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Executive Summary
National data from the federal government indicate that food insecurity and hunger are persistent problems in the United States and that their extent and severity are no longer as directly modulated by economic cycles as they were previously. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reports that 10.5 million households experienced food insecurity in 1998 and nearly 3.7 million of these experienced hunger.1 These household figures translate into a total of 36 million individuals -- 40 percent of them children -- living in households where, due to insufficient resources to acquire food, there is uncertain access to food or actual deprivation. Paradoxically, these compelling data come in the midst of record low unemployment and unprecedented economic growth.2
This report summarizes over 50 studies conducted since 1998 in 22 states. While all of the studies investigate various aspects of hunger and food insecurity among low-income populations, some have a national purview, others are multi-state, but the majority focus on local communities. The report is designed to be used as an annotated resource guide for organizations and individuals interested in following recent hunger and food insecurity studies. The objectives, methods, and key findings of each study are briefly summarized along with the contact information needed to obtain the report.
The study summaries presented in this report are grouped into the following categories:
- Measuring Food Needs and Hardship in General Populations
- Emergency Food Recipients and Provider Efforts
- The Impact of Changes in Public Assistance Programs on Food Security
Here are a few explanations regarding the studies included in this compendium: First, studies were selected if they were published or released since 1998 and were based on data gathered no earlier than 1995. Second, this report focuses on studies that employ methods other than the USDA's Food Security Core Module (FSCM), a validated survey instrument for assessing household food security available in a full 18-item form and also an abbreviated 6-item form (see the Appendix on the FSCM). Because of their shared methodological orientation, FSCM studies are summarized in other Food Security Institute reports. Third, for many of the studies included in this compendium, collecting information related to hunger and food insecurity was only a part -- and sometimes only a small part -- of their overall purpose. Summaries of each study's key findings are limited in this report to those aspects directly related to food security. Finally, studies investigating the effects of food insecurity and hunger on health, nutrition, and behavioral outcomes among populations in the U.S. were excluded. Published largely in scientific journals, this research area is growing in part because the FSCM has now been incorporated into several large specialized federal data-gathering efforts, some of which specifically investigate the health and nutrition outcomes of respondents.3 Ultimately, these data-gathering efforts will improve our understanding of the "costs" of food insecurity and hunger, both to individuals and to society as a whole.
Three things stand out about this collection of evidence on hunger and food insecurity in the United States:
- The impressive volume of reports and their extensive geographic diversity,
- The variety of food insecurity and hunger issues investigated, and
- The heterogeneity of approaches employed to evaluate hunger and food insecurity in the nation.
The vast majority of the 50 studies summarized in this report document problems that low-income individuals and families across the country have obtaining enough food to meet their needs. Conducted over the course of the last five years, most of these studies reflect the impact of stresses on the economic security of low-income households. These stresses are largely attributable to two powerful sets of forces: profound state-based transformations of the U.S. social welfare system brought about welfare reform instituted in the mid-1990s, and the workings of unprecedented economic growth and prosperity on labor markets and wages, the affordability of basic household needs, and economic inequality.
The wide variety of hunger and food insecurity issues explored in this collection is also noteworthy and provides a rich source of information. Over 40 percent of the studies summarized in this report investigate the impact of welfare reform changes on the food security status of former recipients. As such, they represent the earliest phase of efforts to describe and monitor the effects of welfare devolution on the food security of low-income individuals and families across America. Nearly half of the studies focus on a problem of increasing concern over the past five years - the growing need of individuals and families for emergency food supplies and the resulting stress on the nation's private network of emergency food providers to meet this need.
The methods used to collect information in these studies are extrememly varied; therefore, the empirical power of these studies is limited by their use of different questions and time periods, even when similar phenomena are under investigation. But, precisely because of the volume of evidence indicating food insecurity and hunger in the nation, it is very important to work towards greater research standardization in the future. A growing body of survey research in this field employs the USDA's Food Security Core Module (FSCM).4 To date, five years of national data have been gathered by the U.S. Census Bureau and about a dozen state and local studies have been conducted using the new instrument.5
It is significant that so many studies concerned with the economic well-being of low-income populations chose to include at least one question intended to serve as an indicator of food insecurity or hunger. Collectively, the studies included in this compendium reflect the deep concern of state and local organizations with mounting evidence of persistent hunger and food insecurity, and, within some communities and populations, their apparent increase. To our knowledge, such a volume of evidence is unparalleled since the early 1980s.
While data from these studies cannot be used to estimate the prevalence of food insecurity and hunger, they can serve to flag the existence of precarious conditions that are often associated with these problems. Many of these studies invite systematic follow-up using a standardized data collection instrument, ideally, the USDA's FSCM. The key challenge for future data-gathering efforts is to continue to promote the inclusion of food security-related questions in survey studies while strengthening their empirical power and the comparability of the evidence collected. Credibly gathered data on food insecurity and hunger can play a critical role in galvanizing and focusing the attention of the public and the media, as well as shaping the response of public officials to policies that impact the economic security of low-income households.
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