The media almost never talk about a hunger problem in the U.S. But according to "Household Food Security in the United States 2007," a report released this month by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), 11.1 percent of U.S. households--including 28.3 million adults and 12.4 million children, or one in every eight Americans--were "food insecure" during last year.
"Food insecure" is the term the USDA uses to describe households that struggled to provide enough food for all their members due to a lack of food or money.
Of course, in America, its usually not a lack of food that is the problem.
'Food insecure' should be a nominee for an award for Orwellian euphemism of the year. Replace it with 'hungry', and the report hits you in the gut a little harder.
AND IF these are the statistics through the end of 2007, the hunger crisis is sure to be much worse now with a further downturn in the economy.
Across the country, food pantries are reporting a spike in the number of people seeking help.
...
More fundamentally, the scale of America's hidden hunger crisis should make everyone ask how it is that a government that can find billions of dollars each week to spend on the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan and hundreds of billions more on a bailout for Wall Street can't afford to feed its own citizens.
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