Serious hunger rising

Slightly fewer Utah families struggled in 2005 to find "adequate" food than in the year before, but a greater number suffered more at the "serious" end of the scale that rates problems in feeding individuals and families, according to a government report released Wednesday.

In Utah, the number of food-insecure households went down slightly, from 14.8 percent in 2004 to 14.5 percent in 2005, but those experiencing more serious food insecurity problems rose from 4.6 percent to 5.1 percent.

Gina Cornia of Utahns Against Hunger attributed the slight increase to the booming economy, which, she said, has failed to help those in the greatest need.

"Those folks at the bottom are the last ones to benefit from a stronger economy, and I think that is supported by this," she said.

Nationally, 12.6 million households, or 11 percent of all U.S. households, were food-insecure in 2005, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture report. Utah is among the top 10 states in its incidence of food insecurity.

Food security is defined in the report as "access by all people at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life." Food insecurity, then, means limited or uncertain access to adequate food.

While the national food insecurity rate dropped from 11.9 percent in 2004, the rate of Americans classified as having "very low food security" stayed the same as last year at 3.9 percent, or 4.4 million.

Though not chronic, food insecurity is a recurring problem for American households. Those who experience very low food security tend to do so for one to seven days in a month, according to the report.

"It's not just one day or they're waiting for a paycheck to come in," Cornia said.

According to the report, food insecurity is more likely in households headed by single women and including children, as well as in black and Hispanic households, according to the report. It is also more common in large cities and rural areas and in the South.

On a typical day in November 2005, between 351,000 and 797,000 households nationwide experienced "very low food security," the report says.

In past reports, "very low food security" was described as "food insecurity with hunger." The term was changed, according to the USDA, to better reflect the factors studied and to avoid discussion of the "individual-level physiological condition that may result from food insecurity."