One-in-six American households are struggling to put food on the table, the Food Research & Action Center said in a report released today. FRAC looked at food hardship surveys in 2015 and found that 16 percent of the population faced difficulty paying for food. That was a three-point decline from 2013’s 18.9 percent and “the lowest rate since early 2008.”
“It’s good to see progress, but the food hardship rate is still unacceptable,” said FRAC president Jim Weill. “The data in this report represent an economic and political failure that is leaving tens of millions of Americans struggling with hunger, and this struggle is happening in every community in America.”
The nonprofit analyzed survey data from a Gallup poll which asked 176,816 respondents, “Have there been times in the past 12 months when you did not have enough money to buy food that you or your family needed?”
The question rang true for 23 percent of Mississippi households. Southeastern states like Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana were among the 16 states that were hit hardest by food insecurity in 2015, FRAC said.
The government is expected to release its annual Household Food Security report in September, which sources its data from the U.S. Census Bureau. In 2013 the survey found that 14.3 percent of households lacked sufficient food.