Report: Food Security in the US

Posted on November 16, 2009 by townsend

• Report: More Americans going hungry, By Amy Goldstein, November 16, 2009, Washington Post: “The number of Americans who lack dependable access to adequate food shot up last year to 49 million, the largest number since the government has been keeping track, according to a federal report released Monday that shows particularly steep increases in food scarcity among families with children. In 2008, the report found, nearly 17 million children — more than one in five across the United States — were living in households in which food at times ran short, up from slightly more than 12 million youngsters the year before. And the number of children who sometimes were outright hungry rose from nearly 700,000 to almost 1.1 million…”
• Hunger in U.S. at a 14-year high, By Jason DeParle, November 16, 2009, New York Times: “The number of Americans who lived in households that lacked consistent access to adequate food soared last year, to 49 million, the highest since the government began tracking what it calls ‘food insecurity’ 14 years ago, the Department of Agriculture reported Monday. The increase, of 13 million Americans, was much larger than even the most pessimistic observers of hunger trends had expected and cast an alarming light on the daily hardships caused by the recession’s punishing effect on jobs and wages. About a third of these struggling households had what the researchers called ‘very low food security,’ meaning lack of money forced members to skip meals, cut portions or otherwise forgo food at some point in the year…”
• More U.S. households report food shortages, By Scott Kilman, November 16, 2009, Wall Street Journal: “The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Monday that 17 million U.S. households experienced some sort of food shortage in 2008, up 31% from 13 million households in 2007. In 2008, a year marked by rising food costs and recession, the prevalence of ‘food insecurity’ in the U.S. soared to the highest levels in the history of the USDA’s national annual survey, which began in 1995. According to the survey, 14.6% of U.S. households experienced food insecurity at least some time during 2008, up from the 11.1% of U.S. households in 2007 that fell into the USDA’s definition of food insecure…”