“About 15 per cent of US households — 17.4 million families — lacked enough money to feed themselves at some point last year, a US Department of Agriculture report says.
“The study also found that 5.6 million of these households — with as many as 1 million children — had continuing financial problems that forced them to miss meals regularly.
“The number of these ‘food insecure’ homes … was more than triple the one in 2006, before the recession brought double-digit unemployment.
“The findings were from a survey of 46,000 households about hunger-related issues, including whether family members were able to pay for balanced meals, skipping meals or running low on or out of food and unable to restock because of financial constraints.
“This month Agriculture Department officials said the number of Americans receiving food stamps hit a record of 42.4 million in August, a rise of 17 per cent in a year. Subsidies provided under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program jumped in July by 17.5 per cent.”