Food security 13

Food Security


Food Security Risk Index

Extreme Risk –red
High risk – orange
Medium risk – yellow
Low risk – green
No Data – gray

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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

1996present

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.”


Definitions of Food Security Before
2006


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


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.


Household 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).


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.


“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


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.


2006, New Definitions

8.6 million children lived in food-insecure households in which children,
along with adults, were food insecure. However, children are usually
protected from substantial reductions in food intake even in households
with very low food security. In 2011, 845,000 children (1.1 percent of
the Nation's children) lived in households with very low food security
among children.



1999



Food insecurity with hunger/aka very low food security
Years
US
WA
WA Rank

1996-98

3.7%

4.7%

4

1997-98

3.1%

4.7%

2

1998-00

3.3%

5.0%

2

1999-01

3.1%

4.6%

2

2000-02

3.5%

4.4%

5

2001-03

3.5%

3.9%

10

2002-04

3.9%

4.3%

11

2003-05

3.8%

3.9%

30

2005-07

4.0%

3.5%

34

2006-08

5.7%

4.3%

29 (4 tied)

2007-2009

5.2%

5.8%

12

2008-10

5.6%

6.1%

11 (3 tied)

2009-2011

5.6%

6.2%

14 (1 tie)




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
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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

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.


Why did Washington’s rates
improve in 2000s?
• Increased participation in federal programs
• Between 2001 and 2004 there was a 59%
increase in food stamp participation.
• In 2002 56% of eligible families received food
stamps; in 2005 68% received food stamps.
• WA state legislature increased funding for school
lunch, breakfast and summer meals