In case you are wondering what “food insecurity” means, it’s the label used by the federal government the past 14 years in tracking hunger in the United States. The Department of Agriculture reported on November 16 that 49 million Americans lived in households that lacked adequate food, the highest number since the count began and 13 million more than the previous year.

The research is based on an l8-item survey that asks adults such questions as whether they or any of their children have skipped eating for an entire day because of a lack of money for food. The survey ranks the severity of their condition by the number of answers that indicate problems. About a third of the households were described as having, “very low food security,” with skipped meals and reduced portions during the year. The other two thirds buy cheaper foods such as starches and rely heavily on food stamps, food pantries and soup kitchens. Parents reported that their children’s food needs came first, but the number of households in the “very low food security” rose to 506,000 from 323,000 in 2007.

A separate federal study showed that two-thirds of families defined as “food insecure” had one or more fulltime workers before the recession began. Thus, the rise was due not only to losing jobs but to the low income jobs that paid inadequate dollars to buy sufficient food for the family. However, the rising unemployment rate from 7.2 percent at the end of 2008 to 10.2 percent today has had a direct impact. A contributing factor is rising food prices. Food stamp rolls have expanded to record levels, with 36 million Americans collecting, nearly 40 percent up from two years ago. The Recovery Act (Stimulus Plan) passed last winter raised the average monthly food stamp benefit per person by about l7 percent to $133. Certain states have made it easier for those eligible to apply, but delays have occurred due to staffing cuts and increased number of applications.

Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture, described the results of the November 15 report in dire terms. “These numbers are a wake-up call for the country. Our best has not been good enough.” President Obama, who was in Asia, when the report was released, called the findings, “particularly troubling.” Having set a goal of wiping out child hunger by 2015, he said, “Hunger rose significantly last year.” Researchers at the Agriculture Department do not use the word, “hunger.” This practice dates back to the Reagan administration in the ‘80s, when White House officials denied there was hunger in the United States. In response, the Food Research and Action Center, a Washington advocacy group, undertook a survey that came to the opposite conclusion. In the years that followed, Congress instructed the Agriculture Department to oversee similar yearly surveys administered by the Census Bureau.

How do the “food insecurity” statistics translate into reality for America’s children? What does a mother pack in a child’s lunch box each morning? Are there supplementary nutrition programs available in public school classrooms? Federal or State funded programs? When a child is hungry, what are the effects upon learning? These are far-reaching questions that deserve discussion and answers.

The report also showed differences among ethnic and racial groups in our society: 29 percent of Hispanic households, 27 percent of black households and 12 percent of white households. Serious problems occurred mostly in the South, followed equally by the West and the Midwest. Families headed by single mothers faced the most problems, 37 percent compared with 14 percent of married households with children.

Unfortunately, some on the far-right have attacked the methodology of the survey rather than dealing with the issue of increased hunger in America. They also call the over-all results into question. Robert Rector, an analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation, declared that “Very few of these people are hungry. When they lose jobs, they constrain the kind of food they buy. That is regrettable, but it’s a far cry from a hunger crisis.”

His comments about “the kind of food they buy” triggered my memory of a man we knew who grew up in New York City during the Great Depression of the l930s. He told of his father bringing home a hundred pound bag of potatoes each month. There were four children in the family. “My mother would make every kind of potato dish you could imagine. We ate potato pancakes for breakfast. Potato soup for lunch. And baked potatoes for dinner. Toward the end of the month, the portions would become smaller and smaller.”

James Weill, director of the food center that first created the survey, calls it a “careful look at an underappreciated condition.” He makes the human dimension clear when he says, “Many people are outright hungry, skipping meals. Others say they have enough to eat but only because they’re going to food pantries or using food stamps. We describe it as “households struggling with hunger.” On November l8, the Editorial page of The New York Times urged Congress “to get busy on a broad plan to expand and fully pay for a whole range of nutritional programs aimed at school-age children and their families. Only then will vulnerable children across the country get the nutrition they need.”

Joyce S. Anderson is the author of “Courage in High Heels,” “Flaw in the Tapestry,” “If Winter Comes” and “The Mermaids Singing.” She can be reached at JSAWrite@aol.com.