1 in 4 Can't Afford Enough Food

Children Most At Risk

23.4% of families with children report they have struggled to afford enough food in the last 12 months.

According to The Food Research and Action Center:

• 368 Congressional Districts have at least one in six households with children struggling with food hardship, answering that they did not have enough money to buy needed food at times in the last 12 months. 195 Congressional Districts have a food hardship rate of at least one in four for households with children.

• Of the 100 largest MSAs, 40 had at least one in four households with children (25 percent or more) struggling with food hardship and every one of the 100 largest MSAs had 15 percent or more of such households affirmatively answering the Gallup question.

• In 21 states and the District of Columbia the rate for households with children reporting food hardship exceeded 25 percent.

As part of it's “Food Hardship in America,” series, FRAC has analyzed responses to the question:  “Have there been times in the past twelve months when you did not have enough money to buy food that you or your family needed?”  Nationally in 2010, 23.4 percent of families with children and 14.9 percent without children said that “yes", they have struggled with hunger.

The full report is available here. (PDF)