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USDA monitors the food security of
the Nation's households through an annual, nationally
representative household survey. Food security
for a household means that all household members
have access at all times to enough food for an
active, healthy life. Food security is a foundation
for a healthy, well-nourished population.
The food security survey is conducted
annually by the U.S. Census Bureau as a supplement
to its monthly Current Population Survey—the
same survey that provides data for the Nation's
monthly unemployment statistics and annual poverty
rates. About 50,000 surveyed households respond
to a series of questions about food expenditures,
use of Federal and community food assistance programs,
and behaviors and experiences known to characterize
households having difficulty meeting their food
needs.
Households are classified as food secure,
food insecure without hunger, or food insecure
with hunger based on the number of food-insecure
conditions reported. Households are classified
as food insecure with hunger if their reported
food-insecure conditions suggest that one or more
household members was hungry at some time during
the year because the household could not afford
enough food. Households with children are further
classified by whether any children were hungry
at any time during the year because of the household's
lack of money and other resources for food.
The annual food security survey data
are the basis for an ERS series of reports. The
data are also used in researching the causes of
food insecurity and the role of USDA's food assistance
programs in improving food security. The survey
data (with all identifying information deleted
to protect confidentiality) are made available
to other researchers as public-use files to facilitate
research on U.S. households' food security.
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Nearly 90 percent of U.S. households were food secure throughout the entire year in 2003. About 11 percent of households had difficulty at some time during the year providing enough food for all their members due to a lack of money and other resources. Most food-insecure households obtained enough food to avoid hunger, using a variety of coping strategies, such as eating less varied diets, participating in Federal food assistance programs, or getting emergency food from community food pantries or emergency kitchens. But 3.5 percent of U.S. households were food insecure to the extent that one or more household members was hungry, at least some time during the year, because the household could not afford enough food. |
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In
U.S. households, children—especially
younger children—are usually protected
from substantial reductions in food
intake and ensuing hunger unless hunger
among adults reaches quite severe levels.
In 2003, only one-half of 1 percent
of households with children were so
severely food insecure that any of the
children was ever hungry during the
year. A substantially larger proportion
(3.8 percent) had adult members who
were hungry at times during the year
because of their households' food insecurity. |
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One
of the Nation's health objectives, expressed
in the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services' Healthy People 2010
plan, is to reduce the prevalence of
food insecurity to 6 percent, half of
its 1995 level, by the year 2010. Food
security in the U.S. improved from 1995,
when it was first measured, through
the late 1990s. Some of these gains
were eroded following the 2001 recession.
The prevalence of food insecurity differed
from the poverty rate by only a few
percentage points in each year since
1995. The similarity in levels of the
two measures is consistent with the
original concept of the poverty line—an
income level at which households could
just meet their basic needs for food
and other essentials. |
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Food insecurity is strongly associated with household income. It is, by definition, a condition that arises from a lack of enough income and other resources for food. Thirty-five percent of poor households had difficulty putting enough food on the table at times during the year compared with 8 percent of households with incomes above the poverty line. Single mothers with children were especially vulnerable to food insecurity, as were Black and Hispanic households. Households with two or more adults but no children were more food secure than the national average as were households with elderly members. |
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The prevalence of food insecurity was higher than the national average in 15 States and lower than the national average in 21 States and the District of Columbia. In the remaining 14 States, differences from the national average were small and not statistically significant. Research by ERS and others has shown that States with higher rates of food insecurity generally have the following characteristics:
- Higher than average poverty rate
- Higher than average unemployment rate or seasonally high unemployment
- High costs of housing and utilities relative to income
- High rate of residential mobility (a measure of how frequently people move)
- High proportion of the population under age 18
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