Hunger in the United States continues at highest level since 1995

Hunger Notes

Food insecurity of U.S. households in 2009 was at the highest percentage observed since food security surveys began in 1995.

Following are some of the main findings of the report by the United States Department of Agriculture:

•  In 2009, 85.3 percent of U.S. households were food secure throughout the year. The remaining 14.7 percent (17.4 million households) were food insecure, essentially unchanged from 14.6 percent in 2008. Food-insecure households had difficulty at some time during the year providing enough food for all their members due to a lack of resources. About a third of food-insecure households (6.8 million households, or 5.7 percent of all U.S. households) had very low food security, a severe range of food insecurity in which the food intake of some household members was reduced and normal eating patterns were disrupted due to limited resources. The prevalence of very low food security was unchanged from 2008.
• In the final 30-day period covered by the 2009 survey—from mid-November to mid- December—3.3 percent of households had very low food security, down from 3.6 percent during the corresponding period in 2008. Improvements were most notable for low-income households, households with children, Black non-Hispanic households, and households in the Northeast Census region.
• Children were food insecure at times during the year in 4.2 million households (10.6 percent of households with children). Although children are usually shielded from disrupted eating patterns and reduced food intake, children along with adults experienced instances of very low food security in 469,000 households (1.2 percent of households with children) in 2009, essentially unchanged from 1.3 percent in 2008.
• On a given day, the number of households with very low food security was a small fraction of the number that experienced this condition “at some time during the year.” Typically, households classified as having very low food security experienced the condition in 7 months of the year, for a few days in each of those months.
• Rates of food insecurity were substantially higher than the national average among households with incomes near or below the Federal poverty line, among households with children headed by single parents, and among Black and Hispanic households.
• Food insecurity was more common in large cities than in rural areas and in suburbs and other outlying areas around large cities.
• The typical (median) food-secure household spent 33 percent more for food than the typical food-insecure household of the same size and composition.
• Fifty-seven percent of food-insecure households in the survey reported that in the previous month they had participated in one or more of the three largest Federal food and nutrition assistance programs.