Food Insecurity: 1 in 6 Americans Struggles to Buy Food
EmailThe number of Americans struggling to put food on the table remains at record levels though the Obama administration says the government’s safety net has kept hunger from getting worse.
The USDA reports about one out of every six Americans had trouble coming up with enough money to buy food at some point last year.
That’s nearly 49 million people – 14.5 percent of the population – a figure virtually unchanged from previous year.
That marks a second consecutive year that the USDA’s annual hunger survey has found ”food insecurity” at the highest levels since the government started the report in 1995.
On a dimly lit bright side, there has been a very slight drop in the number of people who say things were so bad that they had run out of food, skipped meals or otherwise cut back on eating on one or more occasions. More than 16 million people lived in these hardest-hit homes.
“Many of those adults reported being hungry at times because they couldn’t afford enough food,” said Kevin Concannon, the USDA’s undersecretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services.
The USDA classifies this as having “very low food security.” For most, episodes of extreme need were “occasional or episodic.” But nearly a quarter of those reporting the worst conditions said it had been a fact of life in three or more months.
While the numbers are “cause for concern,” Colcannon said, they would be more troubling if not for a patchwork of 15 federal food aid programs. For example, more than 45 million people are receiving SNAP benefits, formerly known as “food stamps.” And nearly 9 million are receiving aid under the WIC program for women, infants and children.
“What is really important to learn is that these numbers did not increase in this past year despite persistent poverty and unemployment right across the country,” Colcannon said.
About 6 in 10 struggling households reported receiving SNAP, WIC or government-subsidized school lunches in the survey, conducted last December in 45,000 phone interviews.
An expert in psychology and survey research contacted by ABC News via email said “a large academic literature in psychology and other social sciences indicates that answers to these questions are likely to be influenced” by the way they are worded.
“In general, when a question offers an assertion (e.g., “We worried whether our food would run out …”) and asks whether the assertion is true, respondents experience pressure to answer affirmatively,” wrote Professor Jon Krosnick, director of the Political Psychology Research Group at Stanford University. ”And some people, typically about 10 percent to 15 percent, give in to that pressure and answer affirmatively as a result.”
“So my guess is that these questions are likely to exaggerate the proportion of respondents who said they experienced each of the conditions asked about,” he added.
The author of the report, USDA economist Alisha Coleman-Jensen, said the questions had been endorsed by the Committee on National Statistics, a panel of the nation’s top statisticians.
“Overall the measure is valid and reliable,” she said. “And it has been used for several years.”
And if anything, USDA researchers say, the report understates the problem of hunger because it does not include the homeless.
RSS
Twitter
Facebook
I’m sure the Tea Party likes these stats…
Posted by: justayreal74 | September 7, 2011, 2:29 pm 2:29 pm
Oh and take away the government programs, the Tea Party will be jumping for joy even more…
Posted by: justayreal74 | September 7, 2011, 2:31 pm 2:31 pm
Smiling from ear to ear…
Posted by: justayreal74 | September 7, 2011, 2:31 pm 2:31 pm
The GROSS INCOMPETENCE of NO-PLAN OBOZO and bailout bernanke have created the “perfect storm” for America – they’ve brought back jimmy “the peanut” carter’s STAGFLATION.
Posted by: TeaPartyNation | September 7, 2011, 3:12 pm 3:12 pm
I see ABC is starting early to justify the millions possibly billions of dollars in Obama’s job creation plan early. I know several people that get food stamps and trade them for all kinds of things, gambling, give them to their grown children ect. Im not buying this mainly because Obama thinks everyone needs something. This is nothing new and has been going on for years..We need to wean these people or put them to work mowing the city grass, or working on something but this free stuff only breeds more helpless people.
Posted by: Soni | September 7, 2011, 3:39 pm 3:39 pm
Problem is partly energy costs, running up the cost of transportation.
No solution in sight, and no relief in sight either.
The world’s population is too large, and growing exponentially, increasing demand on fewer resources, and energy continues to escalate, raising the cost of transporting food to markets.
Food cost will continue to rise, even while salaries for workers fall.
