The Weekly Food Research and Action Center News Digest highlights what's new on hunger, nutrition and poverty issues at FRAC, at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, around the network of national, state and local anti-poverty and anti-hunger organizations, and in the media. The Digest will alert you to trends, reports, news items and resources and, when available, link you directly to them.

This week, USDA released its annual food insecurity numbers. FRAC issued a news release on Monday analyzing the numbers and consequences. On Wednesday, FRAC held a press conference and forum at the National Press Club to discuss those numbers, and to discuss two new reports - FRAC's State of the States and the Partnership for America's Economic Success's impact of child hunger report. This special issue of the FRAC News Digest provides some of the coverage of the Monday and Wednesday events.

1. USDA Report Shows Rise in Hunger Across America and Need to End Childhood Hunger
(CNN/AP, November 17, 2008; UK Guardian/Reuters, November 17, 2008; The Latino Journal, November 18, 2008)

USDA's annual report on food security released this week shows that nearly one in eight Americans struggled with hunger - also known as food insecurity - in 2007, and 691,000 children went hungry in the same time period. The figure for children is the highest number of children suffering from hunger since 1998. Results of the current economic downturn are not reflected in the report, said James Weill, FRAC president, as the current economic crisis will most likely make the 2008 numbers significantly higher. The USDA finding, he added, "should increase pressure to meet President-elect Barack Obama's campaign pledge to expand food aid and end childhood hunger by 2015." States with the highest prevalence of food insecurity during 2005-2007:

Mississippi - 17.4 percent;
New Mexico - 15 percent;
Texas - 14.8 percent;
Arkansas - 14.4 percent.

In addition, food insecurity rates were highest among minority groups, poor people, and in women-headed single-parent households. Overall, 12.2 percent, or 36.2 million, adults and children lacked enough money or assistance for enough food to live healthy, active lives, up from 35.5 million in 2006. The number of Americans who went hungry at some point during the year was 11.9 million, up 40 percent from the year 2000.

2. U.S. Food Insecurity Rates Spur Support of Food Stamp Increase in Next Economic Stimulus Package
(Daily Kos, November 20, 2008)

Among the daily talk of $700 billion bailouts, automobile company rescues, and the Dow Jones average plunging below 8000 points for the first time in five years, there is data that is getting lost. Specifically, USDA's "grim statistics" on food insecurity that were released this week, along with information from State of the States: 2008: FRAC's Profile of Food & Nutrition Programs Across the Nation, which prompted this commentary on hunger in the U.S. It outlined three recommendations:

Provide a temporary boost in SNAP/Food Stamp benefits in the next economic stimulus package;
Pass a good Child Nutrition Reauthorization bill in 2009;
Encourage cities, counties and states to use their existing options under federal rules to greatly increase participation in the nutrition programs.

Other specific suggestions to the new Administration and Congress are summed up by FRAC and include: improved jobs and wages, improved income supports (like refundable tax credits), more available unemployment insurance, and improvement in the nutrition programs.

The food insecurity figures for 2008 will not be released until late 2009, and FRAC predicts "we are likely to see an epidemic of hunger, among children and adults, unlike we have seen for decades," based on the current economic climate in which "every report from food stamp offices, WIC programs, school meals programs, social service agencies, religious congregations and emergency food providers portrays a rising tide of increasingly desperate need."

3. Hunger Caused by Economic Crisis Hits Families and Children Hard
(College News, November 18, 2008)

Over half a million children - 690,000 - went hungry at some point during 2007 according to USDA's report "Household Food Security in the United States" released this week. One out of eight adults struggled with hunger during this time period, and the number of children experiencing food disruption increased 50 percent from 2006 to the highest rate since 1998. The numbers, said James Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center, will be even worse for 2008.

