was listed as the 2nd highest barrier to providing vital services.

The biggest barrier? Lack of food donations.

58.9 percent of feeding programs listed lack of food donations as their biggest challenge. Just four programs mentioned “funding” or “money” as a challenge.

You can read the full report on the hunger coalition website, and as well as their mapping of local emergency food providers.

Images via Flickr users Artfully Unforgotten, Jeffrey Beall, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and psychodelicacy.