[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 170 (Tuesday, November 17, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H13005-H13007]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              HOUSEHOLD FOOD SECURITY IN THE UNITED STATES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, yesterday the U.S. Department of 
Agriculture released the annual Household Food Security in the United 
States report for 2008. The findings of this report are nothing short 
of alarming and frightening. This report found the highest level of 
food insecurity since the study began in 1995. While just over 85 
percent of U.S. households were food secure in 2008, the bad news, the 
frightening news, is that 14.6 percent, 17 million households, were 
food insecure in 2008. This means that at some point during 2008, these 
households ``had difficulty providing enough food for all their members 
due to a lack of resources.''
  According to the USDA, over 49 million people lived in those 17 
million households. In other words, Mr. Speaker, according to this 
report, 49 million Americans went hungry in 2008. We should be ashamed 
of ourselves. In the richest, most prosperous nation in the world, a 
country where we have the means to end hunger, a country where we have 
the food readily available, we continue to allow 49 million people to 
be hungry in this country. And if that weren't bad enough, food 
insecurity is likely to get worse, not better, next year.
  Mr. Speaker, this report also found that 17 million children, more 
than one in five, went without food at some point during the year. 
That's an increase of 5 million children over the previous year. Even 
worse, the number of children living in very low food insecure 
households--the hungriest of the hungry--rose from 323,000 in 2007 to 
506,000 in 2008. That means that almost 2 million children are among 
the hungriest of the hungry in America.
  Race and gender are also factors. About 37 percent of single mothers 
struggled for food in 2008. And more disturbing, more than one in seven 
said that someone in their household had been hungry. The report found 
that African Americans and Hispanics were more than twice as likely as 
whites to report food insecurity at home.
  Mr. Speaker, we can do better. We must do better. I want to thank 
President Obama and Secretary Vilsack for their dedication to combating 
hunger in America. Secretary Vilsack personally released this report 
yesterday, and President Obama released a statement, two actions that 
the previous administration declined to make. I don't say this to place 
blame, but rather to say that admitting there is a problem is the first 
step towards addressing that problem. President Obama has committed his 
administration to ending child hunger by 2015. That's something we can 
and should do. Continuing to raise awareness of this issue is critical, 
no matter how bad the statistics may be.
  Mr. Speaker, we are fortunate to have in place a safety net system 
that prevents more people from going without food. Undoubtedly, even 
more Americans would go hungry if it weren't for SNAP--formerly known 
as food stamps--WIC, school and summer meals, and the other Federal 
anti-hunger programs.
  Later this week, I will be introducing legislation that will expand 
these programs to better combat hunger in the United States. The End 
Childhood Hunger by 2015 Act will not only expand the purchasing power 
of SNAP, but it will increase the number of people who are eligible for 
these Federal anti-hunger programs. For example, under this bill, every 
child who goes to school, regardless of income, will receive a quality, 
nutritious breakfast and lunch. We know that children learn better and 
develop properly when they eat nutritious meals. Unfortunately, many 
children don't have access to nutritious meals either at home or at 
school. We provide textbooks for all children. Why shouldn't we provide 
at least two nutritious meals too?
  Now is the time for us to refocus our energy on ending hunger once 
and for all, and it will require Presidential leadership. I introduced 
legislation calling for a White House Conference on Food and Nutrition. 
I will be working with Speaker Pelosi, Chairman Peterson and Chairman 
Miller to pass this important legislation, and I encourage my 
colleagues to cosponsor H.R. 2297.

[[Page H13006]]

  Mr. Speaker, we may not be able to end all war and disease in our 
lifetimes, but we can end hunger if we muster the political will to do 
so. This report should be a rallying point report for Congress and the 
administration. While this Congress focuses on the Nation's economic 
recovery and job creation, we must not forget about those who are going 
without food. Let's commit ourselves once and for all to ending hunger 
as we know it in America.
  I would like to insert into the Record the statement by President 
Obama and news articles from The New York Times and Washington Post on 
the release of this report.

