What's News in Idaho

Click for the News Archives


 
November 22, 2008
More than 36.2 Million Americans Struggled Against Hunger in 2007 Number in Worst-Off Households Rose 40 Percent from 2000-2007

These findings, along with two other reports that detail the extent and impact of hunger across the nation, will be discussed at “Hunger in America: An Agenda for the New President and Congress,” a policy briefing hosted by FRAC this Wednesday, November 19. For event details, click here.

According to the USDA report:

  • The 36.2 million people in food insecure households in 2007 includes 23.8 million adults (10.6 percent of all adults) and 12.4 million children (16.9 percent of all children).
  • 11.9 million people lived in households that were considered to have “very low food security,” a USDA term (previously denominated “food insecure with hunger”) that means one or more people in the household were hungry over the course of the year because of the inability to afford enough food.
    • This was up from 11.1 million in 2006 and 8.5 million in 2000. This increase in the number of people in the worst-off category is consistent with other studies and the Census Bureau poverty data, which show worsening conditions for the poorest Americans.
  • Black (22.2 percent) and Hispanic (20.1 percent) households experienced food insecurity at far higher rates than the national average.
  • The ten states with the highest food insecurity rates in the 2005-2007 period were Mississippi (17.4 percent), New Mexico (15 percent), Texas (14.8 percent), Arkansas (14.4 percent), Maine (13.3 percent), South Carolina (13.1 percent), Georgia (13 percent), Kansas (13 percent), Oklahoma (13 percent), and Missouri (12.9 percent).

Since 1995, the United States Department of Agriculture, using data from surveys conducted annually by the Census Bureau, has released estimates of the number of people in households that are food insecure. Food insecure households are those that are not able to afford an adequate diet at all times in the past 12 months. The report also includes food insecurity rates for each state, but for states uses three-year averages to give a better estimate of the number of households experiencing food insecurity. Experts agree that the Census/USDA measure of food insecurity is a conservative one, with the result that only households experiencing substantial food insecurity are so classified.

Back