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Most Americans eat regularly, without fear of running out of food because they lack money. In some households, however, limited buying power produces uncertainty about—and interruptions in—the availability of food. These situations heighten stress and can cause hunger or even poor nutrition. The nation's largest effort to ensure that families can buy food is the Food Stamp Program, which issues vouchers to low-income families.
To determine how many families worry about or experience difficulty buying food, adults between the ages of 18 and 64 were asked whether (i) they or their families worried that food would run out before they got money to buy more, (ii) the food they bought did run out, or (iii) one or more adults ate less or skipped meals because there wasn't enough money for food. These questions indicate financial stresses related to food but not caloric intake or adequacy of a family's diet.
Nationally, 75 percent of adults and children lived in families that had not experienced any of these food-related problems in the previous 12 months. Twenty-five percent of people lived in families that had experienced one or more of the three problems; of these, 20 percent had encountered shortages of food, and the remaining 5 percent had worried about shortages. Nearly 50 percent of people in low-income families (below 200 percent of the poverty level) experienced some worries about or difficulty affording food, compared to 14 percent of those in families with higher incomes, a statistically significant difference.
More children than adults lived in families that worried about or had trouble affording food: 32 percent, compared to 23 percent, a statistically significant difference. This disparity does not necessarily indicate that children's food intake was more constrained than adults'. Other research has shown that, as money runs out, adults reduce their own food consumption before that of their children.
In each of the 13 states studied, around 50 percent of low-income children lived in families that worried about or had difficulty buying food, ranging from 61 percent in Texas to 47 percent in Wisconsin. Compared to the national average, fewer low-income children in Wisconsin lived in families of this kind, whereas more low-income children in California and Texas did.
Note: The Portable Document Format (PDF) of this report includes all tables and charts.
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