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One in
seven US households faced hunger in 2009
Tuesday November 16, 2010 03:23:20 PM,
Arun Kumar, IANS
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Washington:
At least one in seven households in the US faced hunger
in 2009, with those getting emergency food almost doubling between
2007 and 2009, at the height of the recession.
The number of households facing food insecurity jumped to 5.6
million from 3.9 million, said a report published Monday by the
Economic Research Service (ERS) of the US department of
agriculture (USDA).
Eightyfive percent of American households were "food secure"
throughout 2009, meaning that they had access at all times to
enough food for an active, healthy life for all members of the
household, the report said.
But the remaining households (14.7 percent) were "food insecure"
at least some time during the year, including 5.7 percent with
very low food security, it said.
In households with very low food security, the food intake of one
or more household members fell and their eating patterns were
disrupted at times because they lacked money and other resources.
Food insecurity and very low food security in 2009 was 14.6
percent in 2008 and 11.1 percent in 2007, and was the highest
since since 1995, when the first national food security survey was
conducted.
Among states, food insecurity ranged from a 6.7 percent level in
North Dakota to a 17.7 percent high in Arkansas, as measured over
a three-year period through 2009.
Very low food security ranged from North Dakota's 2.6 percent to
Alabama's 6.8 percent.
The typical food-secure household spent 33 percent more on food
than the typical food-insecure household of the same size and
household composition.
Fiftyseven percent of all food-insecure households participated in
one or more of the three largest federal food and nutrition
assistance programmes during the month prior to the 2009 survey.
The USDA oversees the government's food stamp programme, also
known the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programme (SNAP), for
low-income families and other domestic feeding programmes like
school lunches.
(Arun Kumar can
be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)
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