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Hunger Stalks America, The World's Wealthiest Country
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
IPS = Nov 15, 2007
http://www.ipsnews.net/sendnews.asp?idnews=40078
Hunger Stalks World's Wealthiest Country
by Abid Aslam
WA****NGTON, Nov 15 (IPS) - More than one in 10 people in the United
States go hungry, according to new official figures that suggest
government food programmes are falling short in the world's wealthiest
country. More than 35 million people in a country of some 294 million
went hungry last year, 390,000 more than in 2005, according to the U.S.
Department of Agriculture's latest Household Food Security re****t.
Of the total, 12.63 million were children. Put another way, nearly one
in five U.S. children either went without enough food during the course
of the year or had food but could never take future meals for granted.
The re****t, released Wednesday, comes as Congress debates the 2007 Farm
Bill, a five-year piece of legislation affecting everything from
agricultural subsidies to nutritional programmes for the poor.
Anti-hunger activists lamented the findings.
"The U.S. is the only industrialised nation that still allows hunger
within its borders," said David Beckmann, president of the advocacy
group Bread for the World.
Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Centre, warned the
situation likely has worsened since the agriculture department surveyed
the populace in December 2006.
"As costs for food, energy, and housing continue to rise and wages
stagnate or decline, households are finding themselves increasingly
strapped," Weill said. "This may mean even worse numbers in 2007. We
need to do more to make sure that households have access to healthy
food by improving and expanding proven programmes that help."
The advocates highlighted the federal government's Food Stamp
Programme, which Beckmann called "the flag****p nutrition safety net for
Americans", as needed an upgrade.
The programme provides food stamps to more than 26 million people every
month, enabling them to use the tokens in place of cash to purchase
specified foodstuffs. According to Beckmann and Weill, the relief is
insufficient.
"The average benefit of one dollar per meal per person is just not
enough to buy adequate, nutritious food," said Beckmann, whose group
plans to launch its own hunger re****t Nov. 19.
Added Weill: "Congress is considering the farm bill, which includes the
food stamp programme. They have the chance to make it easier for
households to access the programme, keep benefits growing with the cost
of living rather than losing ground to inflation, and raise the
allowable asset and minimum benefit levels for the first time in
decades."
According to the food security re****t, the latest in a series begun in
1995, 10.4 percent of all U.S. adults and 17.2 percent of all children
suffered food insecurity in 2006.
Of the 35.52 million food insecure U.S. residents, 11.1 million lived
in households marked by "very low food security," a new term for what
the government used to call "food insecurity with hunger". The figure
rose from 10.8 million in 2005, consistent with other surveys showing
worsening conditions among the poorest.
Black and Hispanic households suffered the most, with food insecurity
rates of 21.8 percent and 19.5 percent respectively.
The latest findings chime with recent government re****ts showing
poverty was largely unchanged five years after the U.S. economy began
clawing its way back from recession.
Modest gains in household income have failed to lift significant
numbers out of poverty, the U.S. Census Bureau re****ted in August.
The national poverty rate fell to 12.3 percent in 2006, down from 12.6
percent the year before, but remained well above the 11.3 percent mark
recorded in 2000, the last year in which it dropped.
The census bureau said family earnings had risen modestly because more
members were working and contributing to household income but that not
everyone had benefited.
In the countryside, poverty had stagnated at 15.2 percent, three
percentage points above the national average. In all, nearly 7.2
million inhabitants of rural areas fell below the poverty line last
year despite rising agricultural prices.
The elderly accounted for much of last year's improvement and, as a
group, were better off than they were in 2001. By contrast, poverty
rates for children and for adults of working age remained statistically
unchanged from 2005 and higher than in 2001, when the last recession
bottomed out.
Overall, some 36.5 million people were deemed poor in 2006, about as
many as in 2005, the census bureau said.
(END/2007)
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