4. Hunger in Maryland Featured in FRAC Press Club Panel
(Delmarva Now, November 19, 2008)

The number of people receiving food stamps in Maryland increased 45 percent from August 2003 to August 2008 - from 262,907 participants to 382,063 - a figure highlighted by a panel of hunger and economic experts organized by FRAC at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The panel called for Congress to approve an increase in food stamp benefits in the next economic stimulus plan. "Families just can't purchase adequate food through the amounts of food stamp benefits the government provides," said James Weill, FRAC president. "We can afford this as a nation," he added. "The nation certainly faces a dawning economic situation, but at the same time, it remains a place of almost unimaginable abundance by the standards of the rest of the world and even by the standards of this society 20, 30, 50 years ago." Maryland Hunger Solutions director Kimberley Chin spoke on her experience taking the Food Stamp Challenge, in which she and Kevin McGuire, head of Maryland's Food Stamp Program, joined a number of other community leaders in subsisting for one week on $3 a day for meals, per person, or $21 for the week, which is the average amount a food stamp recipient receives. Chin said of her experience: "The stress of just having to cook and think about a nutritious meal on this budget while you're working full time, it's amazing." Commenting on the participation figures in Maryland, Elyn Jones, spokesperson for the state's Department of Human Resources (DHS), said "The economic downturn that we have seen across the country has developed a need for families to reach out to other resources to help them feed their families…and the food stamp program is one of the ways they have been doing that." DHS outreach has informed senior citizens and people on temporary cash assistance of their eligibility. Although the participation numbers rose, still just 59 percent of eligible recipients don't receive food stamps. Many people miss out simply because they don't know that they are eligible. Another is the face-to-face interview the program requires in the state, which the state may change to a telephone interview.

5. Third-Hungriest State in Nation: Oregon
(Oregonlive.com, November 20, 2008; Oregon Public Broadcasting, November 18, 2008)

According to data released this week by USDA, 12.4 percent of Oregon households reported food insecurity during the 2005-2007 period, and half of all households (5.5 percent) experienced very low food security - in which members ate less or changed eating patterns because they lacked money for enough food. Oregon was the hungriest state in the nation for four consecutive years in the early 2000s. "It's dogged us for a long time," said Mark Edwards, professor of sociology at Oregon State University who specializes in hunger issues. He explains the nation's dire hunger problems on this year's economic crisis. Since the USDA data only goes through 2007, it does not reflect the current economic challenges and rising need that many social service agencies across the state are reporting. Ed Prechel wasn't surprised by the higher rates of food insecurity in Oregon. He and his wife fell victim to variable-rate mortgages. "We can't afford groceries because everything goes to the house payments," he said.

6. Number of Food Stamp Recipients Rises Significantly in Utah
(Salt Lake Tribune, November 18, 2008)

Utah's "very low food security" rate, or the number of households struggling against hunger, as measured in USDA's new report, ranks the state the fourth-highest in the nation. Slightly more than five percent of the state's households either skipped a meal or ate less because they lacked food between 2005 and 2007. However, the state also raised its food stamp participation number by 16.2 percent between August 2007 and August 2008, according to FRAC's State of the States report. In October, 62,000 Utah households received food stamps, a state record. Although the state's overall hunger rate improved, as shown in the USDA report, the figure "is misleading" said some advocates, who pointed out that the USDA information does not include 2008 data and does not reflect the current economic crisis. Bill Tibbitts, director of Crossroad Urban Center's anti-hunger project, warned "We shouldn't be complacent that about five percent of our neighbors are confronted with hunger. We're actually going into this recession with more people suffering from hunger than we did in the last recession."

7. Hunger Rises in Kansas City and Across America
(NBC Action News, November 17, 2008)

Soup kitchens and shelters in the Kansas City, Mo. metropolitan area report a 20 percent rise in need this year, echoing USDA's figures showing the rise in hunger across America. USDA's data, published on Monday, November 17, charts the fact that 691,000 American children went hungry in 2007 - and more people went hungry last year than in the past nine years., "The people in the deepest poverty are suffering the most," said Jim Weill, FRAC's president. Additional figures in the USDA report:

Families headed by single mother had the highest rate of food insecurity (30.2 percent), followed by black households (22.2 percent), Hispanic households (20.1 percent), and households below the poverty line (37.7 percent).

