Clark Wolf is the host and organizer. The panel—on food and politics—includes me, talking about my memoir, Slow Cooked, An Unexpected Life in Food Politics; Chloe Sorvino, author of Raw Deal: Hidden Corruption, Corporate Greed, and the Fight for the Future of Meat; Alex Prud’homme, author of Dinner With The President: Food, Politics and the History of Breaking Bread at the White House; and Tanya Holland, author of Tanya Holland’s California Soul. Free, but register here. It starts at 5:00 p.m. and lasts one hour.
by Marion Nestle
Sep
8
2016
Good news: U.S. Household food security improves!
The USDA has just released its annual summary of statistics on national food insecurity, with these encouraging results.
Both total and very low food security have declined since 2014 and are heading back to the lower levels observed in the early 2000s.
The USDA defines food insecurity as not having enough resources to provide food for family members.
The new data show:
- Households considered food insecure = 12.7%
- Households considered severely food insecure = 5%
- Households with children who are food insecure = 7.8%
- Food insecurity is higher in households headed by single parents, especially those who are Black or Hispanic
- Food insecurity is higher in some states (e.g., Mississippi = 20.8%) than others (e.g., North Dakota = 8.5%)
- Food-insecure households participating in federal food assistance programs = 59%
These figures are better than last year’s, but still need improving.
The bottom line: federal food assistance programs do not do enough to alleviate food insecurity, even among households enrolled in them.