35m Americans go hungry in 2006

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 06:18:58

Around 35 million Americans were hungry in 2006.

The number of Americans who went hungry in 2006 was held in check at 35 million, the US Agriculture Department says in its report.

A total of 12.65 million households were "food insecure," or 10.9 percent of US homes, up from 12.59 million a year ago, the US Agriculture Department said Wednesday.

The USDA defines food insecurity - its metric for measuring hunger - as having difficulty acquiring enough food for the household throughout the year.

"It looks very stable from this year to last year," said Mark Nord, who co-authored the annual report for USDA's Economic Research Service.

Overall, 35.52 million people, including 12.63 million children, went hungry compared with 35.13 million in 2005. The survey was conducted in December 2006 and represented 294 million people, an increase of 2.5 million from 2005.

Food advocacy groups said the figures showed the United States was not doing enough to combat hunger, and feared conditions could worsen.

MRI/RA