 Bed-Stuy – Brooklyn, New York — A 15 minute drive from Manhattan's towering financial district takes you into the heart of Brooklyn, to the neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant, better known as Bed-Stuy. Located in Kings County, New York, one of the top 10 poorest counties in the U.S., Bed-Stuy was once called the largest ghetto in the nation. And while some neighborhoods here are improving, poverty is still rampant.
- 29.5% of all Brooklyn families with children live below the federal poverty level.
- 23% of Brooklyn families have an annual income of less than $15,000.
- Within the poorest Brooklyn district, the poverty rate for families with children is 43.6%.
 Bed-Stuy's population is 77% African-American and 18% Hispanic, and the area is home to many recent immigrants to the United States.
Family-to-Family's community partner in Bed-Stuy is The BedStuy Campaign Against Hunger, (www.bedstuycampaignagainsthunger.com) a food pantry that feeds 6,000 Brooklyn residents every month..
The Reverend Melony Samuels, BSCAH’s executive director, says that with food and energy prices skyrocketing, the number of new families to her pantry – including working families who can no longer make ends meet – has soared by almost 30% in the last year.
At the same time, food supplies are down by 25% due to a decrease in federal and local funding. The result? The pantry was forced to turn away 800 people in the past year, and those who do get food are leaving with less of it.
Photos: Matias Echanove http://urbanology.org/BedStuy/
| The BedStuy Campaign Against Hunger
2004 Fulton Street
Brooklyn, New York 11233
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Source of Statistics: American Community Survey 2006, U.S. Census Bureau. |