Posted by: Rick McDaniel | September 7, 2011, 3:43 pm 3:43 pm
If you can’t feed them don’t breed them. If you can’t raise them don’t breed them, if you can’t feed yourself don’t breed, if you do stop coming to society for help. Life is a gamble always has been always will be, there are no guarantees in life other than you will die, jobs cannot be guaranteed, food cannot be guaranteed, health care cannot be guaranteed, simply because they are finite resources, with more people seeking them than can get them.
Posted by: snewsom2997 | September 7, 2011, 4:31 pm 4:31 pm
Make work is not a career, it is a job, people need careers not jobs.
Posted by: snewsom2997 | September 7, 2011, 4:32 pm 4:32 pm
Snewsom I hope you have to eat some of this some day yourself. For the life of me I don’t get why every time we read people are having a hard time some of you have to sound like you do. Get over yourself.
Posted by: Secondlook | September 7, 2011, 5:01 pm 5:01 pm
X you make a good case, now tell your fans why we are having all these problems you post. Most of them have Clinton’s name on them.
Posted by: specmach | September 7, 2011, 5:11 pm 5:11 pm
Will not take much to take this failed administration out. What or how do they have anything to debate about but lies?
Posted by: specmach | September 7, 2011, 5:14 pm 5:14 pm
My grandmother was a widow who fed five children and her blind mother during the Depression on a dried up farm in OK during the Dust Bowl. They drove to town to get barrels of water until they were no longer allowed. She raised most of their food in a big garden, canned 100 qts of everything for the winter, raised chickens, fought off hordes of grasshoppers, survived winter freezes that killed the cows, and had a couple of house fires. She also worked at the school. Her neighbors and family helped; she helped them; and they all worked very hard. My mother was never hungry. Poor, but never hungry. No FEMA. No Red Cross. No food stamps. Nothing much more than a proud legacy to pass on to her family. Now we pass on dependency, victimhood and failure.
Posted by: Msknowitall | September 7, 2011, 5:53 pm 5:53 pm
SNEWSOM2997 | SEPTEMBER 7, 2011, 4:31 PM 4:31 PM POSTED: “If you can’t feed yourself don’t breed, if you do stop coming to society for help.”
Welcome to the new Libertarian flavored GOP. Ignore the fact that poor and middle class women need to KNOW about and AFFORD family planning for fewer children and healthier babies. The GOP solution is to “be responsible” while Tea Partiers knee-cap programs like sex education in schools and Planned Parenthood. Appalling ignorance.
In their Ayn Rand fictional universe, “productive” citizens are predestined to be intelligent, educated, advantaged, well fed, and cultivated into decision makers. The other class of “moochers” and “parasites” (Rand’s words) are given the task of becoming low paid servants.
I always thought our United States of America was a compassionate society that planned to prevent social problems and helped citizens who cannot fend for themselves – kids, elderly, handicapped and down-and-out. You know, so they don’t starve in the streets and families can remain intact through tough times.
But the neo-Libertarian GOP, funded by corporate John Birchers, want to destroy our safety net – to reshape the UNITED States of America into a heartless, soulless place where a lucky few have “liberty” to scrabble for Me, My, Mine. A place where we worship the Invisible Hand of the Free Market.
They are a minority. We cannot allow them to damage our nation’s future. NOT ONE piece of credible job legislation has come out of the Republican House in ten months. NOT ONE ! Vote these people gone.
Posted by: green.goddess | September 7, 2011, 6:18 pm 6:18 pm
MSKNOWITALL | SEPTEMBER 7, 2011, 5:53 PM 5:53 PM POSTED: “My mother was never hungry. Poor, but never hungry. No FEMA. No Red Cross. No food stamps. Nothing much more than a proud legacy to pass on to her family. Now we pass on dependency, victimhood and failure.”
Many American families have similar stories to be proud of – your grandmother sounds remarkable. However, since the Great Depression, America has become mostly urban while our population more than doubled. People in cities cannot raise enough crops to make it through the winter.
So in today’s world, when our citizens are out of work, or born into a bad situation, or suddenly handicapped – through no fault of their own – why is assistance from neighbors across the UNITED States of America to help them through hard times considered “dependency, victimhood and failure”?
Posted by: green.goddess | September 7, 2011, 6:58 pm 6:58 pm
People blaming the Tea Party have no clue what the Tea Party is about. Shoot the messager.
