Steven Carlson

Measuring Food Insecurity and Hunger in the United States: Development of a National Benchmark Measure and Prevalence Estimates

Since 1992, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) has led a collaborative effort to develop a comprehensive benchmark measure of the severity and prevalence of food insecurity and hunger in the United States. Based on prior research and wide consultation, a survey instrument specifically relevant to U.S. conditions was designed and tested. Through its Current Population Survey (CPS), the U.S. Bureau of the Census has fielded this instrument each year since 1995. A measurement scale was derived from the data through fitting, testing and validating a Rasch scale. The unidimensional Rasch model corresponds to the form of the phenomenon being measured, i.e., the severity of food insufficiency due to inadequate resources as directly experienced and reported in U.S. households. A categorical measure reflecting designated ranges of severity on the scale was constructed for consistent comparison of prevalence estimates over time and across population groups. The technical basis and initial results of the new measure were reported in September 1997. For the 12 months ending April 1995, an estimated 11.9% of U.S. households (35 million persons) were food insecure. Among these, 4.1% of households (with 6.9 million adults and 4.3 million children) showed a recurring pattern of hunger due to inadequate resources for one or more of their adult and/or child members sometime during the period. The new measure has been incorporated into other federal surveys and is being used by researchers throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Household Food Security in the United States in 2010

An estimated 85.5 percent of American households were food secure throughout the entire year in 2010, meaning that they had access at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members. The remaining households (14.5 percent) were food insecure at least some time during the year, including 5.4 percent with very low food security—meaning that the food intake of one or more household members was reduced and their eating patterns were disrupted at times during the year because the household lacked money and other resources for food. The prevalence rate of very low food security declined from 5.7 percent in 2009, while the change in food insecurity overall (from 14.7 percent in 2009) was not statistically significant. The typical food-secure household spent 27 percent more on food than the typical food-insecure household of the same size and household composition. Fifty-nine percent of all food-insecure households participated in one or more of the three largest Federal food and nutrition assistance programs during the month prior to the 2010 survey.