                                                  The White House,


                                Office of the Press Secretary,

                                Washington, DC, November 16, 2009.

Statement by the President on the Release of the Annual Household Food 
                            Security Report

       As American families prepare to gather for Thanksgiving, we 
     received an unsettling report from the U.S. Department of 
     Agriculture that found that hunger rose significantly last 
     year. This trend was already painfully clear in many 
     communities across our nation, where food stamp applications 
     are surging and food pantry shelves are emptying.
       It is particularly troubling that there were more than 
     500,000 families in which a child experienced hunger multiple 
     times over the course of the year. Our children's ability to 
     grow, learn, and meet their full potential--and therefore our 
     future competitiveness as a nation--depends on regular access 
     to healthy meals.
       My Administration is committed to reversing the trend of 
     rising hunger. The first task is to restore job growth, which 
     will help relieve the economic pressures that make it 
     difficult for parents to put a square meal on the table each 
     day. But we are also taking targeted steps to prevent 
     Americans from experiencing hunger. Earlier this year, we 
     extended help to those hit hardest by this economic downturn 
     by boosting SNAP benefits. And Secretary Vilsack is working 
     hard to make sure eligible families are able to access those 
     benefits as well as the School Lunch and Breakfast Program. 
     In addition, a bill I signed into law last month invests $85 
     million in new strategies to prevent children from 
     experiencing hunger in the summer.
       Hunger is a problem that we can solve together, and I look 
     forward to working with Congress to pass a strong child 
     nutrition bill that will help children get the healthy meals 
     they need to grow and succeed--and help keep America 
     competitive in the decades to come.
       The full USDA Household Food Security report can be viewed 
     here: www.ers.usda.gov/features/householdfoodsecurity/
____


                [From the New York Times, Nov. 17, 2009]

                    Hunger in U.S. at a 14-Year High

                           (By Jason DeParle)

       Washington--The number of Americans who lived in households 
     that lacked consistent access to adequate food soared last 
     year, to 49 million, the highest since the government began 
     tracking what it calls ``food insecurity'' 14 years ago, the 
     Department of Agriculture reported Monday.
       The increase, of 13 million Americans, was much larger than 
     even the most pessimistic observers of hunger trends had 
     expected and cast an alarming light on the daily hardships 
     caused by the recession's punishing effect on jobs and wages.
       About a third of these struggling households had what the 
     researchers called ``very low food security,'' meaning lack 
     of money forced members to skip meals, cut portions or 
     otherwise forgo food at some point in the year.
       The other two-thirds typically had enough to eat, but only 
     by eating cheaper or less varied foods, relying on government 
     aid like food stamps, or visiting food pantries and soup 
     kitchens.
       ``These numbers are a wake-up call for the country,'' said 
     Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.
       One figure that drew officials' attention was the number of 
     households, 506,000, in which children faced ``very low food 
     security'': up from 323,000 the previous year. President 
     Obama, who has pledged to end childhood hunger by 2015, 
     released a statement while traveling in Asia that called the 
     finding ``particularly troubling.''
       The ungainly phrase ``food insecurity'' stems from years of 
     political and academic wrangling over how to measure adequate 
     access to food. In the 1980s, when officials of the Reagan 
     administration denied there was hunger in the United States, 
     the Food Research and Action Center, a Washington advocacy 
     group, began a survey that concluded otherwise. Over time, 
     Congress had the Agriculture Department oversee a similar 
     survey, which the Census Bureau administers.
       Though researchers at the Agriculture Department do not use 
     the word ``hunger,'' Mr. Obama did. ``Hunger rose 
     significantly last year,'' he said.
       Analysts said the main reason for the growth was the rise 
     in the unemployment rate, to 7.2 percent at the end of 2008 
     from 4.9 percent a year earlier. And since it now stands at 
     10.2 percent, the survey might in fact understate the number 
     of Americans struggling to get adequate food.
       Rising food prices, too, might have played a role.
       The food stamp rolls have expanded to record levels, with 
     36 million Americans now collecting aid, an increase of 
     nearly 4o percent from two years ago. And the American 
     Recovery and Reinvestment Act, passed last winter, raised the 
     average monthly food stamp benefit per person by about 17 
     percent, to $133. Many states have made it easier for those 
     eligible to apply, but rising applications and staffing cuts 
     have also brought long delays.
       Problems gaining access to food were highest in households 
     with children headed by single mothers. About 37 percent of 
     them reported some form of food insecurity compared with 14 
     percent of married households with children. About 29 percent 
     of Hispanic households reported food insecurity, compared 
     with 27 percent of black households and 12 percent of white 
     households. Serious problems were most prevalent in the 
     South, followed equally by the West and Midwest.
       Some conservatives have attacked the survey's methodology, 
     saying it is hard to define what it measures. The 18-item 
     questionnaire asks about skipped meals and hunger pangs, but 
     also whether people had worries about getting food. It ranks 
     the severity of their condition by the number of answers that 
     indicate a problem.
       ``Very few of these people are hungry,'' said Robert 
     Rector, an analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation. 
     ``When they lose jobs, they constrain the kind of food they 
     buy. That is regrettable, but it's a far cry from a hunger 
     crisis.''
       The report measures the number of households that 
     experienced problems at any point in the year. Only a ``small 
     fraction'' were facing the problem at a given moment. Among 
     those with ``very low food security,'' for instance, most 
     experienced the condition for several days in each of seven 
     or eight months.
       James Weill, the director of the food center that pioneered 
     the report, called it a careful look at an underappreciated 
     condition. ``Many people are outright hungry, skipping 
     meals,'' he said. ``Others say they have enough to eat but 
     only because they're going to food pantries or using food 
     stamps. We describe it as `households struggling with 
     hunger.' ''
                                  ____


