BATON ROUGE — New Census Bureau data shows Louisiana has the highest poverty rate in the nation, with one in five residents living below the poverty line.

The data, released Tuesday, shows Louisiana's median household income sits around $60,000 a year, far below the national median of $87,000 a year.

About 9% of Louisiana families make half of the median income. Jan Moller, CEO of Invest in Louisiana, describes that as deep poverty.

"The delta region, northeast Louisiana, Monroe and the areas along the Mississippi River are generally the poorest parts of Louisiana, but also the poorest parts of America," Moller said. "We have a lot of people who aren't just having trouble making ends meet, but really struggling to afford the very basics to keep a roof over their head, to keep food in their stomach.”

At Hope Ministries, Christy Davidson and her team stock shelves with fresh fruits and canned vegetables for families in the surrounding neighborhood. The demand has grown.

"We open our doors at eight o'clock. We take the first 30 people each day, but we're finding more and more now that when we open our doors at eight o'clock, we've got 30 people waiting in line," Davidson said.

Food banks are also feeling the pressure from federal assistance cutbacks. Last year, the federal government cut $1 billion that had gone to schools and food banks.

"There is a lot less food in the warehouses than there used to be," Davidson said. "Luckily, I have a lot of good donors and volunteers who help, but they can't do it all."