1. Household Food Security in the United States

2. History of the Food Security Measurement Project
1990
NMRR Act recommends a standardized mechanism for defining and obtaining data on the prevalence of food insecurity
1992
USDA staff review existing research
1994
USDA and DHHS sponsor conference on Food Security Measurement and Research
1995
Current Population Survey of US Census Bureau includes Food Security Measurement scale
1996-present
Annual Surveys, ERS assumes leadership, others encouraged to use FSMS
2006
Release of IOM report, “Food Insecurity and Hunger in the United States: An Assessment of the Measure.”

3. Definitions of Food Security Before 2006

4. Nutrition Security
The provision of an environment that encourages and motivates society to make food choices consistent with short and long term good health.

5. Food Security
Assess by all people at all times to sufficient food for an active and healthy life. Food security includes at a minimum: the ready availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, and an assured ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways.

6. Food Insecurity
a household had limited or uncertain availability of food, or limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways (i.e., without resorting to emergency food supplies, scavenging, stealing, or other unusual coping strategies).

7. Hunger The uneasy or painful sensation caused by a lack of food.
Involuntary hunger that results from not being able to afford enough food
The recurrent and involuntary lack of access to food
May produce malnutrition over time.

8. “Food Insecurity and Hunger in the United States: An Assessment of the Measure.” (IOM 2006)
Recommended that USDA continue to measure and monitor food insecurity regularly in a household survey
Affirmed the appropriateness of the general methodology currently used to measure food insecurity
Suggested several ways in which the methodology might be refined (contingent on confirmatory research). Research on these issues is currently underway at ERS

9. Changes in Definitions – IOM 2006
“Food insecurity—a household-level economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food.
“Hunger is an individual-level physiological condition that may result from food insecurity - should refer to a potential consequence of food insecurity that, because of prolonged, involuntary lack of food, results in discomfort, illness, weakness, or pain that goes beyond the usual uneasy sensation."
To measure hunger in this sense would require collection of more detailed and extensive information on physiological experiences of individual household members than could be accomplished effectively in the context of the CPS.

10. 2006, New Definitions

15. 1999

17. Food insecurity with hunger/aka very low food security
Years US WA
WA Rank
3.7%
4.7% 4
3.1% 2
3.3%
5.0%
4.6%
3.5%
4.4% 5
3.9% 10
4.3% 11
3.8% 30
4.0% 34
5.7%
29 (4 tied)

20. State-Level Predictors of Food Insecurity and Hunger Among Households With Children, 2005
Used hierarchical modeling to identify contextual dimensions of food insecurity:
Availability and accessibility of federal nutrition assistance programs
Policies affecting wellbeing of low income families
States economic and social characteristics

21. Important Protective Factors
Food stamps and summer meals programs
Tax policies that support low income families
Job opportunities/strong labor market
“Robust” relationship between median rent and food insecurity
Residential stability and social capital

22. It’s not just poverty…
Some states have high rates of food insecurity, but lower rates of poor families and families headed by a single adult.
Propose concept of “excess food insecurity” to determine which states may benefit from strengthening the food security infrastructure.

23. Why did Washington’s rates improve?
Increased participation in federal programs
Between 2001 and 2004 there was a 59% increase in food stamp participation.
In % of eligible families received food stamps; in % received food stamps.
WA state legislature increased funding for school lunch, breakfast and summer meals