FRAC: 35.5 Million Americans Struggled Against Hunger in 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jennifer Adach, 202.986.2200 x3018

More than 35.5 Million Americans Struggled Against Hunger in 2006

Washington, D.C. – November 14, 2007 – The Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) announced that the hunger and food insecurity rates in the United States, despite national economic growth, generally were unchanged in 2006. More than 35.5 million people lived in households struggling against hunger in 2006, an increase of more than 300,000 compared to the year before. The jump in the number living in “very low food insecure” households – a phrase adopted by USDA in 2006 to replace “food insecure with hunger” was particularly large.

Today’s release of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s annual food insecurity rates shows that the number of Americans living in households that were not able to afford the food they need has risen in six of the last seven years – 2005 was the only year since 1999 to show an improvement.

“As costs for food, energy, and housing continue to rise and wages stagnate or decline, households are finding themselves increasingly strapped. Millions have difficulty affording a healthy and adequate diet,” said Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC). “This may mean even worse numbers in 2007. We need to do more to make sure that households have access to healthy food by improving and expanding proven programs that help.”

“It’s especially important for Congress to increase federal investments in nutrition programs when they have the opportunity to do so,” continued Weill. “Right now, Congress is considering the Farm Bill, which includes the Food Stamp Program. They have the chance to make it easier for households to access the program, keep benefits growing with the cost of living rather than losing ground to inflation, and raise the allowable asset and minimum benefit levels for the first time in decades. They should not let this opportunity slip away.”

According to the USDA report:

The 35.5 million number for 2006 includes 22.9 million adults (10.4 percent of all adults) and 12.6 million children (17.2 percent of all children).
11.1 million lived in households that were considered to have “very low food security,” a USDA term that means one or more people in the household were hungry over the course of the year because they couldn’t afford enough food.

This was up from 10.8 in 2005. 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 (21.8 percent) and Hispanic (19.5 percent) households experienced food insecurity at far higher rates than the national average.
The ten states with the highest food insecurity rates in 2006 were Mississippi, New Mexico, Texas, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Utah, Louisiana, Arkansas, Kentucky, and Arizona.

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.

# # #

The Food Research and Action Center (www.frac.org) is the leading national organization working for more effective public and private policies to eradicate domestic hunger and undernutrition.