States reporting the highest rates of food insecurity during 2005-2007: Mississippi (17.4 percent), New Mexico (15 percent), Texas (14.8 percent), and Arkansas (14.4 percent).

8. Food Insecurity Rose in 2007; What's In Store for 2008?
(Anderson Cooper 360 blog, November 21, 2008)

David Schechter, CNN Senior National Editor, writes in this post "The freshest statistics [on hunger] were served up this week by the U.S. Department of Agriculture." He reports on the nation's 36.2 million struggling with hunger in 2007, 12.2 percent of Americans, and notes "That was last year. We know what direction the economic arrows point this year." When President-elect Obama takes office in early 2009, "There should be room for hunger on his plate." Schechter directs readers to a series of articles on hunger in Maine that was published by The Kennebec Journal. Naomi Schalit, opinion editor at the Journal, said that the six months she spent last year meeting the hungry and visiting food banks and pantries, changed her life.

9. McGovern Puts Hunger Issue on Emanuel's Plate
(CQ Today Online News, November 18, 2008 - available by subscription only)

As USDA released its latest food insecurity figures, which showed the number of children at risk of hunger climbing from 430,000 in 2006 to 691,000 in 2007, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) has been working to make hunger a top priority in the next Administration. He handed White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel a letter, signed by 116 lawmakers, that requested a meeting between McGovern and the Obama transition team. Earlier this month, McGovern gave the same letter to Obama transition chief John Podesta.

10. Food Insecurity Numbers for 2007, 2008 to Come Next Year
(HULIQ News, November 19, 2008)

USDA's figure of nearly 700,000 children going hungry was for 2007, with the numbers sharply up from 2006. However, the data does not include 2008 figures, as the research was done "prior to the stark economic downturn we now face." FRAC President Jim Weill noted "There's every reason to think the increases in the number of hungry people will be very, very large." This increase is "[a] sure bet," comments this article.

11. More area children are homeless, hungry
(Green Bay Press Gazette, November 19, 2008)

USDA's latest food insecurity figures are featured in this story about Green Bay Wisconsin-area schools and day care centers, which are seeing an increase in the number of hungry and homeless children. The article notes that many of the centers and schools make sure they provide a meal or snack, since this might be only meal some of the children get that day. "They have a good breakfast here because they might not have eaten dinner the night before," said Sue Vincent, director of Encompass Early Education and Care. At Nicolet Elementary School, 95 percent of students are eligible for free or reduced-price meals. One principal noted "Often times kids will come without school supplies," and teachers have provided clothing, toothbrushes, combs, and other items to students.; some school social workers have given alarm clocks to first graders so they'll wake up in time to get themselves ready for school.

12. Vermonters are still struggling with hunger and food insecurity
(Vermont Public Radio, November 19, 2008)

Joanne Heidekamp of the Vermont Campaign to End Childhood Hunger was interviewed for this story on USDA's food insecurity numbers. In 2007, 10 percent of Vermont residents struggled against hunger. Heidekamp pointed out that the statistics would be worse if they measured 2008. She added that programs like food stamps strengthen Vermont by feeding people and by bringing money to the state.

13. Growth in Hunger Among Young Children is "Shocking"
(Orlando Sentinel, November 20, 2008)

Food insecurity, the government's term for people who can't afford a healthy diet, is "most shocking among young children" this article notes, as the numbers of hungry children have risen according to USDA figures. "Economies are written first on children's bodies before they're written in the indicators," said Dr. Deborah Frank, founder of the Children's Sentinel Nutrition Assessment Program, part of the panel organized by FRAC that discussed the latest food insecurity numbers at the National Press Club. Frank, a pediatrician, said she is seeing more children having to be hospitalized from nutrition and hunger-related problems.

14. Other coverage of the food insecurity report from media around the country: