It didn't make a huge news splash, but the USDA released this week the results of its latest survey on hunger in the country, and more Americans spent last year hungry and reliant on private and public assistance. The rates of food insecurity for 2008 and 2009 are the highest since the survey began in 1995, and the numbers are especially bad for African Americans (25 percent of whom suffer from food insecurity) and Hispanics (a group for which the number is 27 percent). It's worth remembering as we head toward the holidays.
This comes at a time when the House will struggle to make a tough choice during the lame-duck session: passing a child-nutrition bill to help the nearly one in four children who live in food-insecure homes have better access to nutritional meals through school food programs that is paid for by cutting food-stamp benefits that would help their families feed them at home. In addition, the incoming chair of the House Education and Labor Committe, Rep. John Kline of Minnesota, has declared that extending jobless benefits for families still struggling to find work after the Great Recession isn't a priority, and a bill that would ensure the food no one can afford to put on the table would at least be safe to eat is held up by Republican obstructionism.
-- Monica Potts