WASHINGTON While fewer Americans are going hungry thanks to the U.S. economic boom, some 31 million U.S.
poor still grappled with hunger, or at least the fear of it, in 1999, a federal report said on Friday.
Poor black families and children still make up a disproportionate number of those without enough food, the annual report from the U.S. Agriculture Department said.
Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman welcomed the 12 percent drop since 1995 in the number of Americans facing the bleak prospect of hunger, but said it was not enough.
"Though the report shows that hunger and food insecurity have declined since 1995, the fact is it remains unacceptably high despite the most prosperous economy in history," he said.
The report said about 12 million children faced hunger in 1999, about 17 percent of the nation's population.
Over 21 percent of U.S. blacks went hungry or lived on its edge in 1999 the highest percentage of any racial group. A large number of Hispanics 20.8 percent faced a similar predicament.
By contrast, only 7 percent of non-Hispanic whites went hungry or were "food insecure." "The report comes with mixed feelings," said Lynn Parker, director of Child Nutrition for the Food Research and Action Center, a nonprofit anti-hunger organization.
"It's wonderful to see the number of food insecure people has dropped ... due in large part to the economy and how well its been doing," she said. "But there are still millions of children starving in the United States." The American West proved to be the hardest region in which to avoid hunger.
About 12 percent of its residents faced trouble finding food.
Only 8.3 percent of the people in the nation's midwestern corn belt and northeastern states were similarly situated.
Mark Nord, coauthor of the report, credited the economy with lifting people out of poverty and reducing hunger.
"Food insecurity is down, hunger is down while the average income is up," Nord said. "It is all directly related." (Reuter)