Issues in Food Assistance. Reducing Food Insecurity in the United States: Assessing Progress Toward a National Objective

摘要

In this issues brief, we assess progress toward the objective of reducing by half the prevalence rate of food insecurity among U.S. households. We first describe the methods used to measure and monitor the food security of the Nation's households. Then, drawing on data from the annual USDA-sponsored food security surveys, we track prevalence rates of food insecurity and hunger from 1995 through 2000. We compare these statistics to the Healthy People 2010 targets, and explore the extent to which the strong economic growth during the period may have been responsible for the improvements in food security. Finally, we describe characteristics of food-insecure households to identify population groups that will need to be given more attention in order for the United States to achieve the Healthy People 2010 objective.