REALTORS® team with Albertsons for Food Drive

Spokane still has its hungry citizens. Working to help the hungry, the Spokane Association of REALTORS® will be available to accept nonperishable donations at all area Albertsons stores from 1-7 p.m., Thursday and Friday, Sept. 14-15 in conjunction with Albertsons Food and Drug.

Buy a child a lunch by donating to the food barrels available at all Spokane area Albertsons stores during the drive. Second Harvest Inland Northwest, which has been feeding hope since 1972, has found that little has changed for our hungry neighbors. And, for families and senior citizens with very limited resources, that is not good news.

Statistics from its 19th annual client survey reveal some important findings:

•1. Nearly half — 44 percent — of emergency food clients are 18 years old and younger.

•2. Eleven percent of clients are seniors, age 55 and older.

•3. The average size of an emergency food client house hold is three.

•4. Single parents head 27 percent of households; of those, 89 percent are single mothers.

•5. Fifty-seven percent of clients have lived in Spokane County for more than 10 years.

•6. Ninety-seven percent of clients are very low income, earning less that 50 percent of the median income for the area.

•7. Eighty percent of client households report income below the federal poverty level.

•8. Fifty-one percent of the wage-earners worked sometime during the last year.

•9. Fifty-four percent of parents have gone without food so their children could eat.

•10. Fifty-one percent of people in households without children go without food when they run low on groceries. Of those, 22 percent skipped meals every day.

Give what you can.