Food Security Stat

One of the Agriculture Department's 5-year goals has been to reduce the prevalence of very low food security among low-income households (those having incomes at 130 percent of the nation's poverty line or lower) to no more than 7.4 percent by this year. A new report, released today, suggests that achieving that goal will be next to impossible.

In 2005, the most recent year for which data are available, "the prevalence of very low food security among low-income households stood at 12.6 percent, up from 10.9 percent in 2000."

USDA defines very low food security as being where: "at times during the year, food intake of one or more household members is reduced and normal eating patterns disrupted because the household lacks sufficient money and other resources for food."

Source: Nord, M. 2007. Characteristics of Low-Income Households With Very Low Food Security: An Analysis of the USDA GPRA Food Security Indicator. USDA Economic Research Service Report #EIB-25 (May) Available at: http://
www.ers.usda.gov/publications/eib25