U.S. Hunger Reaches A 14-Year High

More Americans are going hungrier than they have in the past 14 years. The actual figure of those living in households without consistent access to food now comes to 49-million people.

It was 14 years ago that the U.S. Department of Agriculture began keeping tabs on what it calls "food insecurity". The New York Times reports that the figure of 49-million hungry Americans is the highest its been since the tracking began. The agriculture report finds that about a third of the households have what they call "very low food security", meaning not enough money to buy food for the family, so members skip meals, or portions, or forgo food entirely at certain times of the year. The rest of the group generally have enough to eat, but only because they are eating much cheaper than normal, or relying on government help like food stamps, or visiting free soup kitchens. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says,..

“These numbers are a wake-up call for the country,

” What's behind all this hunger....two main reasons. One, the rise in unemployment. Joblessness rose from 4.9 percent in 2007 to 7.2 percent at the end of 2008. Now, it is at 10.2 percent, which is bound to cause an increase in the number of Americans struggling to get enough food. Two, food prices have been rising, making everything more expensive. The food stamp rolls have grown to record levels right now, with 36 million Americans currently collecting aid,which is an increase of nearly 40 percent from two years ago. The report points out that there is a large number, nearly 500-thousand families run by single mothers in which the children face very low food security. President Obama took time during his China trip to call the finding "particularly troubling". Obama has pledged to stop childhood hunger by the year 2015. Some conservatives aren't happy with the survey's methodology, They argue it's difficult to know what is being measured. The questionnaire asks people if they've skipped meals and had hunger pangs and also whether people were worried about getting food. Then, it ranks the seriousness of their condition by the number of answers that indicate trouble. Analyst Robert Rector with the conservative Heritage Foundation does not think this works...

“Very few of these people are hungry. When they lose jobs, they constrain the kind of food they buy. That is regrettable, but it’s a far cry from a hunger crisis.”

James Weill, director of the food center used for the report, called it a careful look at an under-appreciated condition.