The United States has an affordable and abundant food supply.
Still, a small percentage of the American population experiences
food insufficiency (sometimes or often not having enough to eat).
Efforts to target assistance programs to meet the needs of this
group can be improved through a better understanding of how people
move into and out of food insufficiency, who is most vulnerable,
and how long people are food insufficient.
Researchers from ERS and The George Washington University used
newly available longitudinal data from the Survey of Program Dynamics
to study the dynamics of food insufficiency in the 1990s. They
found that under 3 percent of Americans in 1997 lived in households
that were food insufficient. Moreover, a large number of people
had escaped food insufficiency; four-fifths of those in households
that were food insufficient in 1994-95 were food sufficient 2 years
later. However, people who were in food-insufficient households
in 1994-95 were 10 times more likely than others to be in food-insufficient
households in 1997. Although food insufficiency was a relatively
transient hardship in most cases, people are indeed more likely
to experience food insufficiency in the future if they experienced
it in the past.
Food-insufficient households
Characteristics
1994-95
1997
Both years
Either year
Percent
All people
4.3
2.7
0.9
6.1
Race/ethnicity/citizenship
White
3.7
2.2
0.7
5.1
Black
8.2
6.5
2.1
12.6
Hispanic
12.2
7.7
2.9
17.0
Noncitizen
11.8
6.6
2.8
15.5
Education level
Less than high school diploma
6.5
4.6
1.7
9.4
High school diploma
3.5
1.9
0.4
4.9
College degree
0.9
0.5
0.2
1.2
Household type
Married-couple with children
3.3
1.6
0.4
4.4
Female-headed with children
13.6
12.7
4.3
22.0
ABAWD
3.1
1.5
0.3
4.2
Note: ABAWD is able-bodied adults
without dependents (whether or not food stamp recipient).
Source: Calculated using data from the 1993 Survey of Income
and Program Participation (SIPP) and 1998 Survey of Program
Dynamics (SPD). SIPP is a national longitudinal survey conducted
by the Census Bureau and designed to capture changes in income,
labor supply, household composition, and program participation.
SPD is a follow-on to the 1992 and 1993 panels of SIPP.
Food insufficiency among U.S. households varies along social and
demographic lines. Female-headed households are more
likely to experience food insufficiency and are more likely to remain food
insufficient than are other households. Disability status and changes in household
composition, such as a change in the number of household members, are both
associated with entry into food insufficiency. Completing high school increases
the likelihood of exiting food insufficiency. ERS research found that food
insufficiency depends on more than just poverty status, indicating that poverty
and food insufficiency capture
fundamentally different dimensions of economic hardship.
This evidence supports the effectiveness of the design of the
Food Stamp Program and other food assistance
programs as a safety net for low-income people, particularly those who experience
unexpected income difficulties. However, for persistently food-insufficient
households, more targeted assistance programs may be necessary.
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