               [From The Washington Post, Nov. 17, 2009]

              America's Economic Pain Brings Hunger Pangs

                           (By Amy Goldstein)

       The nation's economic crisis has catapulted the number of 
     Americans who lack enough food to the highest level since the 
     government has been keeping track, according to a new federal 
     report, which shows that nearly 50 million people--including 
     almost one child in four--struggled last year to get enough 
     to eat.
       At a time when rising poverty, widespread unemployment and 
     other effects of the recession have been well documented, the 
     report released Monday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture 
     provides the government's first detailed portrait of the toll 
     that the faltering economy has taken on Americans' access to 
     food.
       The magnitude of the increase in food shortages--and, in 
     some cases, outright hunger--identified in the report 
     startled even the nation's leading anti-poverty advocates, 
     who have grown accustomed to longer lines lately at food 
     banks and soup kitchens. The findings also intensify pressure 
     on the White House to fulfill a pledge to stamp out childhood 
     hunger made by President Obama, who called the report 
     ``unsettling.''
       The data show that dependable access to adequate food has 
     especially deteriorated among families with children. In 
     2008, nearly 17 million children, or 22.5 percent, lived in 
     households in which food at times was scarce--4 million 
     children more than the year before. And the number of 
     youngsters who sometimes were outright hungry rose from 
     nearly 700,000 to almost 1.1 million.
       Among Americans of all ages, more than 16 percent--or 49 
     million people--sometimes ran short of nutritious food, 
     compared with about 12 percent the year before. The 
     deterioration in access to food during 2008 among both 
     children and adults far eclipses that of any other single 
     year in the report's history.
       Around the Washington area, the data show, the extent of 
     food shortages varies significantly. In the past three years, 
     an average of 12.4 percent of households in the District had 
     at least some problems getting enough food, slightly worse 
     than the national average. In Maryland, the average was 9.6 
     percent, and in Virginia it was 8.6 percent.
       The local and national findings are from a snapshot of food 
     in the United States that the Agriculture Department has 
     issued every year since 1995, based on Census Bureau surveys. 
     It documents Americans who lack a dependable supply of 
     adequate food--people living with some amount of ``food 
     insecurity'' in the lexicon of experts--and those whose food 
     shortages are so severe that they are hunger. The new report 
     is based on a survey conducted in December.
       Several independent advocates and policy experts on hunger 
     said that they had been bracing for the latest report to show 
     deepening shortages, but that they were nevertheless 
     astonished by how much the problem has worsened. ``This is 
     unthinkable. It's like we are living in a Third World 
     country,'' said Vicki Escarra, president of Feeding America, 
     the largest organization representing food banks and other 
     emergency food sources.

