Food insecurity in the US

Food Insecurity in the US

A new report has shown that a record high of 15 percent of Americans are having trouble putting food on the table. This number shot up to 17 million households the government reported.

The Department of Agriculture report, which has been released annually since 1995, said the number of Americans that were hungry rose to 14.6 percent. In 2007, 13 million households or 11.1 percent of Americans had trouble getting enough food, CNN Money reports.

Of the near-15 percent of the nation that couldn't secure enough food last year, the USDA said one-third of them had "very low food security," meaning they reduced the amount that they ate or disrupted their eating patterns during the year. That group made up 5.7 percent of all US households, which was also a record high.

More than 500,000 households that scaled back the amount that they ate, were households with children making up 1.3 percent of all US homes with children.

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The USDA said the main cause of hunger and food insecurity in the country is poverty.

President Obama

In reaction to the report, Obama said, "My Administration is committed to reversing the trend of rising hunger," Obama said in a statement. "The first task is to restore job growth, which will help relieve the economic pressures that make it difficult for parents to put a square meal on the table each day. But we are also taking targeted steps to prevent Americans from experiencing hunger."

Recovery Act

The recently passed stimulus bill provides US$150 million to the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) to help feed low-income individuals through various community programs.

To combat the nation's rapidly growing hunger problem, the Recovery Act allocated US$20 billion to the nation's food stamp program, and hundreds of millions of dollars to food banks and school lunch programs.

One recipient of stimulus funds was the USDA's Emergency Food Assistance Program, which was allocated an additional US$150 million from the US$787 billion economic stimulus plan.

The money is needed as food assistance programmes have seen a 30-40 percent donation shortfall at the same time as their has been a 30 percent increase in visitors.

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