The State of Hunger in America

by: Jill Richardson

Thu Nov 19, 2009 at 11:52:43 AM PST

The report also tells how many children are going hungry. Children are often shielded from hunger as they are provided with WIC or school breakfast and lunch, and their parents are eager to give them food even if it means the parent goes hungry. Even still, 506,000 households had children going hungry. That's an increase from 323,000 households in 2007.

As you might expect, households with incomes near or below the poverty line, single parent households, and black or Hispanic households were the most likely to be food insecure. Also, inner city and rural families are more likely to be food insecure than those in the suburbs. The most food insecure region is the South, while the least food insecure region is the Northeast.

Last, many of the food insecure households surveyed used government programs or other charitable programs to help meet their food needs. In the previous month, 55% said they used one or more of the the National School Lunch, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance, or Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children programs in the previous month.  Also, in the past year, 20% used food pantries and 2.6% ate one or more meals at a community emergency kitchen.

I've pasted the Community Food Security Coalition's response to the report below.

On Monday, November 16, 2009, the USDA released its annual Household Food Security in the United States Report based on findings from the Economic Research Service (ERS). Sadly, the 2008 report shows the highest levels of domestic food insecurity in the United States since USDA began tracking these national statistics in 1995. The report shows that 17 million (14.6%) US households were food insecure in 2008, an increase from 13 million (11.1%) households in 2007. At a Senate Agriculture Committee Hearing on Child Nutrition Reauthorization on Tuesday, November 17th, USDA Secretary Vilsack stated that this was the largest increase in any one-year period in the history of this report.

17 million households "did not have access by all people at all times to enough food." According to USDA, over 49 million people lived in these households, thus 49 million people went without access to sufficient food during 2008. The report also noted that more than one in five children went without enough food during 2008. And, as expected, rates of food insecurity were highest in households with incomes near or below the federal poverty line, with children headed by a single adult, and that are Black or Hispanic. Additionally, households in large cities and rural areas were more commonly food insecure than in suburban and outlying city areas.

With the current economic situation, and the soaring rates of unemployment, these numbers are likely to get worse before they get better. According to Jim Weill, Food Research and Action Center president, "As the recession hit, the number of Americans in households struggling against hunger skyrocketed to one in six last year, and it's likely that the number is even higher today. Millions have lost jobs or seen their wages reduced over the past two years. While many more people are turning to the federal nutrition programs for help, those programs don't reach enough people and their benefits often aren't enough to stop hunger... A strong economy, better wages, better income supports, and stronger SNAP/Food Stamp and child nutrition programs are the key steps."

The Community Food Security Coalition and the nation's leading anti-hunger organizations, working together as the National Anti-Hunger Organizations (NAHO), have updated A Blueprint to End Hunger [PDF], which outlines the steps needed to fight hunger in this country. In the Blueprint, NAHO argues that solving hunger will require a commitment from all sectors of society - government, businesses, nonprofits, and individuals - and specifies the actions needed from each sector.

We encourage you to review this report, as well as the following fact sheet [PDF] that CFSC has prepared regarding the ERS report.

Related Documents:

CFSC Fact Sheet about the ERS report [PDF]
A Blueprint to End Hunger [PDF]
USDA Household Food Security in the United States Report, 2008