[[Page H13007]]

       ``It's frankly just deeply upsetting,'' said James D. 
     Weill, president of the Washington-based Food and Action 
     Center. As the economy eroded, Weill said, ``you had more and 
     more people getting pushed closer to the cliffs edge. Then 
     this huge storm came along and pushed them over.''
       Obama, who pledged during last year's presidential campaign 
     to eliminate hunger among children by 2015, reiterated that 
     goal on Monday. ``My Administration is committed to reversing 
     the trend of rising hunger,'' the president said in a 
     statement. The solution begins with job creation, Obama said. 
     And he ticked off steps that Congress and the administration 
     have taken, or are planning, including increases in food 
     stamp benefits and $85 million Congress just freed up through 
     an appropriations bill to experiment with feeding more 
     children during the summer, when subsidized school breakfasts 
     and lunches are unavailable.
       In a briefing for reporters, Agriculture Secretary Tom 
     Vilsack said, ``These numbers are a wake-up call . . . for us 
     to get very serious about food security and hunger, about 
     nutrition and food safety in this country.''
       Vilsack attributed the marked worsening in Americans' 
     access to food primarily to the rise in unemployment, which 
     now exceeds 10 percent, and in people who are underemployed. 
     He acknowledged that ``there could be additional increases'' 
     in the 2009 figures, due out a year from now, although he 
     said it is not yet clear how much the problem might be eased 
     by the measures the administration and Congress have taken 
     this year to stimulate the economy.
       The report's main author at USDA, Mark Nord, noted that 
     other recent research by the agency has found that most 
     families in which food is scarce contain at least one adult 
     with a full-time job, suggesting that the problem lies at 
     least partly in wages, not entirely an absence of work.
       The report suggests that federal food assistance programs 
     are only partly fulfilling their purpose, although Vilsack 
     said that shortages would be much worse without them. Just 
     more than half of the people surveyed who reported they had 
     food shortages said that they had, in the previous month, 
     participated in one of the government's largest anti-hunger 
     and nutrition programs: food stamps, subsidized school 
     lunches or WIC, the nutrition program for women with babies 
     or young children.
       Last year, people in 4.8 million households used private 
     food pantries, compared with 3.9 million in 2007, while 
     people in about 625,000 households resorted to soup kitchens, 
     nearly 90,000 more than the year before.
       Food shortages, the report shows, are particularly 
     pronounced among women raising children alone. Last year, 
     more than one in three single mothers reported that they 
     struggled for food, and more than one in seven said that 
     someone in their home had been hungry--far eclipsing the food 
     problem in any other kind of household. The report also found 
     that people who are black or Hispanic were more than twice as 
     likely as whites to report that food in their home was 
     scarce.
       In the survey used to measure food shortages, people were 
     considered to have food insecurity if they answered ``yes'' 
     to several of a series of questions. Among the questions were 
     whether, in the past year, their food sometimes ran out 
     before they had money to buy more, whether they could not 
     afford to eat nutritionally balanced meals, and whether 
     adults in the family sometimes cut the size of their meals--
     or skipped them--because they lacked money for food. The 
     report defined the degree of their food insecurity by the 
     number of the questions to which they answered yes.
                                  ____
                                  

                          ____________________