Household Food Security in the United States, 2008
November 16, 2009
Recently released data from the USDA shows a dramatic spike in American households’ access to food, likely due to the recession and ballooning rates of un- and underemployment. A record-breaking 17 million American households (14.6 percent) reported that they were food insecure in 2008. Food insecurity occurs when households have limited or uncertain access to enough nutritious food for all household members.,
Even more troubling than the national numbers is the increased percentage of households with young children who are struggling to put food on the table. In 2008 among families with children under age six, 24.5 percent were food insecure compared with 18.9 percent in 2007. This 30 percent increase means almost one in every four households with young children in the U.S. lacks access to the food needed for children's healthy growth and development.
Children's HealthWatch research shows that household food insecurity puts young children at increased risk for fair or poor health, hospitalizations, iron deficiency anemia and developmental delays.
Unfortunately, but unsurprisingly, we also see an increase in the rate of child food insecurity, which occurs when parents can no longer shield their children from inadequate household food supply and must cut the size of children’s meals or have them skip meals altogether. Child food insecurity has increased by 50 percent from 0.8 percent in 2007 to 1.2 percent in 2008, which means that more than half a million children are hungry.
Immediate action across multiple sectors – food, housing, and energy assistance, to name a few - is needed to reverse these skyrocketing rates by helping America's families afford their basic needs and bring affordable, healthy food to the table. To read the USDA’s annual food insecurity report, click below.
