More U.S. Families Hungry or Too Poor to Eat, Study Says

WASHINGTON, Nov. 1 (AP) – Despite the nation’s struggle
with obesity, the Agriculture Department says, more and
more American families are hungry or unsure whether they
can afford to buy food.
About 12 million families last year worried that they did
not have enough money for food, and 32 percent of them
experienced someone’s going hungry at one time or another,
the agency said in a report released on Friday.

Nearly 3.8 million families were hungry last year to the
point that someone in the household skipped meals because
the family could not afford them. That is 8.6 percent more
families than in 2001, when 3.5 million were hungry, and a
13 percent increase from 2000.

The report was based on a Census Bureau survey of 50,000
households. It was the third year in a row the department
found an increase in the number of people who were hungry
or uncertain whether they could afford their next meal.

The survey also found more families who were unsure if they
could buy food or did not have enough food in their
cupboards. Last year, 11 percent of 108 million families
were in that situation. That is up 5 percent from 2001 and
8 percent from 2000.

Most poor families struggling with hunger tried to ensure
that their children were fed, the report said. Nonetheless,
one or more children in an estimated 265,000 families
occasionally missed meals last year because the families
either could not afford to eat or did not have enough food
at home. The report estimated there were 567,000 hungry
children in all.

Margaret Andrews, an economist with the agency and an
author of the annual survey, said the prevalence of hunger
and food insecurity is clearly tied to the poverty rate.

Ms Andrews noted that the latest estimates by the Census
Bureau show that more people are poor. Some 34.6 million
Americans were living in poverty last year, 1.7 million
more than in 2001, according to the Census Bureau.

In the United States, 65 percent of adults and 13 percent
of children are overweight, according to the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention. Barbara Laraia, an
associate professor of nutrition at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill, said hunger and obesity could
coexist because many hungry families buy high-calorie foods
that are low in nutrients.

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