Background
The USDA has for decades implemented public policy and programs designed to optimize food availability and nutritional status among Americans. This has resulted in a diverse and intertwined set of federal food assistance programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formally referred to as the Food Stamp Program) and an overarching monitoring system designed to document factors related to food intake and nutrition. For example, the USDA annually assesses prevalence and severity of food security (defined as access at all times to enough food for an active healthy life) and its converse food insecurity. The survey also links food security status with household food expenditures and use of federal and private food assistance programs. The 15th such report was published in November, 2010.
Methods
The report was based on data collected in December, 2009 and reflects experiences of households during the prior 12 mo or 30 d. The 46,000 households completing the survey were chosen to be representative of the U.S. population. Only civilian, noninstitutionalized individuals able to report a home address were included. This is noteworthy, because it resulted in the exclusion of those who were homeless or living in tenuous housing arrangements.
Members of each childless household were asked to complete a 10-question survey assessing behaviors and experiences related to food availability and consumption during the previous year. For instance, they were asked “In the past 12 mo did you or other adults in your household never eat for a whole day because there wasn't enough money for food?” Households with children answered an additional 8 questions, such as “In the last 12 mo, did you ever cut the size of any of the children's meals because there wasn't enough money for food?” Households were classified as food insecure if they reported ≥3 food-insecure conditions. Adult-only households were further classified as having either low food security (4–5 food-insecure conditions) or very low food security (≥6 food-insecure conditions). These cutoffs were increased to 4–7 and ≥8, respectively, in households with children. In general, households characterized as having low food insecurity were ultimately able to secure sufficient food, whereas those with very low food security had at least 1 member who experienced reduced food intake.
Prevalence of food insecurity
When all households were combined, 85.3% were found to be food secure. This value is similar to that reported in 2008 but represents the lowest percentage since the establishment of the survey in 1998, when 88.2% of households were food secure. Of the food-insecure households, 5.7% had very low food security, representing a 54% increase since 1998. Only 78.7% of households with children were food secure, a value slightly lower than that reported in 2008 (79.0%) and substantially lower than in 1998 (82.4%). Very low food security was reported in 1.2% of households with children, representing a 33% increase since 1998. Levels of low food security in all households and those with children were 9.0 and 21.3%, respectively. The authors emphasized the fact that households were classified as having low or very low food security if they experienced the condition at any time during the previous 12 mo. However, the prevalence of these conditions on any given day was far below the corresponding annual prevalence. In other words, when food insecurity occurs in U.S. households, it is usually recurrent but not chronic.
Overall, rates of food insecurity for households with children headed by single women or single men, black households, and Hispanic households were substantially higher than the national average. Factors related to very low food security among households with children included having a single, female head and having children in complex living arrangements (e.g. children of other relatives or unrelated roommate or boarder). Income level was closely linked to very low food security, such that households with an income:poverty ratio <1.00 were almost 7-fold more likely to have very low food security compared with those with income:poverty ratios of ≥1.85. Children in households headed by a black or Hispanic person were also at increased risk. Whereas area of residence (urban vs. rural and geographic region) influenced risk of having low food security, this was not associated with risk for very low food security. States with the highest proportion of very low food security were Maine (6.7%) and Alabama (6.8%), and Alabama and Vermont experienced the greatest increases since 1998.
Household spending on food
The typical U.S. household spent $43.75/person each week for food in 2009 and, as expected, those with higher incomes spent more than those under the poverty level ($50 and $33, respectively). These trends were very similar when stratified by food security level, with households experiencing food insecurity spending less than those that were food secure.
Use of food and nutrition assistance programs
Among food-insecure households, 35, 34, and 14% reported having participated in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, national school lunch and breakfast programs, or the Special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Women, Infants, and Children, respectively, during the preceding 30-d period. Surprisingly, these values were, in general, somewhat lower for households with very low food security. Notably, ∼43% of food-insecure households did not participate in any of these programs. Similarly, many of the food-insecure households did not participate in community-based food assistance programs. For instance, a large majority (65%) of food-insecure households that knew there was a food pantry in their community did not make use of it.
Summary
This report confirms that food insecurity remains an important and challenging issue among American households, especially in those headed by single parents and reporting below-poverty income levels. Importantly, although some at-risk households utilize federal and community-based food assistance programs, many do not. Finding ways to close this gap between nutritional need and utilization of food assistance networks must remain an important goal for both federal and private agencies and organizations during this difficult economic period.
For more information
Free copies of the full report as well as summaries and other related information are available at http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/Err108/. Additional materials related to food security in the United States can be found at http://www.ers.usda.gov/briefing/foodsecurity/.