Fewer Americans are skipping meals or running short of money to buy food than any time since the 2008-09 recession, says the annual USDA report on food insecurity. Some 13.3 percent of Americans, or more than one in eight people, were food insecure in 2015, the lowest rate in eight years, while child food insecurity, at 9.4 percent, was the lowest in nearly two decades of recordkeeping.
Like food stamps, the food insecurity rate is highest during times of high unemployment and economic turmoil. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack credited a strengthening economy, job growth and higher wages for the steady improvement in food security since the depths of the recession, when the insecurity rate topped 16 percent for four years in a row.
“Today’s data mean that 7.9 million fewer people were struggling to provide adequate food for themselves or household members than when President Obama took office in the midst of the worst economic downtown since the Great Depression,” said Vilsack. “We must work to preserve” food stamps, which help poor people buy food, as a bulwark against hunger, he said.
Despite the lower food insecurity rate, 42.2 million people “were struggling against hunger in 2015,” said the antihunger group Food Research and Action Center (FRAC). The rate dropped by 2 percentage points from 2014 but remained above the 2007 pre-recession level of 12.2 percent.
“We know what it takes to end hunger in this country, so there can be no more excuses,” said FRAC president Jim Weill. “More must be done to raise employment rates and wages, and to protect and strengthen federal nutrition programs to ensure more low-income Americans get the nutrition they need for their health and well-being.”
The child food insecurity rate fell by 2.6 points during 2015, the lowest rate since USDA began reports on food security in 1998. Food insecurity rates were highest in the South, in single-parent households, in black or Hispanic households, and in low-income households, said USDA.
Most food-insecure households – six out of 10 – say they take part in federal nutrition programs such as food stamps, school lunch or WIC, which provides supplemental food for pregnant women, new mothers, and young children.
Congress was scheduled to renew an array of child nutrition programs this year, but action stalled after Senate and House committees approved reauthorization bills. The food stamp program is due for review in 2018 as part of an overhaul of the so-called farm bill.
USDA economists calculate the food security rate based on a survey of 53,000 households each December by the Census Bureau. Respondents are asked up to 18 questions about access to food during the past year and whether lack of money or other resources resulted in a shortage of food, poor diet, missed meals or weight loss at some point in the year.