Posted by: Obama has no Clue | September 8, 2011, 10:06 am 10:06 am
OBAMA HAS NO CLUE | SEPTEMBER 8, 2011, 10:06 AM 10:06 AM posted: “People blaming the Tea Party have no clue what the Tea Party is about.”
Actions speak louder than words. House Republicans who claim to support the Tea Party’s views are obstructionists who refuse to put tax changes on the table. Tea Party supported Governors in states like Florida and Wisconsin morphed into Big Government dictators. “What the Tea Party is about” is clearly there for every citizen to see.
Tea Party members may think it’s all about “liberty” and the constitution, but these noble ideals are being duped and used. In reality, the Tea Party is a smoke screen to implement Big Corporate interests, cooked up and funded by the richest men in America. Vote them GONE.
Posted by: green.goddess | September 8, 2011, 10:31 am 10:31 am
No the libertarians want to put charity back where it belongs in the hands of individuals citizens. Family Planning is simple, if you don’t want to have kids don’t have sex, if you can’t control yourself pay the consequences. Parents can teach sex education, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to put a condom on a cucumber, nor does it take a rocket scientist to say don’t put things in unknown holes, and don’t allow unknown things to be put in yours. Sex education is a parental responsibility period, having kids is the parents responsibility, period, feed clothing, sheltering, and educating kids is the parents responsibility period. In Capitalism they are low paid servants none the less, you are paid according to your skills have no skills get no pay, have the same skills a 2 billion other people and have little pay. It isn’t up to the government it is up to you, the government cannot learn for you, the government cannot make you do your homework, so failure is the parents and the kids responsibility not societies.
Posted by: snewsom2997 | September 8, 2011, 11:27 am 11:27 am
Posted by: green.goddess—No different than the democrats being obstructionists to republican ideas, we have a diametrically opposed society, so unless we agree on something it won’t get done, otherwise you will end up alienating half the electorate, by forcing your ideas down their throats. The federal government isn’t supposed to do anything other than govern, not take care of people, not provide a safety net, not socialize failure, just a common economy, common defense, a constitution. Of course we don’t even agree on that so what we have is a government that itself doesn’t even follow the rule of law they write for the rest of us.
Posted by: snewsom2997 | September 8, 2011, 11:31 am 11:31 am
SNEWSOM2997 | SEPTEMBER 8, 2011, 11:27 AM 11:27 AM POSTED: “failure is the parents and the kids responsibility not societies”.
Libertarians live in a simplistic universe where there is no sickness, poverty, accidents, or ignorance that cannot be magically fixed by lecturing about more “Responsibility”.
In Libertarian land, there is no calculation for how much suffering is a worthy trade for the extra “liberty” THEY would experience by eliminating evil government social programs to help the uneducated, the unemployed, handicapped citizens, little kids, or the unemployable.
All it takes is one look at the Republicans in the House to see why no nation on earth has a Libertarian government. Vote them GONE.
Posted by: green.goddess | September 8, 2011, 12:29 pm 12:29 pm
Posted by: green.goddess—No, there is sickness, there is poverty, there are accidents and people do die from them, the country can no longer afford o socialize risk and consequences. Cry me a river. The world is harsh, it is, no matter what people say, bring your A game or die, it is as simple as that. Try as hard as you can until you make it or die trying, that is what life is, even once you make it you can still fall back down so you can never quit, once you quit, once you give up, that’s it. What part of equality don’t you get, everything that makes us equal we are born with, it isn’t bought, it isn’t given, you are born with it, anything after that is up to your personal ability. Yes people are on hard times, but the people on hard times gave up at some point, they tried to skate and just get away with the bare minimum, and this isn’t the 50′s that no longer works. Those that fail to realize that or do nothing about it are doomed to poverty and begging for handouts. Didn’t your parents ever tell you average isn’t good enough, mine did and they were right, average isn’t good enough as long as there are 2 billion average Chinese and Indians, and no amount of government spending, no amount of wellfare, will stop that and it is as simple as that. In accepting Globalization we have turned the world back into the jungle where the most competitive get jobs and resources, the wolves win and the sheep get eaten. It isn’t the way I want it but it is the way it is, and nothing can change that, the genie is out of the bottle.
Posted by: snewsom2997 | September 8, 2011, 1:01 pm 1:01 pm