The Heartland Alliance Mid-America Institute on Poverty projects that more than 400,000 people have fallen into poverty statewide since 2007. That's an increase of about 27 percent.

Two indicators of poverty are the use of food stamps and emergency food assistance.

The Illinois Department of Human Services says the state's emergency food program has distributed 36 percent more food in the first three quarters of the current fiscal year, than it did in the entire previous year.

And the number of households using food stamps jumped by 14 percent -- or an additional 82,300 households -- since December 2007.