Food security 13

History of the Food Security Measurement Project1990 NMRR Act recommends a standardized mechanism for defining and obtaining data on the prevalence of food insecurity 1992 USDA staff re

Food Security

Extreme Risk –red

High risk – orange

Medium risk – yellow

Low risk – green

No Data – gray http://maplecroft.com/about/news/food_security.html

Food Security Risk Index

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

1996-present

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)

“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

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

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

http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/CCR13/

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