Wednesday, September 7th 2016
The number of U.S. households where people don't get enough to eat dropped significantly last year, but the level of food insecurity still remains higher than before the 2008 recession, according to a USDA report. The latest edition of the food insecurity report from USDA's Economic Research Service concludes that 12.7 percent of U.S. households - about 15.8 million - experienced food insecurity at some point in 2015, down from 14 percent in 2014 and an even steeper drop from a high of 14.9 percent in 2011. The number of food insecure households skyrocketed after 2007. In that pre-recession year only about 13 million households were considered food insecure, but that number jumped by about 31 percent to 17 million in 2008. USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack lauded the report's finding, calling the decrease a victory for the Obama administration. About 7.8 percent of U.S. households - roughly 3 million - were home to children who either struggled to get food or didn't get enough to eat in 2015, the USDA report concluded. That's down from 9.4 percent, or 3.7 million households, in 2014. Still, the report says about 274,000 households with children experienced “very low” food security conditions, where caregivers reported that children “were hungry, skipped a meal, or did not eat for a whole day because there was not enough money for food.” Data in the report show that only about 59 percent of households that reported food insecurity participated in federal assistance programs such as SNAP, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) or free or reduced school lunches. Also, many states have recently begun reinstating time limits on how long childless adults can receive SNAP. These people, officially called “ablebodied adults without dependents,” can only receive SNAP for three months in a three-year span if they do not meet work requirements.