07-03-2009, 08:46 PM
A VERY conservative number from the Government [so at least double - more likely triple or quadruple, by now]:
The U.S. Department of Agriculture released its annual report on food security in America yesterday, which showed that one in eight Americans—over 36 million people—struggled to feed themselves during 2007. And that was even before the economic downturn.
The number of hungriest Americans—those defined by the USDA as having very low food security—rose 40 percent since Bush entered office, from 8.5 million in 2000 to 11.9 million in 2007. The number of children in this category more than doubled last year to 691,000 and is the largest figure since 1998, when 716,000 children had very low food security. There is no doubt that the situation has worsened since then.
Children and adults living in families with incomes below the poverty line were at the greatest risk of hunger—37.7 percent of poor households were food insecure last year. Over a third of households headed by single mothers, 22 percent of black households, and 20 percent of Hispanic households lacked enough money and resources for food and faced hunger at far higher rates than the national average.
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2...unger.html
The U.S. Department of Agriculture released its annual report on food security in America yesterday, which showed that one in eight Americans—over 36 million people—struggled to feed themselves during 2007. And that was even before the economic downturn.
The number of hungriest Americans—those defined by the USDA as having very low food security—rose 40 percent since Bush entered office, from 8.5 million in 2000 to 11.9 million in 2007. The number of children in this category more than doubled last year to 691,000 and is the largest figure since 1998, when 716,000 children had very low food security. There is no doubt that the situation has worsened since then.
Children and adults living in families with incomes below the poverty line were at the greatest risk of hunger—37.7 percent of poor households were food insecure last year. Over a third of households headed by single mothers, 22 percent of black households, and 20 percent of Hispanic households lacked enough money and resources for food and faced hunger at far higher rates than the national average.
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2...unger.html