Household Food Security In The United States, 2007
Most U.S. households have consistent, dependable access to enough food for active, healthy living—they are food secure. But a minority of American households’ experience food insecurity at times during the year, meaning that their access to adequate food is limited by a lack of money and other resources… This report presents statistics on households’ food security, food expenditures, and use of food and nutrition assistance programs for 2007.
Eighty-nine percent of American households were food secure throughout the entire year in 2007, meaning that they had access at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members. The remaining households (11.1 percent) were food insecure at least some time during the year. About one-third of food insecure households (4.1 percent of all U.S. households) had very low food security—meaning that the food intake of one or more adults was reduced and their eating patterns were disrupted at times during the year because the household lacked money and other resources for food. Prevalence rates of food insecurity and very low food security were essentially unchanged from those in 2005 and 2006.
[Summary and abstract excerpted from report]