How many people in the United States experience hunger? The best answer to that question is provided by the Household Food Security Survey, conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture each year since 1995. The USDA defines hunger not as the use of food pantries, but as physical dis comfort caused by actual food shortages due to a lack of funds to obtain food. The USDA makes clear that hunger is not the same as malnutrition and that most hunger experienced in the United States is short-term.[13]

According to the USDA, on a typical day, less than one American in 200 will experience hunger due to a lack of money to buy food.[14] The hunger rate rises somewhat when examined over a longer time period; according to the USDA, some 7.0 million Americans (2.4 percent of the population) were hun gry at least once during 2003.[15] Nearly all hunger is short-term and episodic rather than continuous.

Some 92 percent of those who experienced hunger in 2003 were adults, and only 8 percent were children. Overall, some 462,000 children (or 0.6 percent of all children) were hungry at some point in 2003.[16] In a typical month, roughly one child in 400 skipped one or more meals because the family lacked funds to buy food.

Has Hunger Increased?

According to the USDA, overall hunger has declined slightly since measurement began in 1995. In that year, 4.1 million households had at least one person who experienced hunger at some point during the year. By 2003, the number had fallen to 3.9 million households.[17]

Hunger among children, however, has declined substantially since the mid-1990s. As Chart 4 shows, the number of hungry children was cut in half between 1995 and 2003. According to the USDA, in 1995, there were 887,000 hungry chil dren; by 2003, the number had fallen to 420,000.[18] Put another way, the USDA classifies only 0.6 percent of children as hungry.

What About Food Insecurity Without Hunger?

The USDA also reports on the number of households that are “food insecure without hun ger.” Advocacy groups often label these families as “at risk” of hunger, although the USDA explic itly states that these households are not hungry and do not face food shortages. These families do face financial constraints in purchasing food at some point or points during the year, and they report anxiety that, at some future time, they may not be able to buy sufficient food. They may tem porarily substitute cheaper foods for regular items in their diet.

According to the USDA, 26.6 million individuals (or 9.3 percent of the population) were “food inse cure without hunger” at some point during 2003. This condition is generally temporary. The number of persons who were food insecure without hunger was roughly the same between 1995 and 2003.[19]

Conclusion

Overall, some 97 percent of the U.S. population lives in households that reported they had “enough food to eat” during the entire year, although not always the kinds of foods they would prefer. Around 2.5 percent stated that their families “sometimes” did not have “enough to eat” due to money shortages, and one-half of 1 percent (0.5 percent) said they “often” did not have enough to eat due to lack of funds.[20]

According to the U.S. Department of Agricul ture, the number of Americans who are “hungry” has changed little since measurement began in 1995. The number of hungry children, however, has declined substantially.

Policymakers should be wary of the claims of “increasing hunger” made again by the U.S. Confer ence of Mayors in its 2004 report. Year after year, the mayors’ hunger report shows an alarming increase in use of food banks. The mayors have consistently reported that use of food banks in major cities has increased at an average rate of 16 percent per year for the past decade and a half. According to the mayors, food-bank use roughly doubles every four years.