Yesterday, the United States Department of Agriculture released its new report, “Food Security in the United States, 2008,” which shows that 49 million Americans are hungry or at risk of hunger, including nearly 17 million children. These numbers represent huge increases over the previous year–and yet they don’t reflect the full effect of the economic downturn, much of which has occurred in recent months.

The number of children in food insecure households jumped 34% in 2008 to nearly 16.7 million children. The report shows that households with children had nearly twice the rate of food insecurity, 21%, as those without children, 11.3%. Additionally, 12 million adults and 5 million children lived in households with very low food security, meaning that people in the household reduced their food intake or skipped meals because there wasn’t enough money for food. Although adults in the household typically adjust their eating patterns to shield children from hunger, in 2008, 1.1 million children still went without food at some point during the year.

Feed The Children’s Americans Feeding Americans Emergency Caravan™ has provided over 29,000 hurting families across America with nutritious food and personal care items so far. Now more than ever, it’s important to keep our Americans Feeding Americans Emergency Caravan™ on the road.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 at 10:40 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.