Is your neighbor going hungry?

The population of Long Island residents going hungry is growing, according to a report released by hunger-relief organizations Island Harvest and Long Island Cares.

“Yes, it’s true that Long Island is often thought of as affluent, but there are those who don’t have enough or don’t have some,” said Paule Pachter, executive director of Long Island Cares. “Clearly the national recession and high cost of living on Long Island has had a major impact on increasing the number of people who are hungry or considered food-insecure on Long Island.”

According to a national study conducted in 2009 and condensed by Island Harvest and Long Island Cares into “Hunger in America 2010: The Local Report for Long Island,” an estimated 283,700 people are served by the two organizations each year, which translates to 64,900 people per week. Those numbers represent a 20 percent increase in residents seeking food assistance since the last study was conducted in 2006.

Of those served by the Island Harvest-Long Island Cares network, which utilized information from 609 of the 702 L.I.-based agencies they serve:

— 63 percent of households have annual incomes below the federal poverty line — $17,163 for a household of three.

— 74 percent are “food-insecure,” a term used by the United States Department of Agriculture to describe families with a “lack of access, at times, to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members.”

— 39 percent of family members are under the age of 18.

— 48 percent of households include at least one employed adult.

The report also revealed that many of those being helped by the network regularly choose between purchasing food and purchasing a number of other necessities. Forty-nine percent of the network’s clients reported having to choose between paying for food and paying for rent or a mortgage. Thirty-six percent choose between food and medicine, and 47 percent choose between food and utilities.

Frequent gasps and murmurs among those in attendance could be heard as the results of the study were read at a Feb. 3 forum at Hofstra University.